Culture Resource organized the roundtable “The Body Political” on 20 May, 2022 at Beirut Art Center with the participation of 4 performing artists who received support from Culture Resource’s programs: Petra Serhal (choreographer), Ghida Hashisho (performer and choreographer), Farah Azraq (multidisciplinary artist and performer) and Stephanie Kayal (Actress and Dancer). The discussion was moderated by Rana Issa and it was held in light of the meeting of our General Assembly and Artistic Board in Beirut.
In this roundtable we tried to explore the body as the prism through which to unpack, deconstruct and learn new ways of moving politically in the world. Through a conversation with the 4 participant artists who practice dance and movement in distinctly unique ways, we tried to unfold a new discourse centered on the body as it is entangled in space and time. Concepts that framed this discussion focused on the body’s porousness towards the collective body, the tension to define a unique movement of embodying individuality, the relevance of dance to imagine a new political horizon, and the methods that these artists deploy in their movement experimentation, design and performance. Through a conversation about method and form this round table seeked to outline the relevance of dance as an expressive medium that asks us to reimagine relations, sites and networks artistically and politically.
You can watch the panel discussion with English subtitles here.
