Rabih Mroué presents two dance pieces at the Onassis Stegi in Athens

One of the most significant artists on the world stage, the deeply political Lebanese visual artist, director, and performer Rabih Mroué creates work for DANCE ON ENSEMBLE, with one of the evening’s two pieces making its world premiere at the Onassis STEGI, November 8-10 at 20:30, int.ert.gr reports.

“Elephant” oscillates between a sense of isolation and a yearning for human contact. Bodies move in labyrinth patterns, trying to reach each other in vain. Jumping backward and forwards in time, they find themselves searching for moments of togetherness while at the same time experiencing the inevitability of loneliness.

Mroué’s piece is a magnifying glass that, through his own experiences of war and political struggles, reminds us that trauma is common to all people, but also so subjective that it is impossible to forget.

His new work “You Should Have Seen Me Dancing Waltz” confronts the dancers with the news of daily violence, natural disasters and politics. How do current events affect – and infect – the dancers’ bodies? What is their impact on a physical level? Do they alter how we move? These questions will be negotiated in very personal ways, dealing with the impact of words describing their movements.

It explores the concept of the wall as protection, but also as a boundary between inside and outside, private and public, whereby the dancer’s skin becomes a vehicle of allegory. The human body comes under the microscope with the painful, but always poetic, way of Rabih Mroué.

Parallel event

• After performance talk, Saturday 9 November.
• Moderated by Katia Arfara, Theater & Dance Artistic Director of Onassis Stegi.

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