Rehearsing With Shahrazad

Video, Single channel, 20 min, 2020

Ahmad Ghossein’s commissioned work ‘’Rehearsing with Shahrazad’’ examines belly dance as an instrument of cultural integration for the Arab community in Brazil, after it was first introduced and made popular by Shahrazad Shahid Sarqi in the middle of the last century. Ghossein’s work attempts to identify and understand the moment where the guest is no longer a guest (but neither does he truly become a local), and where the host no longer holds any authority. It also looks at gender and class issues with regards to this art in specific. Indeed, belly dancing was practiced and spread amongst the white middle class mostly, and remained within this circle, with the music being played solely by men. The video is the result of a three-day workshop conducted in the Complexo da Mare by Naima Yazbek, a Brazilian oriental dancer of Lebanese descent, in which she introduced belly dance to amateurs new to this dance genre. Naima currently resides in Beirut, Lebanon, as a “guest” in the country she’s originally from, and returns to Brazil as an instructor, reversing the roles of guest and host once again. The bodies seen here are ones that are encountering this form of dance for the first time, and that are trying to blend in and adapt. The heavy sweat illustrates not only the fatigue felt by those amateur dancers, but also the challenge of integration. Looking at the tensions inherent to guest/ host relations, this work focuses on this liminal stage when immigrants disseminate their practices, fearing an identity loss, before these practices are completely absorbed by the hosting society.

Commissioned for “Make Yourself at Home: Displaced ideas on migration and hos(ti)pitality..” exhibition at Centro Cultural Paço Imperial

based on research completed during a month-long residency in Rio de Janeiro (Inclusartiz) in June 2018 together with Lebanese curator Amanda Abi Khalil.

Dance Teacher

Naima Yazbek

Cinematography

Louise Botkay ( DAFB)

Sound:

Anne Santos

Edit

Jad Yousef

Participantes Workshop :

Adriana Ferreira Lima

Ana Lúcia Alves dos Santos

Analia Melo de Souza