Hoop-om-on-ay, the outcome of one year collaboration between Swiss dancer and choreographer Nicolas Cantillon and Cairo Contemporary Dance Center, with the support of Pro Helvetia Cairo.

Hoop-om-on-ay is a phonetic word that comes from the greek hypomane. It translates to endurance, perseverance, constancy. It is in applying these words that dancers will have to find a way to build up their beliefs in the future that materializes before them.

The first historical traces of what we call philosophy appear in the West, in Greek antiquity. Choreographer Nicolas Cantillon has taught MAAT|CCDC Contemporary Dance Schools’ students (from April 2018 until June 2019), a movement that embraces the philosophical writings of Baruch Spinoza. The constitution of authentic ethics of happiness and freedom.

Who are these young people on stage, what is their story, how did they get here in front of us, what are the reasons that made them consider their body as a means of expression. Have they decided their life would be dedicated to movement? Was it a deliberate choice? It is into this intimacy that we will dive. Without choreographic artifice, nor explicit narration. Dancers unwind a movement which, coming from their most intimate, reveals a form that will become content.

Hoop-om-on-ay swings between the trance and the pleasure of new experimentation, between demonstration and introspection. To do so and not get lost in the wonders of everything is possible, the choreographer establishes some rules. To control the passage from a movement to another, stretch out the transition which will link different parts of the body, exercise one’s personality in a singular way while respecting the imposed constraints.
A multitude of images then forms with this intention not to fail, to always keep one’s objective within sight, to stay present whatever happens. These young people in front of us remind us that the dreams that we have must forever remain the end.

“When I watch their dance, I see a tree caught in the storm, bending without ever breaking.” Koen Augustijnen.

Choreographer & Director: Nicolas Cantillon

Dancers:
Abdelrahman Ahmed
Ahmed Achrafi
Ahmed Malek
Aly Abdelfattah
Amina Abouelghar
Carol Ackad
Doua Fatfat
Eman Hussein
Hanin Tarek
Islam El-Araby
Islam Elnebishy
Mahmoud Zaghloul
Mohamed Mahmoud
Mona El Husseini
Nada Nader
Samar Al-Zuairy

Duration: 50 Min

Photographer: Ziad Tarek

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