Choreographers and performers from Belfast, the Egyptian capital Cairo and Ramallah in Palestine have come together for an international dance exchange.<\/p>\n
The Our Voice Together Now initiative has seen the co-creation of three new works to be presented between 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n
The project, funded by\u00a0an International Collaboration Grant from the British Council, sees Palestinian choreographer Salma Ataya develop and debut her new show Everynothing with three local dancers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sean O\u2019Neill from Co Tyrone, Sarah Flavelle from Co Antrim, and Martha Tribe from Dublin will perform the piece at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast on October 31-November 1.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the festival\u2019s artist in residence, Northern Irish choreographer Michael McEvoy, was recently in Cairo to present his new piece, Ta bron orm (Irish for \u2018grief is upon me\u2019), alongside a cast of Egyptian dancers at the Arab Arts Focus showcase during D-CAF (Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival).<\/p>\n
The third production in the international exchange is The Light Within by Egyptian choreographer Shaymaa Shoukry.<\/p>\n
It had originally planned to debut at the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, but the ongoing crisis in Gaza means the all-female cast have been rehearsing in Cairo where they premiered the production last week.<\/p>\n
All three productions will perform in each of the three cities over 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival will host all three pieces in summer 2026, with The Light Within and Ta bron orm playing in Belfast in October 2026 and Everynothing travelling to Cairo in November 2026.<\/p>\n
The Light Within is also debuting at the Arab Arts Focus with a view to performing in Ramallah in 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Belfast International Arts Festival\u2019s artistic director and chief executive Richard Wakely hailed \u201cinternational creative collaboration that transcends borders\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than dance, this remarkable project is about encouraging dialogue and the shared experiences that connect us all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real privilege to bring together such a dynamic range of artists whose unique voices and visions are worthy of the international stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colette Norwood, head of arts at the British Council Northern Ireland, said: \u201cThrough our International Collaboration Grants, we are proud to support projects like Our Voice Together Now, which bring together artists from Northern Ireland, Egypt and Palestine to create new work and build meaningful partnerships.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time of significant change for the arts sector globally, sustaining these collaborations is essential to ensuring artists\u2019 voices continue to be heard on the international stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information and to book tickets, visit www.belfastinternationalartsfestival.com.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Choreographers and performers from Belfast, the Egyptian capital Cairo and Ramallah in Palestine have come together for an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15,10236],"class_list":{"0":"post-533517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-viral-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115452519768547351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}