Amal Choucri Catta, witnessing colliding worlds, shares hope with the survivors , Egyptian Modern Dance Theatre, director Walid Aouni ; Cairo Opera House, conductor Nader Abbassi ; Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 20, 21 and 22 September, 9pm The world seemed to be coming to an end that night at Cairo Opera's Main Hall: in the opaque darkness of what resembled a timeless outer space, the deafening Big Bang hurled its universal fragments onto a group of forlorn survivors of an ancient world. Dark red smoke permeated the stage, while a second ear- shattering explosion cast a bleak, crude light on the entire site and the forlorn survivors huddled closer, forming a circle of anguished bodies. They were the forgotten left-overs of a global cataclysm, of colliding worlds, terrorised by raging elements, as the din and the dust splashed their gray smoke across the hall. Walid Aouni had done it again. With a few minor changes and interesting additions, he succeeded in recreating the story of creation -- a story of good and evil, love and hate, war and peace -- yet one filled with sincere hope for a better future in a better world. Gradually, the dust settled and in the ash-gray shadows of a new-born dawn, the survivors tried to find their way into life, discovering their egos, discovering their neighbours, their surroundings, trying to find their identity while endeavouring to understand what life was all about. The 18 dancers and the soloists performing the roles of Adam and Eve, of Cain and Abel, of Man and Woman and the four elements, seemed to be slowly realising they had nothing to fear of good Mother Earth: if treated with love, she would give them food and water, trees and flowers and many riches buried in her soil. The survivors discovered sound and music, song and dance, love and happiness, and while Eve was eating her own apple, Cain refrained from killing his brother Abel, and hope prevailed, all in movements that were fluid and graceful. Aouni granted his audiences a holistic spectacle of music, dance and theatre, enhanced by lighting which was both powerful and whimsical, ethereal and grounded. The lights told their own story, accompanying the music and the mood of every sequence, turning violently strong or pathetically tender, caressing each form and intensifying each movement. There was harmony in the execution and brilliance in the performance. As always, symbols played an important part in Aouni's work: the dancers' costumes, a medley of crude, skin-coloured tops with bizarre skirts or trousers, reminiscent of Warlords or The Lord of the Rings, were a perfect choice for the eerie, mysterious atmosphere of the plot. The latter undoubtedly belonged in a world where dream and reality were endeavouring to come to resolve life's major problems. In the meantime, the survivors developed a certain maturity: they seemed to understand the world and their surroundings -- both nature and humanity. Their richly theatrical dances -- exhilarating sequences of speed and tranquillity, evoking passion and meditation, motion and quiescence -- were excellent. The day they discovered water pouring down in white sheets from heaven, they emerged carrying different kinds of briefcases. Their dance seemed to reveal their evolution: from the agrarian countryside they seemed to have turned into urbanites. This, however, was not quite true, for they suddenly opened their briefcases which were filled with a multitude of leaves that they threw into the air then watched, enchanted, as the leaves fluttered back to the ground. The dances were enhanced by lavish scenography and extravagant sets, such as the metal curtains limiting the back and side of the stage and often used for extraordinary light effects, while simultaneously evoking the borders of a country, a frontier of sorts. People have once again set up boundaries and confined themselves to man-made borders, forbidding outsiders to trespass. Thus, following the hatred and the wars, suffering returned between dusk and dawn to earth's forlorn children, though this time with a lesser amount of cruelty. There was joy, and there were many moments of beauty and meditative reflection, such as the soft music to the dance of the fireflies that were shedding their turquoise luminosity onto the darkened stage. The performance ended on an unmistakable note of hope. As the lights in the Main Hall were turned on and the dancers took their bows, Aouni was called on stage for special applause. He had granted his audiences three special performances of one of his most significant works, , a piece created for reflection, based on the ravishing music by Nader Abbassi, principal conductor of Cairo's Opera Orchestra, singer, composer, and bassoonist, as well as guest conductor of a number of renowned foreign orchestras. At its premiere last May, was simultaneously featured with another of Aouni's new works, Banat Bahari, with music by Nader Abbassi. The latter work is inspired by the famous painting by Mahmoud Said of the same title, and was particularly popular among the audiences. This time, however, when Aouni was asked to present the performances for the opening ceremony of the 17th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (CIFET), he decided to concentrate only on , while excluding Banat Bahari because, as he said, in view of the circumstances surrounding this year's CIFET, which is dedicated to the martyrs of the Beni Sweif fire, was undoubtedly the most appropriate to the situation. It was the only performance presented on CIFET's opening night, the entire ceremony having been cancelled. A large number of viewers among the foreign guests thought the spectacle had been created by Aouni especially for the occasion, and many returned on the following nights. It was indeed a poignant work, and thus perfectly appropriate to the sad situation.
