In association with the Goethe Institute in Cairo, the Gomhuriya Theatre has held on two consecutive nights a modern dance show by Sasha Waltz and Guests, a German company that proved its success with its unique and eccentric performances worldwide, Rania Khallaf reports The performance of "Zweiland", or two cities, came as part of the Sasha Waltz and Guests Company's tour of the Middle East that also includes visits to Beirut, Damascus and Ramallah. The performances coincided with workshops run by similar modern dance companies in the region, choreographer Sasha Waltz announced. Waltz and Jochen Sandig founded the group in Berlin in 1993. Since then it has hosted more than 150 artists from 25 countries performing as guests, and also producing their own independent pieces. Today, Sasha Waltz's repertoire includes 16 large internationally acclaimed choreographies. Created by dancers from different cultures, the company aims to further increase its cooperation with international cultural partners with creative new projects. The performance, atypical dance show, opened with a gloomy scene featuring two half-naked men obviously involved in a romantic scene. A third man attempted to separate them, but in vain. Two Cities tells a story of conflicting values in modern Germany, which one way or another resembles the many conflicting moral issues in international contemporary communities, if not in Egypt itself. Opening the show with this homosexual scene was not a very good choice, however; it left a gloomy shadow on the rest of the show. Waltz's shows are normally not this traditional type of modern dance. The dancing itself is actually rather rare; instead, the movement of the body takes the place of the thematic dance. The show, involving six actors and actresses, could rather be classified as an experimental play. This play, so it seems, deals with the dilemma in which the German citizen exists: the ever- complicated relationship between men and women in modern life is one of the main themes here. Waltz has dealt with it in a rather contrary approach as she meant to portray women as the real hunters of men. Along the many scenes, we witness beautiful but desperate women chasing men. "I like you, I like you," says the woman to the man who keeps running from her. And when she finally manages to take hold of him, he mistreats her, and abuses her feelings. "Why do you treat me this way?" she moans, adding angrily: "I will never talk to you again!" But, she is never desperate. The last scene of the show featured dancing couples aspiring for a little romance. The economic situation and the employment crisis were heavily portrayed during the 60-minute performance. The very obvious and recurrent symbol is a broken wooden kiosk, which is being built and destroyed and rebuilt again all through the show. In one of the most fanciful scenes, all the actors stand in a queue waiting for their share of food. They stick to one another in a desperate attempt not to lose their place in the queue: A woman screams in Arabic: " Aiza samna! " ("I need some ghee!") However, in the end they got nothing. All the kiosk man could offer them is packages of old newspapers. The show also questions the identity of the contemporary German character. "Who am I?" a desperate man reiterates during the show, questioning his position in society. He then questions the real achievement of art and music in his country. Musicians playing on various instruments are everywhere on stage, in a hint of this debate on the contribution of art and music to the development of modern German society. The music is rather faint. During the show, we have to listen to some prolonged and boring humming by male players. Equally tedious are the costumes worn by the actors. They are colourless, and make no special impression on the audience. However, one could never regret attending the rather vague, heavily thematic show, as the symbolism will, and for a long time, resonate in one's mind. And, for my own excitement, it was really good to discover a new trend of contemporary dance genre, my favourite in this branch of art.
