A group of 15-20 young men and women sat down in a circle listening to the instructions of a well-built, middle-aged man. While half the attendees were ordinary people, the other half consisted of mentally and physically challenged children and adults. They all listened attentively to the older man s words, and smiled. Then they got up, graced the stage and started to dance to the score of a famous 40s Hollywood horror film. The result was startling: a combination of body movements and pure joy overwhelmed every single performer in both groups. It was as if the universe had come to a standstill. The gathering was part of a one-week program organized by the British Council in collaboration with the Right to Live Association for the mentally disabled to bring back the dance company AMICI to Egypt. AMICI Dance Theater Company is a special troupe which includes both challenged and normal members. Founded in 1980 in England by a German dancer called Wolfgang Stange, the company defied conventional attitudes about mental disability and the role of art in establishing a connection between the disabled and their societies. I believe that people have creative potential, and it s up to us to lead them to know what it is, Stange told The Daily Star Egypt. All art forms should be made available for people who some don t think they'd enjoy or understand because of their difference. Stange was 23 when he decided to quit his career as a chef and study dancing. He worked with some blind children as well as with other children with other disabilities at the London Contemporary Dance School. After graduating, he decided to found the AMICI Company and gradually garnered massive international acclaim with the classes he conducted around the world from Japan, Poland to Africa. We all have our own unique abilities within ourselves and they just have to be drawn out because people experience different art forms in different ways. Stange said. The British Council invited AMICI to Egypt for the first time in 2005 then subsequently in 2006 and 2007. Deeply impressed, they plan to make this workshop an annual event. Last year, a group of Egyptian trainees and representatives from the challenged section, when to England for a crash course in how do deal with those with disabilities through art. The trainees, with AMICI s assistance, created a musical adaptation of a famous Goha folk tale that was performed at the small auditorium of the Cairo Opera House to wide acclaim. This year, the British Council chose ten dancers, directors and actors to join the program hoping to create an Egyptian equivalent of AMICI. Members of AMICI say they have found inspiration and a sense of fulfillment in working with the company. Elaine Thomas, 31, joined the company six years ago. The performing arts student was losing her fervor for dance after years of rigid, structural English training which made her feel she was "being transformed into a small part of a larger mold designed by the educational establishment. So she joined AMICI because she always enjoyed volunteering in activities that involved people with disabilities. I finally realized the sheer joy of dance and the beauty of the human body regardless of its type, Elaine told The Daily Star Egypt. At first, she was reserved and avoided any flamboyant dance moves until she understood that the key to reach here students was is to forget about their disability. You start not seeing them as a bunch of people with disabilities; you see them as normal human beings, as artists no different than you. Working with the mentally and physically challenged doesn't merely require a good grasp of the craft, she says, it needs, above all, a strong sense of humility. You just have to leave your ego at the door. One example how Stange's theory worked is 48-years-old Pius Mickpy, who exceeded everybody s expectations. The Englishman with Down syndrome is the oldest member of the company but his resume rivals that of any ordinary dancer, with star roles in more than a dozen plays and shows at prominent theaters like London s Wembley. His dancing radiates with such elation and brilliance which doesn t merely reflect his emotions, but helps others to break free from their shackles and act out their feelings. The result is a stunning tableau of movement. The Egyptian participants all agreed that working with the challenged was an eye-opening experience. Rushdi El-Gamal, an actor, says: We learnt from our new friends much more than we taught them. The greatest lesson they ve taught us is how to express our feelings without any boundaries. The boundlessness of creating art with people like Mickpy is the essence of Stange s technique. Dancing doesn t require specific skills or tools; it's a pure way of conveying one s emotions and is the basis of eccentric visual poetry. In dance, you don t have to have your arms and legs fully functional to experience the dance within; you can express feeling and movement deep inside and it will show on your face, Stange explained. Dalia El Abd, an independent dancer and chorographer, agrees. Dancing, especially with [the challenged] is very instinctive and momentary. It s simple and anything can happen. Most of the dancers who worked with AMICI find it difficult to readapt to working elsewhere. Thomas returned to the company within days of joining a regular troupe. El-Gamal is finding it hard to let go of the project and wishes that life carried a fraction of the beauty he saw with AMICI and its students. These people are direct and uninhibited, El Abd adds. There is so much innocence in this place it will be daunting to return to the real world.
