Celebrated choreographer Walid Awani's recent work "Qassim Amin's Women", which was performed by the Cairo Opera Dance Theatre Company, enriches the repertory of modern dance theatre in Egypt. It is a real masterpiece. Qassim Amin (1863-1908) was one of the influential figures in Egyptian social and intellectual circles. He was one of the pioneers of Egypt's enlightenment movement. He was noted for his writings about women's liberation in the Egyptian society in the late 19th century. He published the two most controversial books in Egypt at the time, namely ‘The Liberation of Woman" in 1899, and "The New Woman" in 1900. As an advocate of women's rights, he espoused their right to education emphasised respect for their intellect. Awni's work did not focus on the biographical side of Amin, but rather on his influential role in liberating women and on the gender debate a century ago. It was a historical sketch of the women's status over the years before and after liberation from obsolete and cumbersome traditions. The performance was divided into three phases that can be summarised as the plight, the fight, and the triumph respectively. The first was characterised by the excessive use of the black colours symbolising the status of women before the enlightenment movement, and ends with the appearance of Amin disseminating his view through handing in his books to the female dancers. This was followed by a transitory phase, in which both black and white were intermingled, expressing women's fight for their rights. The third phase stood in contrast with the previous two phases with its bright and shining colours as a symbol of women's triumph and liberation. Although the work falls into three phases, it features 15 scenes, each of which adds new items and thought-provoking symbols. The curtains opened on a group of female dancers cloaked in black with their faces covered with black veils hung in the ceiling. They only moved in their places according to hand gestures by men sitting on the stage, as a sign of depriving women of their own will and making them follow blindly the whims of men. In another scene, Awni expressed the same idea but in another way. The women stood behind a representation of clothes made of wood, while the dancer only moved her hands with her head appearing gradually from behind the wooden cast. Once she managed to get out of this wooden cast, she turned it to the other side and showed that it was full of flowers. In a third beautiful scene in the first phase, Awni used the black veils that cover the heads and faces in an innovative way that makes women look like marionette dolls manipulated by men. The eloquence of theatrical and chorographical language employed in the first phase continued into the second. Here the role of knowledge and education of women was highly stressed by women's drinking gesture. The knowledge is the means for liberating women from the stagnant socialand cultural conditions. The dramatic element was symbolised by the use of black and white colours. The waves of change in favour of women started to spread in the Egyptian society moving progressively towards semi-transparent whiteness. Here the lighting and the use of silhouette played a significant role in conveying the message. The great names of the enlightenment and women's liberation movement appeared later on the background either in the shape of a face or a name, such as Mai Ziada, Princess Nazli, Huda Sharawi, Safyya Zaghloul, Refa'a el-Tahtawi, Mohamed Abdou, Gamal Eddin el- Afghani, Abdel Rahman el Kawakby, and Sa'ad Zaghloul. The post-liberation phase was accompanied by loud European dance music, which Awni himself performed on stage. One gets the impression that the European role was behind the change of women's status or was set as a model. This actually contradicts the fact that Amin's call for women's liberation emerged from the Islamic teachings in addition to the views of his mentor Mohamed Abdou, and was not an echo of the European influence. Strikingly, not a single Egyptian tune was used in the music that accompanied the dances on the stage. However, regrettable this may be, the selection of musical pieces, which ranged from European to Iranian and Lebanese, was interwoven carefully in the dramatic texture of the work. The success of the "Qassim Amin's Women" would have not been made without co-operation of top-notch artists with Awni. At this point one should mention the high-quality performance of the dancers, thanks to the rehearsing and training they had received at the hands of the ballerina Lamia Mohamed. The make-up of Ahmed Fekry, and lighting of Yasser Sha'alan, as well as the stage technicians under the leadership of Mohamed El Gharabawy should be applauded for being a great job. This interesting performance was a real achievement in this season, for it quenches the thirst of the fine art fans and the intellectuals after a series of commercial and lowkey foreign shows that were presented in Cairo. ([email protected])
