Beytna
concept, choreography, scenography: Omar Rajeh
choreographic collaboration: Koen Augustijnen, Omar Rajeh, Anani Sanouvi, Hiroaki Umeda
music composition: Ziad Ahmadie, Youssef Hbeisch, Samir Nasr Eddine, Afif Abou Merhej
percussion: Joss Turnbul
voice: Nohad Rajeh
costumes: Mia Habis & Omar Rajeh
technical director: Christian Francois
assistant technical director: Mathieu Libion
sound engineer: Jean-Christophe Batut, Philippe Balzé
lighting design: Victor Duran Manzano, Christian François
graphic design, video animation: Joe Elias/Nimslabs
administrator: Ilitza Georgieva
coordination: Amina Onsy
performed by: Koen Augustijnen, Ziad Ahmadie, May Bou Matar, Jihun Choi , Joss Turnbul, Samir Nasr Eddine, Omar Rajeh, Afif Merhej, Anani Sanouvi
production: Cie Omar Rajeh and Maqamat
co-production: BIPOD-Beirut International Platform of Dance, Tanzquartier Wien, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, CCN de La Rochelle / Cie Accrorap-Direction Kader Attou, Theater im Pfalzbau-Ludwigshafen and Fondazione Fabbrica Europa
Maqamat is supported by the City of Lyon
duration: 80’
premiere: Tanzquartier Wien, 2016
With good friends and good food on the board… we may well ask, when shall we live if not now?
M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating
Four choreographers and four musicians coming from Lebanon, Korea, Palestine, Belgium, and Togo are meeting onstage over a banquet of food. They are coming from different continents, cultures, and countries. They have different artistic experiences, with different backgrounds and ideas. What connects them is their profession. They talk, drink, laugh, dance, and eat together. The simplicity of this meeting would be a starting point to a more complex choreographic and conceptual performance structure. “Beytna” is a simple invitation to the home of the other; health, happiness, pleasure, compassion, and friendship. It is an invitation to the artist's profession and choreographic construction as much as it is to the forms and situations of the past.
Omar Rajeh, a critically acclaimed choreographer and dancer, is a leading figure of the contemporary dance in Lebanon and the Arab world. He founded Maqamat in Beirut in 2002. In 2019, he moved to France and established his company in Lyon. He was distinguished by the French Minister of Culture the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. He holds a BA in Theatre Studies from the Lebanese University and an MA in Dance Studies from the UK’s University of Surrey. Author of more than twenty choreographic creations, his works question the perception of the unity and singularity of the body, seeking an extraordinary physical presence through vigorous movements with strong socio-political connections. He has spent over 20 years weaving, exploring and refining his choreographic language and his work leaves a powerful imprint on the audience. He performed with his company in more than a hundred different cities around the globe, at the major international festivals and venues such as the Bolshoi Theatre Festival, Festival RomaEuropa, Edinburgh International Festival and Athens Festival to name a few. He is the founder of Beirut International Platform of Dance–BIPOD, one of the most important dance festivals in the region. Since 2004, the festival offers a rich international program of performances, workshops, lectures and meetings. He is co-founder of MasahatDance Network which is a regional contemporary dance network across Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan. This ambitious regional connection was further extended into the Moultaqa Leymoun platform, which Rajeh created to provide the space and opportunity for young and established Arab artists to showcase and develop their work. In 2017 he has founded the highly anticipated new performing arts space in the heart of Beirut - Citerne Beirut - which is set to nurture and further propel the existing projects of Maqamat towards an enriched experience, while reaching a wider audience than ever before. Citerne Beirut was forced to be dismantled in August 2019, due to the economic and political collapse in the country. He is the co-founder of the digital cultural platform Citerne.live.
…the Lebanese choreographer, figure of the contemporary scene since the early 2000s, puts all the ingredients to make the lid of cheerfulness and the savoir-vivré explode through the vehicle of dance.
© Le Monde
The great quality of “Beytna” is that it doesn’t force the metaphors as much as we do. Because the connections between cuisine, multiculturalism and diasporas are powerful enough to impose themselves on the set.
© Liberation
