Jamal Suleiman - Wojoud Wa Hodoud

“Wojoud Wa Hodoud” is a process developing a method of dance making inspired by the exploration of the objective and subjective state of perceiving oneself as who I am and as relating to being a member of different groups which may be relying on a common culture, a traditional lineage, the common land in history, shared experiences, and defined by the existence of borders. Through the process of choreography of movement, our concept is represented by “motifs”, which are repeated actions gives the first element(s) of form to the dance.

Group Version

About/Statement — Abd Al Hadi Abunahleh

“It is a dance creation featuring moments in eight young dancers’ lives told through movements, sound and installation.”

“Wojoud Wa Hodoud”, started as a duet of the story of Abd and Anas, after 12 months of development, evolved into an investigation of the embodied past of eight Arab performing artists of Jordanian, Palestinian, Syrian heritage living in Amman, observing the acquired habits from the childhood to adulthood, from past to present. It is also an examination of their dispositions, habitus and their struggle to describe themselves in the community, in ways which encompass both their idiosyncratic qualities and their group memberships, both of which can shift according to time and circumstance.

“The dance creation reflects the stories of 8 dancers, their constant struggle of assimilating into different cultures, finding a balance between them and balancing their identities within, Wojoud Wa Hodoud” has been in development for one year by choreographer and performer, Abd Hadi Abunahleh and Studio 8.

One shape emanates from our deeply embodied movements from a traditional dance native to the Levant is chosen to represent our concept and used as the basis for our motif. The motif serves as the force with which a body moves, for structuring the dance piece. Throughout the process, we conscientiously select and refines movement, aiming to create cohesion in the work. At the same time, a spatial, temporal and emotional dislocation is created in the process, as a practical exploration of de-composition and de-construction, aiming to experience motif-driven sequences, transitions, repetitions, variations and formal structures differently.

Creating videos of our journey of making visions of dance come alive is fun. In the 3 months, Studio8 Jordan made 3 behind-the-scenes videos capturing the movements, patterns, shapes, dynamics, the colors, textures, design elements of the dance creation, and the various emotions we had taking on the journey: excitement, anxiety, curiosity, frustration and AMAZEMENT.

Scroll down to watch some of the videos of our journey

A 1 minuet trailer of the group version

Notably, the dance making is independent from music. As a result, in performance, with experimental sounds and audio noises produced live with the dance movements, music is neither followed or rejected by the movements.