Concord (2021)
How are walls felt through bodies and generations? How might political walls be brought down? A performance exploring the experience of restricted movement across borders — real and imaginary, current and historical.
Developed from interviews and research about the ways that people find to circumvent or overcome restrictions, Concord invites you to consider how walls are made, how they’re embodied, and how they might be dismantled.
Concord developed from my research into political walls and borders, and from my own and my family’s lived experience of the separation wall in Israel/Palestine. I conducted research and interviews with a range of people who have experience of political separation from different contexts across the world — including the Berlin Wall, Korea, Cyprus, China, the US, and others.
Exploring their audio testimonies through movement, I developed a series of short choreographies that I performed alongside my father — born in Occupied Palestine in 1955, Jamal is an untrained performer.
Concord Premiered on Friday 22nd October at the Holden Gallery, Manchester. The performance is presented within a structure designed to look, feel, and behave as complex and cumbersome as the politics that underpin it.
Credits
Creator, Performer: Dani Abulhawa
Performer: Jamal Abulhawa
Image by Christian Berger + Dani Abulhawa.
With thanks to:
Bob Whalley — Dramaturg
Amy Voris + Sara Spies — Choreographic development
Tamsin Drury + John Franklin — Production and creative development, promotion, project management
Christian Berger — Set and production development
Veronika Abulhawa — Costume and props
Guillaume Dujat — Sound
Lee Miller, Shelley Owen & Josh Slater, Latitude participants — Early-stage creative development feedback
Jodie Ratcliffe — Promotion
Commissioned by Manchester Independents + hÅb.
For documentation see below.
