Lebanese dancer and choreographer Ali Chahrour. (Photo pulled from Instagram)
For his third season at the helm, Tiago Rodrigues, director of the Avignon Festival, is commemorating the performing arts festival's 79th anniversary by inviting, for the first time, a non-European language: Arabic."Inviting Arabic to the Avignon Festival," he says, "is about recognizing the richness of the Arab world and its importance in the performing arts domain, telling other stories, embracing a language of light, dialogue, knowledge, and transmission."The phrase from prolific Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, "I am you in words," appears in the festival's program with the comment, "This could be the motto of the festival."For Rodrigues, "Becoming the other involves practicing curiosity, respect, and more than that, a love of difference. I believe that this love of difference, at...
For his third season at the helm, Tiago Rodrigues, director of the Avignon Festival, is commemorating the performing arts festival's 79th anniversary by inviting, for the first time, a non-European language: Arabic."Inviting Arabic to the Avignon Festival," he says, "is about recognizing the richness of the Arab world and its importance in the performing arts domain, telling other stories, embracing a language of light, dialogue, knowledge, and transmission."The phrase from prolific Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, "I am you in words," appears in the festival's program with the comment, "This could be the motto of the festival."For Rodrigues, "Becoming the other involves practicing curiosity, respect, and more than that, a love of difference. I believe that this love of difference,...