Asham Iblis.. Dancing on Sufism Ideology

The Egyptian Modern Dance Theatre presented for 3 days "Asham Iblis"(Devil's hope) performance at Gomhouria Theater.

It combines contemporary dance, melodrama, and Sufi underground songs in a blend that revolves around the eternal conflict between Adam and Satan.

[caption id="attachment_86428" align="alignright" width="300"] Adam and Eve with Satan[/caption]

The performance reminded the audience the beginning of this conflict through Adam and Eve; the first dance of life, the discovery of each other to eating from the forbidden tree, then the first murder between two brothers, down to the forms of human falsity that the devil "Played by actor Taha Khalifa" always stood behind.

[caption id="attachment_86446" align="alignleft" width="300"] Lilly[/caption]

It included the story of Lilly (played by dancer Shirley Ahmed), the girl who enchanted the servant of the ascetic (played by dancer Mohamed Sayed) with her overwhelming beauty and robbed him of his heart and mind, which was adapted from "Bethlehem" novel by Youssef Idris.

Sayed, who excelled in his performance, explained through his dance moves the deep internal conflict between obedience and fear from God and love to his seductress that his weakness, humanity and wrongful nature.

It featured the story of an employee "played by dancer Rasha El Wakil", who is facing harassment from her boss with the help of colleagues, which was adopted from the resignation of Dr. Mona Mina from the doctors syndicate.

[caption id="attachment_86422" align="alignright" width="300"] Description of a Struggle[/caption]

The performances also included the story of a young man who comes to church specifically to observe a girl while she prays next to him, which his heart and soul whispering for her silently, which was adopted from “Description of a Struggle" novel by Novelist Franz Kafka.

The conflict between the devil and his enemy is embodied in the midst of these stories in the form of dialogue.

Despite the work is flawed for its non-sequence in performance and unity of the scenes presented and additional topics fall outside of its subject matter, it was able to achieve a dazzling equation between high-performance technique and success in delivering the message in different and innovative ways that supported each other.

[caption id="attachment_86440" align="alignleft" width="300"] "Asham Iblis"(Devil's hope)[/caption]

While it seems a completely crazy idea that dance reflects religious ideas, it crosses a kind of creative mysticism.

The difficult and elaborate dance movements between the scenes are exhibited by young men and women partner, which their movements express the deepest human thoughts, love, seduction, rejection, quarrel, psychological conflict, and daydreaming.

The feelings that the dancers were able to embody through movement—which is very difficult— made the audience undisturbed by the details of the fusion of bodies, as the moral is overwhelming and the idea is clear with the craftsmanship, mastery and high fitness of the dancers, especially with the strong influence of the music pieces that have been carefully chosen for this purpose, which included “wedding” duet by Mariam Saleh and Dina Alwadidi, “Qol Lelmaleha” performed by singer Ali Alhelbawy, “Ya Msafer Wahdak” by Ghalia Benali, and “Sa'alouny El Nas” melody.

[caption id="attachment_86423" align="alignright" width="300"] Munadhel Antar[/caption]

Asham Iblis director, Munadhel Antar revealed that the idea of the play revolves around the comparison of the devil evil with human evil, which often exceeds.

“This is not a defense for the devil, but a realistic embodiment for the real crisis of man and the ignorance of it,” Antar said.

He continued: “While the ideas delivered from the dances seem complex and play on elements of the emotional and Embodied memory of the audience such as the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, with some scenes inspired by novels or reality that also embody the evil nature inherent in the human psyche.”

“In addition to the music color that attracts the youth today is the color of the underground and I am as a young man represents them,”

“Contemporary dance in Egypt still needs a lot of work to reach the masses it deserves, which I adopt melodramatic with kinetic expression for it, so that the ordinary audience accepts and accustoms the difficult and symbolic patterns of contemporary dance until it matures in their mind and watch its most complex performances, which is the plan I have adopted and worked so far, and has already made the Egyptian public understand contemporary dance, the director, in the end, has a message to his community and should not present art just for art,” he pointed out.

[caption id="attachment_86437" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dr. Osama Fawzi as Adam[/caption]

Actor, Dr. Osama Fawzi stated that the idea of the eternal conflict with the devil, which was discussed a lot in several theatrical cinematic works, and playing Adam's symbolic figure in every time and place in the form of the narrator. This is because the equivalent to the kinetic expression, which Antar succeeded in adopting the mobility and dialogue tools with the general scenography of the play, in addition to showing that Satan endeavors are always lost, while Adam who has sinned, also has his space to return and repent.

Contributed by Ahmad El-Assasy

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