Madness by Liz Azi (4:03) United States
Choreographed by: Liz Azi
Performers: Liz Azi
Videographers: Lazy Pickle Productions
Music: Ruelle: Madness
Additional Credits: listed in video
What dance styles are being fused?
Modern Egyptian Raqs Sharqi, Eastern European Raqs Sharqi, American Raqs Sharqi fusion
Artist Statement:
This piece is the culmination of a year studying with several teachers well outside my personal wheelhouse, my travels to Egypt, my DreamCamp experience, and really getting comfortable working on my weaknesses, both as a dancer and as a person.
I wanted to dive deeper into my studies of the elements of Modern Raqs Sharqi, especially Eastern European interpretations and contemporary Egyptian technique and see how they could apply to American Fusion aesthetics and stylizations. I wanted to dialogue these very different, yet intrinsically tied genres of Raqs Sharqi together to and sit in the liminal spaces between these dance vocabularies. I wanted to really pursue a critique I got from Sameer Alfares about utilizing athletic power. I wanted to break myself and be authentically vulnerable on stage and find power within that vulnerability.