MIA HABIS/ OMAR RAJEH (Lebanon) 

PERFORMANCE IN BEIRUT IS SUPPORTED BY 

MAQAMAT DANCE THEATRE

Friday 30, Saturday 31st of March

Wednesday 18^{th ( within BIPOD 2012)}

8.30 pm Maqamat DanceHouse

Duration: 50 minutes

People wonder why the small red fish (goldfish) that they bought few weeks ago died and floated on top of the water although they changed the water regularly, put the right amount of food, and did exactly what the salesman told them to do.

The goldfish suffocated slowly but surely!!
A goldfish can grow up to 30 cm, lives 20 years, and is sensitive to colors and sounds with more than a 3 months memory. 

This new performance created by Mia Habis & Omar Rajeh is inspired by the civil awakenings taking place in most of the Arab speaking countries. The active, resistant, and engaged body crossed the restrictions imposed on it and declared its being and presence. It manifested its power and awareness through its ‘liveness’. The body was never recorded, nor copied, and never virtual. It was in the streets proclaiming its ‘being’ and generating its future reality.

Omar Rajeh, choreography/ scenography

Mia Habis, dancer/performer / text

David Habchy, animation and graphics

Daniel Balaban, music composition

Samer Yahya, light design

Karam Ghoussein, Live camera

Louise Parnel, assistant scenographer

Jennifer Hachem, stage manager

Joe Kesrouani, photo 

Special Thanks: Zeid Hamdan 

Support

Produced by Maqamat Dance Theatre

Omar Rajeh, choreographer, dancer and director of Maqamat Dance Theatre, studied Theatre and Dance Arts at universities in Lebanon and England. In 2002, after having worked and performed with several groups, directors and choreographers in Lebanon and abroad, he founded Maqamat Dance Theatre in Beirut. He has choreographed numerous pieces for the company that have been performed throughout Europe and in Arab countries. Omar is the founder of BIPOD, an annual contemporary dance festival in Beirut, which presents the work of local and international companies. He also recently opened TAKWEEN–Beirut Contemporary Dance School, a new initiative that aims to develop the physical abilities of dance performers and choreographers in Lebanon and the region.

Mia Habis is a dancer, performance maker, and dance teacher at Maqamat Dance Theatre. She studied French literature, advertising, acting, and started dancing at a very early age. She has also been practicing the Kali Sikaran Filipino martial art for several years.

She presented her first performance “Item” at BIPOD 2009-Beirut International Platform of Dance. In BIPOD & ADP 2011 she created her first body installation “Permanent state of a transitory phase”, Since then she is developing her own body installations concept. “Ssshh… “, presented in BIPOD 2012 is her second body installation. 

Mia danced with Maqamat in “The Assassination of Omar Rajeh”, which toured internationally; in  “Mushrooms & Fig Leaves”, presented in the Sharjah Art Biennale in 2011, for which she also designed the costumes. 

“Intimate Conversation with a Red Fish”, is the solo and the latest creation that she worked on with Omar Rajeh and that premiered in BIPOD 2012.  

She worked and performed with many choreographers such as Eszter Salamon, Marcel Leemann, Luc Dunberry, and others. Recently, she was invited by Sasha Waltz to Berlin, where she did a workshop/residency with the company given by Julian Hamilton.

“ Mia Habis, the dancer who unsettles the audience (…), conveys emotions with clarity and grace, captures futility with a tragic beauty.” Laura Wilkinson. Daily star