Current Projects:

Unveiled: Choreographing identities in the Arab diaspora

A veil of mystery and stereotypes hides Arab women’s stories in North America. My next study proposes to unveil Arab women’s dilemmas of identity, belonging, and misrepresentation in an innovative cycle of research, creation, performance, and reflection through dance. 

Skilled dance artists bring a vibrant creativity and social awareness to their work, and are able to create spaces for intercultural dialogue with their sensitivity, imagination, and artistic abilities.  “Unveiled” proposes to engage twenty established Arab women dance artists working in Canada and the U.S.  These dance artists are presently located in dance communities separated by geography and distinct dance genres, their Arab identities often obscured.

Together we will investigate our experiences and identify common issues through life history interviews, studio improvisations, and collaborative choreography. The research phase, which begins in 2009, will provide a focus for local and international dialogues through research workshops, and an interactive website.  

My guiding research questions are:

1.    How do women dance artists in the Arab diaspora understand and negotiate the complexities of identities and issues of representation in their creative practices?

2.    What new dance works might they create to explicitly address those complexities by working in collaboration with each other?

3.    How do participating creators, performers and audience members understand and interpret those dance works?

4.    What influence might those dance works have upon ongoing practices of participating dance artists?

5.    How might a broad web-based dialogue about those dance works influence Arab dance artists located inside and beyond the borders of Canada and the U.S.?

6.    What theoretical insights and substantive knowledge might be gained about dance, cultural identity,  and intercultural relations through a dialogic process involving dance and research?

Findings will be communicated in text, embodied in dance works, and translated in a DVD publication which acknowledges and presents distinct perspectives of individual artists and researchers. 

Northwest by Middle East

My ongoing creative focus is on transnational and intercultural connections between the northwest coast of North America and the Middle East. My partner Bruce Finlayson adds his considerable experience in art, storytelling, graphic design and video production.

Interculturalists probe the confrontations, ambivalences, disruptions . . . and difficulties when and where cultures collide, overlap and pull away from each other. Failed translations . . . are seen not as disasters but as fertile rifts of creative possibilities.
- Schechner, 1991

NORTHWEST by MIDDLE EAST integrates dance creation and performance with videography. It builds on my recent work in dance performance and educational activities (see Dance in their Blood). Emergent themes include: Arab dance as art, cultural expression, and a source of personal identity for Arab women in the Middle East and diasporic communities; how North American culture is transforming "bellydance"; and the politics of a dance form inextricably linked with the Middle East in these times of tension, violence, and tragedy.