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An audiovisual dance performance exploring the impact of displacement on the body
Liza Sulaiman
Location: [vdm_event_location]
Dates:
[vdm_eventbuttons]- GENRE: Dance, Multimedia performance
- THEME: Changing the Norm, Female Power, Speaking Bodies
- LANGUAGE: Language No Problem
- Toilet for wheelchair users: yes, Wheelchair accessible: yes
‘Iraqi Bodies’ is an audiovisual dance performance that delves into the profound impact of displacement on the body. Creator and dancer Liza Sulaiman, along with dancer Ali Zanad, explores how drastic changes in landscape and history manifest within the body.
Journey physically and visually into a poetic universe, supported by the Arabic texts of Khazal Al-Majidi, where the body mourns a utopian past and transforms into the dystopian landscape that was once called home — moving between here and there, between now and then.
‘Iraqi Bodies’ focuses on the grief experienced by members of the Iraqi diaspora while honoring everybody forced to flee and leave behind the familiar.
Biography
Liza Sulaiman grew up in Amsterdam within an Iraqi and Belarusian family. At the age of twelve, she began taking hip-hop lessons at Solid Ground Movement and performed in productions by Alida Dors and Bryan Druiventak. After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Law (2015), Liza started the Contemporary Urban Dance program at Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts, where she graduated in Choreography (2021). In the following years, Liza was supported by Theater DeSingel Antwerp and ICK Amsterdam, and worked on projects in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Through her work, Liza strives to bridge the gap to the tragedies inherent in ourselves and the world – the imagery we tend to avoid, the neglected stories, and the suppressed emotions. Liza delves into how we relate to our own bodies and other bodies within an unjust world. Despite grappling with tough themes, she is drawn to the nuances of human experience. Balancing on the border of turmoil and stillness, tragedy and comedy, distance and proximity, connection and disconnection. She attempts to illuminate and embody both the fragility and resilience of the human condition. With a poetic hope to discover harmony within ourselves and with eachother.