{"id":57242,"date":"2024-09-04T12:17:43","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T08:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=57242"},"modified":"2024-09-05T12:11:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T08:11:37","slug":"past-present-and-progress-the-new-arts-center-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/past-present-and-progress-the-new-arts-center-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Past, present and progress: the new Arts Center season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi has announced its tenth season, featuring more than 30 artists and a total of 55 performances.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the kind of eclectic and genuinely impressive mix that we\u2019ve come to expect from Bill Bragin and his team \u2013 a couple of well-regarded returners and several UAE debuts, some internationally known names and some locally grown projects, two world premieres, crowd-pleasers and boundary-pushers. As we\u2019ve said so many times before, it\u2019s exactly the kind of programming that an arts centre really ought to be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a theme for the 10th anniversary season, \u2018looking back and looking forward\u2019. This seems explicit enough \u2013 the programming includes some returners and some new performances \u2013 but it\u2019s not a deeply thought out direction for the schedule. As Executive Artistic Director (and founder) of The Arts Center Bill Bragin noted: \u201cWe don’t really programme to a theme. We look at the shows and the artists that we want to bring, and then a theme emerges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe though, for the 10th anniversary some more deliberation was required. It might be an arbitrary watershed, but ten years still feels like a good time to take stock. Bragin says he and his team were keen to invite some artists back, to reflect on the past and progress, while at the same time they were keen not to repeat themselves: \u201cwe really didn\u2019t want to get caught up in a programme that felt redundant, that felt like we were just repeating ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut that’s always something that you have to balance as a curator. You may have built a great relationship with some artists, you love their work, they’re great to work with, they engage in the community really well. So you want to bring them back, you know that they\u2019re going to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEqually you want every season to also feel different, and you want the audience to get that sense of surprise and delight as they look at the schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a trick The Arts Center has managed pretty well. Season after season the programming has featured names that many people would not recognise; the sense of discovery should always be a key part of any arts centre\u2019s rationale. But once the discovery has been made, and once the audience has made the connection, it makes sense to invite the likes of Herv\u00e9 Koubi<\/a> or Maysoon Zayid<\/a> to return \u2013 with new material, of course, but with their characteristic style of delivery. \u201cPeople understand what it means for the Herv\u00e9 Koubi company to be coming back to open the season, and it has a different kind of weight \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koubi\u2019s Sol Invictus<\/a><\/em> is presented with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels\u2019 Dance Reflections <\/a>initiative, and that relationship looks like it’s working well. Says Bragin: \u201cWe feed on each other. There\u2019s a really nice dialogue, curator to curator, between me and with Serge [Laurent, director of the Dance Reflections programme]. For instance, the Tricia Brown Company figured in our second season. That was our programming, but for this season it was Serge Laurent who proposed that we bring the company back to Abu Dhabi with a couple of pieces, one an older archival work but also one new dance choreographed by No\u00e9 Soulier \u2013 who had been brought to us by Dance Reflections last year<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other standout for us was the extra theatre programming in the Fall season. Said Bragin: “We’ve become aware that theatre is such an important part of the university. Up to now we’ve done a number of devised theatre and performance art pieces, but we haven’t presented a lot of scripted theatre. This year Reem Allan, who joined in our 9th Season,\u00a0has come on board to do the season planning with me, and her background is in theatre, so we\u2019ve had a lot of conversations about theatre, especially in terms both of what’s happening regionally and in the Arab world in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo Arabic language theatre is something that we want to highlight. But we are also concerned to present the kind of smaller-scale theatre in which local theatre makers and our students can find inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He mentions Elevator Repair Service\u2019s Gatz<\/a><\/em>, a heroic eight-hour performance of the complete Great Gatsby<\/em> which he programmed in The Arts Center\u2019s third season. That kind of extreme demonstration of the possibilities of theatre is the kind of thing that only arts centres can do, because it\u2019s a massive, risky, boundary-defining work. But it’s not something that most theatre artists would be able to contemplate, especially those based here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, Chryst\u00e8le Khodr\u2019s Augures<\/a><\/em> will demonstrate what can be done with minimal theatre \u2013 two good actors, a great script and great direction in a simple room with minimal props can be just as transformative as the eight-hour epic. Bragin says the team is finding more possibilities in stripped-back; \u201cthere are more projects brewing as we look forward \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s a time for anticipation and far-sightedness, but also a time for reflecting on the past. And after 10 years, what would the Bill Bragin of today say to Bill Bragin of 10 years ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I think he\u2019d probably say \u2018congratulations\u2019. And I think he\u2019d probably be surprised that Bill Bragin is still here today. I quite intentionally didn’t arrive with an expiration date \u2013 I came with the idea that I wanted to build an institution that would last. Ten years on, I feel we are at a place where what we do and why we do has become really established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe the most unexpected development that I can only really understand now is our impact on artists based here, giving them tools and ideas and opportunities to create their own work \u2013 we started to create a feedback loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook at Reem Almenhali: she studied at NYUAD and was in the Arts Center audience a lot. She was part of Hekayah. Then she and Joanna Settle created Al Raheel<\/a><\/em>, which we presented twice. And now she’s directing Ahmed Almadloum\u2019s Hamour Doesn\u2019t Leave the Cubicle <\/a><\/em>for The Arts Center, part of a new contemporary Emirati theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that the Bill Bragin of ten years ago would be really delighted by that\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fall Season at The Arts Center:<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Cie Herv\u00e9 Koubi: Sol Invictus<\/strong><\/a>
5 6 September<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The noted choreographer Herv\u00e9 Koubi returns to The Arts Center with another show-stopping performance, an Arab World Premiere that features 17 dancers in a piece that blends contemporary and kinetic urban dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gaye Su Akyol | TootArd<\/a> <\/strong>
19 20 September<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classic Arts Center programming \u2013 an end-of-summer dance party with two very different kinds of artist. From Gaye Su Akyol you get an innovative mix of Turkish psychedelia and folk song, surf music and \u02bc90s Western rock; TootArd, a genre-fluid duo comprising brothers Hasan and Rami Nakhleh, offers a distinctive blend of disco and dance music that draws inspiration from the rich musical traditions of SWANA (SouthWest Asia, North Africa) and beyond.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Augures<\/a> <\/strong>
28 29 September<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lebanese actors Hanane Hajj Ali and Randa Asmar star in a play written and directed by Chryst\u00e8le Khodr that retraces their professional journeys and explores theatre as a space for true freedom.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Claude Cozens Trio feat. Ghazi Al-Mulaifi and Tonatiut Zardo\u00ecn<\/a> <\/strong>
5 October<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The multi-faceted jazz-fusion Claude Cozens Trio from Cape Town performs in the UAE for the first time. The trio (Cozens on drums, Kyle Shepherd on piano and keyboards, Benjamin Jephta on acoustic and electric bass) is joined by new friends from the UAE, Ghazi Al-Mulaifi (guitar) and Tona aka Tonatiut Zardon (trumpet)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Odeya Nini: ODE<\/a> <\/strong>
9 October<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interdisciplinary solo vocal performance by Odeya Nini on her UAE Debut. Using the body as a conduit for a flow of sound that calls out and calls upon with desire, Odeya amplifies resonance, pure expression, and the dynamic dance of vocal energy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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La Lezione di Teatro | The Acting Class<\/a> <\/strong>
11 October<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 45-minute play with Francesca Bizzari and Goffredo Puccettit, partly in English and partly in Italian, which uses humour to challenge the idea that theatre language is difficult to understand.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hamour Doesn\u2019t Leave the Cubicle<\/a> <\/strong>
18 19 October<\/mark><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world premiere of an absurdist Emirati play written by Ahmed Almadloum and directed by Reem Almenhali. Rooted in Emirati culture through its workplace references and humor, but with universal resonances, Hamour Doesn\u2019t Leave the Cubicle <\/em>satirises the bureaucratic inconveniences faced by employees anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Al Sidr Film Festival<\/a> <\/strong>
25 26 27 October<\/mark><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curated by Nezar Andary and supported by the Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi, Al Sidr Film Festival offers three days of films from across the world exploring environmental issues.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Purring Tiger: Aaron Sherwood and Kiori Kawai \u2013 MUJO<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>
21 22 November<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A celebration of life\u2019s diversity as blend of dance, sound, and visual artistry underneath the starry skies out in the desert. Dancers move to projections on the dunes and live music, constantly assembling and disassembling in various forms \u2026 A World Premiere, commissioned by The Arts Center<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Trisha Brown Dance Company: In The Fall | Working Title <\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>
15 November<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two pieces of postmodern dance from a seminal company, choreographed respectively by No\u00e9 Soulier (a brand new work) and Trisha Brown (her iconic 1985 work).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hekayah | The Story<\/a> <\/strong>
26 November<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now-traditional Arts Center celebration of the UAE\u2019s National Day, exploring the meaning of \u2018home\u2018,\u2019 whether it be their country, city, heritage, or family. Features a curated lineup of poets, singers, and musicians.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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