Losing It

“Can you still hear the bombs? I can hear them.” 

What if you grew up in a war zone? How do you cope as a child when you are exposed to political conflict on a daily basis?
The choreographer and performer Samaa Wakim grew up in the occupied Palestinian territories. During this solo dance performance, she asks herself how these experiences impact her identity. Through movement and sound, she remembers her youth and the imaginary world she created in order to survive. Driven by her own sounds and live music by Samar Haddad King, she goes back and forth between fear and hope, between sounds that used to scare her and sounds that used to bring her comfort.
 

• Samaa Wakim studied theatre at Haifa University. She has performed in various international productions, including Badke (A.M. Qattan Foundation, KVS and Les Ballets C de la B), I'm Yusuf and this is my brother (Shiber-Huren Young Vic Theatre, London) and Kabaret (Khashabi theatre, Haifa). She is also a member of the YaaSamar! Dance Theatre. Losing it is part of the Goethe Institute’s Un|ControlledGestures? project. 

• Samar Haddad King studied choreography at The Ailey School/Fordham University in New York and is the founder and director of YaaSamar! Dance Theatre. She was artist in residence at Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse in Paris and Resident Fellow and Toulmin Creator at New York University. She was responsible for the choreography for We Live in Cairo (American Repertory Theater, Boston) and published a chapter about dance in the Arab world in Contemporary Choreography (Routledge, 2018).