\SAFFRON
Hala Salem
Personal quest for the body as home
What if your country is occupied and when your body is constantly questioned? What if as a Palestinian and as a dancer who is too masculine to be feminine and too feminine to be masculine? Where do you find a home? Choreographer and dancer Hala Salem, born and raised in Deir Hanna, found home in her body and takes you through her narrative and physical dance. Saffron is a coming-of-age story about forming your identity. How do you learn to love yourself? On Lynn Adib's groundbreaking mix of Arabic folk and electronica, Salem rediscovers her body as a home. A sacred place that hovers between masculinity and femininity, between attachment and detachment, between finding herself and losing herself.
A personal work about the body as a source of security.
A production of Storytelling Centre in co-production with CC Amstel and What You See Festival.
Concept, choreography, text, performance: Hala Salem
Direction, text: Arjen Barel
Composition, music: Lynn Adib
Video and visual design: Ghenwa Noiré
Produced by Storytelling Centre in coproduction with CC Amstel and What You See Festival
* This is an English-language performance
Besides being a dancer, Hala Salem (born 1996) is also a choreographer, actress, dance teacher and workshop facilitator. She was born in Deir Hanna and is based in Haifa. Hala began her professional training at the Haifa Dancers Training Workshop and obtained her Bachelor's degree in Dance Theatre at West Galilee Academic College. Throughout her dance career, Hala has performed solo, with local dance groups and collaborated on several music videos.
Arjen Barel (1973) is not only a director but also a storytelling coach and author of several publications on using storytelling as a method for personal growth and social impact. He is the founder and director of Storytelling Centre, an organisation dedicated to the development of sharing stories, nationally and internationally and both artistically and socially. The centre is known nationally and internationally as a training centre, festival producer, producer of current performances by young storytelling talent and as a supporter of cultural diversity and connector between different cultural backgrounds.