Carol Rifelj Faculty Lecture Series: Kari Borni, Dance

From “Arab Street” to Stage: Muslimness and Masculinity in Maghrebi Contemporary Dance

Over the past two decades contemporary dance in North Africa has emerged as a fusion form of street vocabulary, bboy virtuosity, traditional Sufi ritual, Orientalist trope, and postmodern aesthetic. This talk will focus on how shifting notions of Muslim corporeality in the region intersect with gender performativity, local political economies, and transnational artistic production networks. Through case studies of works by choreographers Abou Lagraa, Khalid Benghrib and Hervé Koubi, fieldwork research illuminates how dancers navigate the possibilities and constraints of artistic aspiration and their expressions of religious identity both on and off stage.