DAY 1: STEPPING FORWARD: Performance Research and Practice, Here

421, Alserkal Arts Foundation, and New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) present Stepping Forward: Performance Research and Practice, Here, a convening that brings together artists, curators, academics, and practitioners to consider critical questions around performance practice emerging from the MENASA region. Taking place at 421 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, 18 February and Alserkal Arts Foundation in Dubai on Sunday, 19 February, the symposium features a program of talks, panel discussions, workshops, and performances that unpack, extend, and liberate contemporary performance practice towards frameworks that better serve regional contexts and concerns.

Presenting the work of artists and researchers outside the conventions of existing institutional models, Stepping Forward: Performance Research and Practice, Here serves as a collective ground on which to construct new models for performance beyond the hegemonic vocabulary of canon/outsider, center/periphery, or the “decolonial” as a blanket term.

The program includes contributions from artists, performance practitioners, academics, and researchers including Ammar Al Attar (artist, United Arab Emirates); Mays Albaik (Programs and Community Initiatives Manager, 421); Nujoom Al Ghanem (artist and filmmaker, United Arab Emirates); Katia Arfara (Assistant Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies at New York University Abu Dhab); Eva Bentcheva (art historian, Associate Lecturer at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, India); Nikhil Chopra (artist, India); Reem Fadda (Director Cultural Foundation at Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi); Alia Hamdan (artist and researcher, Lebanon); Mohammed Kazem (artist, United Arab Emirates); Nadine Khalil (writer, United Arab Emirates); Abhishek Majumdar (playwright, United Arab Emirates); Rabbya Naseer (artist, Pakistan); Venuri Periera (artist, choreographer, and curator, Sri Lanka); Ugoran Prasad (researcher, Indonesia); Ho Rui-An (artist, Singapore); Pushpamala N. (artist, India); Sofiane Ouissi (Artist, Tunis); Nada Raza (Director, Alserkal Arts Foundation); Tina Sherwell (Director, MFA Arts and Media, New York University Abu Dhabi); Joanna Settle (Professor of Theater and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Social Impact, New York University Abu Dhabi); Rattanamol Singh Johal (researcher, India/USA); and Tanzim Wahab (curator, Bangladesh).

View the full program schedule here.

This event page is dedicated to booking Day 1 of the symposium which will take place at 421 in Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi. Day 2, taking place at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, can be booked .

For more information, visit our website 421.online.

Host or Publisher 421