MAY HE RISE AND SMELL THE FRAGRANCE MITEM 16

 “May He Rise” is a dance performance and a ceremony, where death emerges from the depth of the earth to become a rite for life. The woman, the mourning priestess, summons the men so that they may experience grief and the pain of loss. Like a goddess, she brings them to the threshold of life and death, she moves their bodies, and from their anguish releases an action for life.  She makes them question concepts tied to their masculinity—strength, heroism and toughness; rigidity, sluggishness, and fading—laying bare their vulnerabilities and weaknesses, exposing their impotence through the intensity of her voice, her energy and her lamentations.

 “May He Rise” concludes Ali Chahrour’s trilogy on mourning rituals and their rich repertoire of movement, and the problematic of the presence of the body. Following “Fatmeh” and “Leila’s Death”, “May He Rise” offers an additional taste with a performance based on lamentations, mourning, dance, stories and legends summoned from Arab memory and local genres of movement—specifically from the region of Mesopotamia, also known as the Black Grounds.