Meet our artist of the week, Artistic director and founder of FJK Dance Fadi Khoury! Fadi and FJK Dance will be featured in a one night only special collaboration in MusicTalks’ upcoming Performance Shabbat Soiree with FJK Dance at New York Live Arts on November 4th!
We sat down with Fadi to get to know him a little bit better and this is what we learned:
MT: Tell us a little about about your childhood experience. How did your surrounding environment growing up influence you artistically?
Fadi: I was lucky that my father was a dancer and a director of a ballet company in Iraq where i grew up, and so i was exposed to the language of dance and the beauty of movement at a very young age. Ballet was not an over produced art form at the time and my father had a national contract so there was a real opportunity for novelty and freedom of expression. I feel so privileged to have been exposed to such a raw and genuine form of expression while i was still pure and devoid of preconceptions about the world.
MT: What made you move to New York and found FJK?
Fadi: The late 80’s and early 90’s marked the end of plentiful artistic production in the country. Public attention, as well as national funding of the arts were regressing significantly and all resources were going towards funding the war. To make things worse, the government began imposing restrictions on artistic expression and therefor a true devotion to an artistic ideal became gradually impossible. By the time we left Iraq dance was pretty much a forbidden art form. In 1988 my family relocated to Lebanon, a far more cosmopolitan country at the time. As time past however, the political situation in Lebanon worsened, and the arts began to suffer as a result. My father, who had began his career in Beirut and had earned a significant portfolio, was finding it increasingly difficult to break into the market and create.
As the political situation in Lebanon worsened it became increasingly dangerous for us, as artists and dancers, to stay in the middle east in general. We signed up for a relocation program in the united nations and moved to New York once i had graduated with a performing arts degree and had gained experience touring with the Lebanese national ballet company; it was a beautiful time for me to move and search for new avenues and opportunities to create.
MT: What are some of the artistic and conceptual ideals behind FJK Dance?
Fadi: When I arrived in New York i was 22 and I wanted to dance everywhere. I felt like a fish that had been out of water for a long time and has finally been released back into the ocean. There were so many opportunities. I went back to school at Alvin Ailey and became inspired by the vastness of artistic ideas and their application through different dance techniques. Once I started applying for dance companies I had a pretty clear idea of what it was that i wanted to explore, and I didn’t feel that any company answered my calling. I met my partner Sevine Ceviker on a tour that we both danced in, and she instantly became my muse and inspiration. When we dance together it is truly like magic.
The company is founded on the curiosity of exploring the possibilities of different dance techniques and traditions and creating a natural harmony between them. We are devoted to exposing people to the beauty that can be created by the interaction of seemingly clashing styes and cultures and inspire our audience to embrace diversity and grow together through cultural, social and political differences.
MT: How did the collaboration with music talks come about?
Fadi: As part of our season at FJK dance we present a series of outreach performances, each for different causes. At one of such occasions, we were privileged to have in the audience a true supporter of dance and art in general, who insisted that Elad and I connect. When we met for the first time, it was so refreshing to discuss the beauty of what we can create together as opposed to the travesty of our nations’ conflict. We are determined to eliminate the unnatural Taboo that has been forced upon our relationship by others, and remind society that we are all just human. We are extremely lucky in that New York is such a beautiful place to come together and communicate as individuals. When stripped of its socio political meaning, the joy of collaborating with a musician so passionate and devoted to his art such as Elad, is what its all about.
MT: What should the audience expect from the show?
Fadi: Our November performance with MusicTalks is what we like to call a ‘work in progress’ presentation. That is, we will be showcasing some of the the new choreographies and ideas that will be featured in our following season. This season will focus on the interaction of Tango and other latin and Spanish dances with musical material influenced by middle eastern elements. Our first piece ‘Oblivion’ explores the anxiety of separation through Tango. It is dark and magical and explores the interaction between the Tango and different musical styles from Astor Piazzola to Bach. Our second piece, Move, highlights the fusion of Samba and Arabic percussion, and the interaction between traditional latin dance and contemporary movement, featuring my good friend Sophia Bogdanova,who also happens to be an international Latin dance champion. The third and final piece is titled Mundo, which is Spanish for world, and really extracts the middle eastern essence from Spanish music, flamenco and Mambo. In short this production is going to be a crazy synthesis of ballroom dance, classical movement and technique, Tango, Mambo, Latin Jazz and amazing dancers and musicians.
