BEIRUT: The contemporary dance performance “Thikra,” designed by Saudi contemporary artist Manal AlDowayan and English dancer and choreographer Akram Khan, was orginally staged as a site-specific piece for the AlUla Arts Festival earlier this year. It has now been adapted and is currently touring Europe, with upcoming shows in Spain, Luxembourg, France, England, Italy and Germany.
AlDowayan admits that, through “Thikra,” she’s “been bitten by the theater bug,” thanks to its collaborative process and live audience interaction. It has become an exciting new space for her creative expression.
“I don’t (normally) have an audience experience,” Al Dowayan tells Arab News. “In the theater world… you bow and they clap and there’s a standing ovation… the curtain goes down and the clapping doesn’t stop.”
At the heart of “Thikra” — and AlDowayan’s broader creative mission — is the act of storytelling, especially as a tool for cultural preservation.
At the heart of “Thikra” — and AlDowayan’s broader creative mission — is the act of storytelling, especially as a tool for cultural preservation. (Supplied)
“My work is a narrative biography of who I am and the experiences I’ve faced moving through this world,” AlDowayan tells Arab News. “We were sitting around a lone bush in the desert and I thought: ‘This is it. This is the location (in which to set ‘Thikra’),’” she recalls. “(The show is set in) a circle, inspired by how we sit around fires and tell oral histories.”
For AlDowayan, storytelling holds particular weight for women, whose voices have historically been marginalized. She strives to resurrect narratives that have been silenced or erased.
“It started from feminist thinking — women’s presence in public spaces and the idea of erasure: your name, your identity,” she says.
AlDowayan says she is eager to further explore theater as a medium for her work.
“Using the human body as a conduit of expressing a creative idea… that’s deeply inspiring for me,” she says.
And her interest in performance as an artform is not just about creative growth; it’s also about redefining cultural narratives.
“I don’t think Saudi Arabia — or artists and creatives from Saudi Arabia — should be excluded from the global language of creativity,” AlDowayan concludes.
