Programme

>> In the occasion of the Luxembourg Pride, organised by Rosa Lëtzebuerg.

In Greek mythology Narcissus was an incredibly handsome young man who belittled those who loved him and rejected all advances. Nemesis, the Goddess of Revenge, decided to punish Narcissus by drawing him to a lake where he saw his reflection. Unable to look away from such perfection, he fell in love with it. When his love wasn't reciprocated, he couldn't bear to leave his reflection. After staring at it for a few days he grew exhausted, fell into the stream and drowned.

In the contemporary linguistic usage, a person who suffers from narcissism is associated with an exaggerated admiration of one's idealized self-perception. The narcissist believes that it is natural for others to be in his service as he is characterized by selfishness, vanity and ego-centrism. Along goes the image of rulers all over the world, who embodied the summit of narcissism, raising their heads high, addressing their people, "Who are you to discuss with me”? They do not notice that they lost sight and insight, and that "narcissism" deprived them of communication with their people. What if the scenario is different? What if they listened to the protesters and received their criticisms and demands?

The narcissist's mind is always seeking the attention and admiration of others. The narcissist is not satisfied with one person, and rarely continues in a long-term relationship, always seeking the short-term transitions that are subject to the conditions he sets. A narcissistic person is skilled at manipulating feelings, especially at the beginning of his emotional relations which explains why many “victims” fall into the narcissist’s trap easily.

Since the rise of social media there have been many studies of online narcissism. One 2010 study notes that the emergence of the possible self “is most pronounced in anonymous online worlds, where accountability is lacking and the ‘true’ self can come out of hiding.”   But non-anonymous social networks like Facebook, which this study was analyzing, “provide an ideal environment for the expression of the ‘hoped-for possible self,’ a subgroup of the possible-self. This state emphasizes realistic socially desirable identities an individual would like to establish given the right circumstances.”

Credits

Choreographer: Saeed Hani

Dancers: Robin Rohrmann & Gabriel Lawton

Stage design: Alexander Harry Morrison

Costume designer: Naddy Führinger

Music: Jakob Schumo

Production: Hani Dance Company

Saeed Hani Möller, Syrian-German choreographer, dancer, and director of Hani Dance Company was born and raised in Syria and trained at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus. After his graduation, he joined the prestigious Caracalla Dance Company in Beirut, Lebanon, touring all over the world. In the fall of 2015, he moved to Trier, Germany. He then performed as a dancer with various dance companies such as the Theater Münster, Sommer Ulrickson Company (DE), Z- Art company (LU), and Hannah Ma Dance Company (DE), touring in Europa.

In 2019, as a dancer and choreographer, he created a solo entitled A Man by the Sea with Battery Dance Company, in New York, USA. He also made his solo JERUSALEM for the Full Moon Dance Festival in Finland. He was invited as a choreographer to create his short piece "FLOAT" for DART DSP Professional Dance Program in Berlin, Germany (2020).

HANI DANCE is a Luxembourgish-German Movement Art company that was founded in 2016 in Germany and moved to Luxembourg City in 2021. Hani loves to work with international dancers worldwide to combine different cultural perspectives and believes in sharing intercultural ideas and viewpoints to create organic and innovative dance pieces. Saeed essentially explores concepts such as power, dynamism, spirit, and mind using tools such as nude art, contemporary dance, and visual art.

“THE BLIND NARCISSIST”(2020), their 4th project, was created in Germany and further performed in 2022 at the "HORS CIRCUIT" program at Trois C-L, Luxembourg City. They toured all over the world with this piece.

For Hani Dance's current project KHAOS (2023), the company has been invited to start with a research process at the Grand Theater Geneva, Switzerland. The piece will be premiered in Mersch, Luxembourg on the 19th & 20th of May 2023, and in Trier, Germany 8th, 9th & 10th of June. Hani Dance’s main goal is to become a home for international, creative, and artistic freelancers of all kinds – not only to stage shows but to make a stand against discrimination and superficiality.

Robin Rohrmann was born in Frankfurt am Main and received his formal training at the Rotterdam Dance Academy (Codarts) and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. He was a member of the Dance Company Theater St. Gallen and as a freelance artist, he worked with choreographers and directors such as VA Wölfl/NEUER TANZ, Anna Konjetzky, Tina Tarpgaard, Dana Caspersen, Yossi Berg & Oded Graf, Verena Billinger & Sebastian Schulz or Saeed Hani for The Blind Narcissist. Robin performed in multiple international festivals and theatre venues like Whitebird Festival in Portland (OR), International Exposure Tel Aviv, ChangMu International Performing Arts Festival Seoul, International Contemporary Dance Festival Mexico City, Sommerszene Salzburg and Tanz im August Berlin.

Gabriel Lawton is a contemporary dance artist based in Berlin, Germany. Australian-born, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance Performance at The Boston Conservatory in the US before establishing himself in Berlin. Gabriel has worked on projects throughout Germany and Europe, touring internationally. In particular, he seeks out projects in which his role is as generative as performative and is most interested in work that refuses to be bound by the traditional limits of any single media. Some of his fondest work in recent years has been with Tomer Zirkilevich, Jasmine Ellis, Johannes Bönig, Yael Cibulski, Sommer Ulrickson, and his ongoing collaboration with Saeed Hani, friend, and director of the Luxembourg and Trier-based Hani Dance.