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Who: Laurel Victoria Gray, choreographer; Silk Road Dance Company
When: Sunday, September 14, 2003 at 6:00 p.m.
Monday, September 15, 2003 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
Program: Egypta: Myth, Magic and Mystery
Website: www.Egypta.com
The Silk Road Dance Company Presents
Egypta: Myth, Magic and Mystery
On the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
Washington, D.C. – Laurel Victoria Gray’s Egypta: Myth, Magic and Mystery
has been earning critical acclaim since the premiere of the work in Berlin, Germany in 1996. Since then Gray
has been refining and growing Egypta in the United States where a generous grant from the Kennedy Center’s
Local Dance Commissioning Project has allowed her to complete the concert length piece. Egypta will make its
Washington, D.C. debut at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, September 14 and Monday, September 15 on the Kennedy Center
Millennium Stage performed by Gray’s Silk Road Dance Company.
Egypta: Myth, Magic and Mystery is a dance narrative which depicts the legacy of ancient Egypt,
from the Creation Myth, to the death of Cleopatra. Egypta begins with the ominous Prophecy of Thoth, God
of Wisdom and Writing, who predicts Egypt’s demise. The story unfolds as life emerges from the waters of
the Nile River. The everyday activities of women, such as harvesting crops and weaving linen, are entwined
with ancient Egyptian spiritual traditions and myths. The Goddesses Nuit, Sekhmet and Isis, and priestesses
of Renenutet and Hathor, bless—and curse—the lives of humans. Egypta’s final moment recreates the Judgment
scene in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, in which the heart of the deceased is weighed against the “feather of
truth” to determine worthiness for eternal life.
Gray first conceived her production of Egypta in 1995 as a tribute to Ruth St. Dennis’ original
dance suite by the same name. Fueling a lifetime fascination with ancient Egypt she set out to do the
impossible—create a movement vocabulary that would be representative of ancient Egypt's complex society.
Though she had seen performances of “Pharaonic” dance in the past, the styling often seemed stiff.
Gray turned instead to the surviving “snapshots” of ancient Egyptian life, the tomb paintings and papyri
that illustrated their dances. Her first move was to incorporate traditional Egyptian and African
elements into the movement. Music was also important to Gray, who rather than exclusively employing
the slow music often used to conjure a sense of mystery and death, sought out polyrhythmic music and
percussive instruments to capture the vivacious nature of Egyptian daily life. The result of Gray’s
work is an Egypta that is truly unique in vision, movement and scope.
Costuming also intrigues Gray who believes more authentic garments result in more authentic movement. "We usually make two mistakes in designing ancient Egyptian costumes," she explains. "Stereotypical designs never seem to get past the white linen dress or the elaborate headdress of goddesses. But Egyptians had colorful woven textiles, which is why we are using some African fabric in the American production." The elaborate crowns were worn by royalty and goddess, not by professional dancers. "Since those headdresses curtail movements, past attempts at ancient Egyptian dance tend to be so slow and stiff."
To costume the new dances created for the Kennedy Center's Local Dance Commissioning Project, Gray enlisted the talent of Elizabeth Groth, a senior Presidential Arts Scholar (Technical Theater) at the George Washington University, majoring in Fine Art and Art History. Groth's inspiration comes directly from Egyptian art, also incorporating ancient Greek and Near Eastern influences. She acknowledges that "the lines are deceptively simple, and it was an enjoyably difficult task to translate the stiffly drawn, immensely formal two-dimensional to a realistic, and more importantly, moveable three-dimensional.”
Since its inception in 1995 Laurel Victoria Gray’s
Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC) has delighted audiences around the country with traditional and fusion dances from the Middle East and Central Asia. Performing Uzbek, Afghani, Tadjik, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Iranian, and Egyptian dance techniques rarely seen in the United States, their performances offer a unique glimpse of the life, culture, and art of little known regions. Nationally they have performed at Warner Brothers Studios (Hollywood, CA), Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, North Carolina State University, Ford Amphitheatre (Hollywood, CA) the Rakkasah Middle Eastern Dance Festival (Somerset, NJ), and The Field Museum in Chicago. SRDC has also performed in some of the most prestigious venues and festivals in D.C., including the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Embassy of Uzbekistan, the State Department, the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, National Geographic Society, the National Press Club, the Washington Monument, Library of Congress and the Metro DC Dance Awards. SRDC has collaborated with such esteemed performers as Egyptian choreographer Momo Kadous, violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, and People’s Artists of Uzbekistan choreographer and dancer Qizlarhon Dustmuhamedova and Qadir Muminov. The enemble is a Company in Residence at the Joy of Motion Dance Center in Washington, DC.
Laurel Victoria Gray, an internationally acclaimed dancer, scholar, instructor, and choreographer first discovered Middle Eastern and Central Asian dance as an undergraduate at Occidental College. In graduate school at the University of Washington she assisted in hosting a delegation of dancers from Uzbekistan and became exposed to this rare, intricate form. Since then she has traveled to Uzbekistan ten times, living there for two years and serving as a member of the jury for the 1997 International Music Festival “Sharq Taronalari” (Melodies of the East). She is the recipient of the 1999 International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance Award for Ethnic Dancer. Gray teaches “Dances of the Islamic World” a course she developed and offers as an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University and George Washington University. Recently she has been nominated for the 2003 International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance Award for Best Choreographer.
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