Eat Banana and Drink Pills
Sahar Damoni
About the project
"Psychological illness does not stem from human beings but it is a reflection of society and wrong civilization.” (Sigmund Freud)
Eat Banana and Drink Pills is a contemporary dance performance about abortion among single Arab Palestinian women. The work focuses on the physical, emotional, and social dimensions of this experience and analyzes the ramifications of this choice and the stigma, trauma, and social violence it carries.
Date & time: Saturday 22 February, 6pm
Ort: 4fT-Tanzplattform Leipzig, Erich-Zeigner-Allee 64e, 04229 Leipzig ("Studio 2")
Duration: 50-55 minutes
Entry upon donation. No reservation needed.
Review:
"The traumatic moment engraved in the psyche is translated into an uninhibited immersion of the choreographer in the body, in a way that merges the past with the present into an unfiltered ‘now,’ and only at the end does the understanding sharpen that this shared and exposed time with the audience holds the possibility of healing."
Idit Suslik, Writer, The Contemporary Eye, 2021
Credits:
Choreography and Performance: Sahar Damoni
Artistic Accompaniment and Dramaturgy: Nitzan Cohen
Artistic Advisor: Sarah Holcman
Original Music and Editing: Akram Haddad
Lighting Designer: Rotem Elroy
Support:
Supported by The Lottery Council for Arts and Culture; The Independent Creators Foundation; GPS/Global Practice Sharing MENA Exchange Program of Movement Research with funding from the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund; Goethe-Institute/Morocco, within the project “Uncontrolled Gestures”; Yasmeen Godder Studio; Studio Mandel/Yafo; Choreographers’ Circle at Suzanne Dellal Centre; and Shefa-Amer Community Centre, 4FT – Tanzplattform Leipzig, Germany
Thanks to:
Marya Wethers, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Bryanna Bradley, Guy Hugler, Frida Daniely, Jonathan Hollins Lishay Shechter, Aziza Diab, Rula Nusier, Ibtisam Ammouri, Jumana Bishouty, Mohamad Salim, Ayman Daw, and Maisa Abd Elhadi.
Production notes:
The work is performed in a circle, with the audience around the performer. It can be performed in a theater setting or in non-traditional venues such as galleries, churches, museums, etc.
Eat Banana & Drink Pills (2021)
Presented in Movement Research Festival at the Judson Church, New York, 2024
Presented in Dance Space Project, New York, 2024
Presented in Frauenkirche Church, Dresden, Germany, 2024
Presented in Café Belcapmo, Amsterdam, 2024
Presented in Fabrik potsdam dance festival, Germany, 2022; HANGARTFEST, Italy, 2022
Premiered Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv, 2021
About Sahar
Sahar Damoni is a Palestinian dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher from Shefa-Amer in the Galilee in the Middle East, whose body of work deals with the challenges she faces as a woman in an Arab and Palestinian society. Her work has been presented in various festivals and platforms around the globe including Holland Dance Festival, Den Haag, Frauenkirche Church, Dresden, Movement Research Festival at the Judson Church and Dance Space Project , Marks Church and Lamama, New York, Fabrik Potsdam Potsdamer Tanztage, International Solo Dance Theater Festival Stuttgart (Germany), Café Belcapmo, Amsterdam, HANGART Festival, Italy; Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, Echo Dance Festival of Northern Ireland, Curtain Up, International Exposure and InitimaDance (Tel Aviv), among others. as well as various other platforms in Ireland, Italy, Mexico and Morocco.
Sahar has received residencies including PACT Zollverein, Essen, Fabrik Potsdam, GermanySouth East Dance Rapport, Independent Dance, Siobhan Davies Studios & Sadlers Wells, London, UK and GPS/Global Practice Sharing, Movement Research; and (IIAC) the International Interdisciplinary Artists Consortium and moving arts lab, NYC. She has participated in collaborations and received residences supported by New York University, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Goethe Institute.
Sahar was invited to Un/Controlled Gestures, a seminar on dance and body politic, organized by the Goethe Institute, Morocco. lectured about her work Tel Aviv University, Sapir College, Kibbutzim College, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Ben Gurion University, Gibney, NYC, and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, Germany, workshop at Henny Jurrriëns Studio, Amsterdam among others.
In 2021 Sahar was commissioned to create the evening-length work, Sadim/سديم , for the Staatstheater Kassel.
Prior to making her own work, she danced with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, was chosen to take part in the Dramaturgy Online Open Forumtook, Onassis Stegi Cultural Center, and participated in Theatre projects as an actor and dramaturg with Directors abroad.
Sahar holds a Bachelor of Dance and Movement for Practicing Teachers from Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology, and Arts. She danced with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company from 2003 to 2004, among other companies.