Knife Hearts

 Knife Hearts is an international co-production between Egypt and Germany, which brings together four dancers—three Egyptian and one Turkish-German—who challenge Western definitions of dance and performance, as well as the expectations imposed on them. Drawing on raqs sharqi, mahraganat, and urban dance practices from Egypt and the region, the dancers expand and reconfigure the vocabulary of contemporary dance.

Examining mahraganat through a dramaturgical lens, the dancers challenge social scripts in both Egypt and Germany by posing the question, Who gets to perform, and why? What happens when dance is displaced from its original context? What is the role of the audience in receiving and interpreting a dancing body?

Amid classism and growing discrimination and racial violence against bodies perceived as Arab, Turkish, or Muslim, mahraganat may offer a different way of seeing. Its motifs of fighting, knives, and fire become a choreography of virtuosity and control, transforming symbols of aggression into connection, togetherness, and celebration. The knives may be out, but here they cut through borders and assumptions, creating space for encounters and collective celebration.

Credits: Direction and Choreography: Islam Elarabi, Sherin Hegazy, Tümay Kılınçel, Mohamed Toto • Performance: Islam Elarabi, Sherin Hegazy, Mohamed Toto, Toqa Emad • Dramaturgy: Ismail Fayed • Light Design: Catalina Fernandez • Set Design: Cheng-Ting Chen • Costume Design: Sherin Hegazy • Musical Direction and Co-composition: Dmitrii Makhonin • Music Production: Ali Elharam • Musical Collaboration and Percussion: Bishoy Youssef • Video and Photo Documentation: Nataliya Nikolska • Creative Production: Urszula Heuwinkel • Production: Islam Elarabi, Tümay Kılınçel • Co-production: FFT Düsseldorf, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm • Support: Goethe-Institut (International Coproduction Fund), Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Kulturamt Düsseldorf, Kunststiftung NRW, City of Frankfurt am Main, NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture • Conceptual Development Support: Goethe-Institut Research Grant, Goethe-Institut Alexandria •