“In the land of the pharaohs, the sea was called iam (which was not only an Egyptian term). The Coptic descendants retained the word until the last century and, in certain places, even to this day, but they pronounced it with a darkened vowel: iom or eiom. The phonetics of twilight have accompanied their destiny. There was no place for them on the sea.”
Predrag Matvejevic, Breviario Mediterraneo
The choreographic project by Djamila Henni-Chebra, Champagne et mezzé sur le Nil, in its Italian premiere, is a kind of homage to the Egyptian oriental dancers of the past, celebrating their courage and talent, and is divided into two parts. The first musical part presents an Egyptian oriental repertoire from the 1950s, set to the sweet and sensual notes of a still naively romantic era. The singing of Aziz Kossai and the percussive music of Hossein take center stage here.
The second part features three dancers, in addition to Djamila: Briar and Yeshim, along with an actress, Juliette Ubersfeld, who will recite in Italian. The theatrical aspect of Champagne et mezzé sur le Nil is indeed very important: it plays a mediating role in connecting the audience and the stage and enhances the success of the continuously proposed visual polyrhythm with its dynamic performances. The text, of which the audience is made an active participant, is not merely a functional frame but the most immediate way to connect the choreographic cultures presented on stage. The repertoire showcased by Djamila Henni-Chebra is representative of various Egyptian styles, even those temporally very distant, such as the very popular Cairo style with choreography by the renowned Egyptian Ibrahi Akef, perhaps the best of his era, spanning the 1930s to the 1960s, true treasures of beauty representing both the present and the memory of the past.
There are also more recent choreographic proposals inspired by contemporary performers, featuring more elaborate and complex movement techniques. These techniques require constant practice and are therefore less frequently practiced: here, the utmost difficulty and effort are intended to be disguised in the grandeur and splendor of a continuously renewed idea of oriental dance.
Djamila Henni-Chebra has studied classical, modern, and jazz dance, but above all, the dances of the Maghreb and Egypt with the greatest living masters; in 2001, she created Café Baladi in Lyon while continuing to study and perfect Egyptian oriental dances in Cairo. A guest at the Oriente Occidente Festival in 1994, she has dedicated over twelve years to teaching and pedagogical transmission.
