This past April, during a residency at The Launchpad in Carbondale, Colorado, Yaa Samar! Dance Theater (YSDT) performed choreography from the initial stages of their newest work, “The Keeper.” Actor Khalifa Natour recited a monologue in Arabic, depicting the first time his character witnesses a John Deere tractor in his village. He mimicked the turning up of earth with his arms and yelled at the sky, his voice both frantic and in awe. Dancer Samaa Wakeem lay on the floor next to him, contorting her body in reaction to his words. Now, during the piece’s third iteration at a residency at Le Théâtre National de la Danse in Paris, “The Keeper” has evolved into a broader contemporary dance theater work, which will be performed on four tons of raw soil that’s been dispersed across the theater’s stage.
This is how YSDT works, relying on residency programs as one of the only opportunities when its performers — who are split between Palestine and New York — can obtain travel documents to come together. The company’s personal struggle with border politics and its innate connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict deeply inform their work. “The Keeper” seeks to explore “humanity’s relationship to land as it relates to human survival, culture and identity, and as a source of political conflict.”
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