This video clip is a fragment
of a larger work. It was
created after three years of
research in the British
Museum, London, and has been
performed countless times
including at the request of
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
in their Egyptian Gallery. We
were also the dancers for the
tour of Tutankhamen's funerary
treasures at t
more

This video clip is a fragment
of a larger work. It was
created after three years of
research in the British
Museum, London, and has been
performed countless times
including at the request of
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
in their Egyptian Gallery. We
were also the dancers for the
tour of Tutankhamen's funerary
treasures at the M.H. de Young
Memorial Museum in San
Francisco. The other dancer in
this clip, Mimi, went on to
perform at the Temple of
Karnak by invitation of the
Egyptian Government,
Department of Antiquities.

It is not in any way meant to
be a re-creation or
interpretation of the dance of
ancient Egypt; it is strictly
a tableau of poses found in
the art & artifacts, the
beliefs, ceremonies, and
symbolism of their sacred
texts. There is no longer any
surviving dance or music from
that age due to the many
ruling regimes of the Nubians,
Assyrians, Persians, Greeks,
Romans, and Muslims.
Unfortunately, one can only
speculate how their dance and
music might have looked or
sounded.

The dance depicts the soul or
Ba -- the ethereal, eternal
part of man revisiting the
tomb, and symbolic of one of
the aspects of an individual
that continues after death.
The Ba is depicted as a human
headed bird called the Bennu,
and the dance contains some of
the following images: a Bennu
bird coming through the false
door to partake of the
offerings; a figure with just
wings and legs: Isis standing
in the Boat of Millions of
Years; Selket guarding a
shrine; a winged figure from a
Queen's necklace; the Goose of
Amun; etc. etc. Our
inspiration came from the
Papyrus of Ani, Chapter
LXXXIII, 'The Chapter of
Changing into a Bennu'.

Regarding the music, the
Egyptians used a long-necked
stringed instrument which was
plucked, resembling the
samisen of Japan. There were
also long vertical flutes,
square and round drums or
tambors, and gilded wooden
harps, sometimes accompanied
by a type of castanet or just
hand clapping. We chose this
music (oboe and samisen) as it
has the mystical feel of
ancient Egypt, to us at least,
and we did not want to use
modern day Arab music.

Category Entertainment

Tags dance, , egypt, entertainment, art, history, music, mimi, lesandre, java, china, bharatanatyam