Eat Banana & Drink Pills “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 analyses the ramifications of this choice and the stigma, trauma, and social violence it carries. Choreography and Performance: Sahar Damoni Artistic Accompaniment and Dramaturgy: Nitzan Cohen Artistic Advisor: Sarah Holcman Original Music and Editing: Akram Haddad Camera & Video Editing: Yuval Hameiri

سديم \Sadim By Sahar Damoni Commissioned by Staatstheater Kassel, Germany "Sadim" is a natural wonder. It's a thin fog, which contains drops of water swimming in the atmosphere, close to the surface of the Earth. This Unique wonder, reflects the seen and unseen, the known and unknown, the darkness with the light, the enturpetaion of what each individual person sees in front of her/him. How do I/we react to this wonder in front of me/us? How Does it make us react to it? Do I/we choose to just look at it? Do I/we go closer to it, run away from it, maybe go through it? How does it make me/us feel? Does the feeling change if we are individuals in front of it or as a group of people in front of it? Does this wonder reflect the way I \ we see ourself, the way I\ we know ourselves? "Sadim" questions what home means to each one of us - is it a physical matter or peace of mind? How does it affect my identity and the identity of each one of us? Choreography & Staging: Sahar Damoni Dancers \ Co-creators: Emily Paige Anderson, Anna Gorokhova, Yannis Brissot, Vincenzo Minervini, Safet Mistele, Shafiki Sseggayi Rehearsal Direction & Artistic Advisor: Luisa Sancho Escanero Dramaturgy: Thorsten Teubl Stage Manager: Swarna Rautianen Sound Design: Donato Deliano Stage Design: Isabell Heinke Costume Design: Ama Tomberli Light: Oliver Frees, Dirk Thorbrugge Co- studying Felicia Nilsson, Astrid Ottosson, Iris Posthumus Press: “Sadim” by Sahar Damoni made it clear how far-reaching the conversation about gender and identity can be. Sahar made it almost physically clear to the audience what dance as an art form is capable of: uniting the past and the future in the present. At the moment of movement . The choreographer clarifies her constant search, her conflicts that she has to overcome as an artist, as a woman from an Arabic culture. The language of movement is complex, provocative and plays with the changing dominance of the actors. Sometimes intimate, sometimes aggressive, Damoni tells of a search for one's own self. longing and loss, The past and the future are sung about here and reflected on the stage through the fleetingness of the movement. (Kirsten Ammermüller, German, article HNA, December, 2021)

Sahar Damoni was born and raised in a controversial piece of land and lives in a severely complicated reality. As a female Palestinian artist, she has more than enough barriers to break yet the political aspect of her identity adds more frustrations. In Do Not Tittle Me, she expresses, observes, and wanders through her frustration. She attempts to capture the reality and the future of her individual Palestinian body physically, mentally, and socially. “Accept the position you are in, do not force it, do not push it. Your body will let go eventually, Just be patient with yourself, simply focus on the breathing. Do not worry about what you look like. Focus on how you feel” Choreography, Performance, Styling, Set : Sahar Damoni Artistic Management: Nitzan Cohen Music: Hadi zidan- Safar Barlek Lighting Design stage: Amir Castro Lighting Design video: Yair Segal Directing and editing: Nitzan Cohen, Erez Schwarzbaum Cinematography: Ophir Ben Shimon Camera and light assistant: Erez Schwarzbaum Sound recording: Shוval Fixler Recording assistant: Valen Solomenko Production assistant: Ela Pollak Artistic Direction of Intimadance Festival: Stav Marin, Merav Dagan Acknowledgments: Jonathan Hollins, Frida Danieli, Aziza Diab, Rwan sheikh Ahmad, Lishay Shechter The video was produced by Tmuna Theater, Intimidance Festival 2020 In “Do Not Title Me,” Damoni, a Palestinian choreographer who lives in Shafaram, confronts the audience directly through the title of her work, and presents physical expression of the struggle between conflicting claims through small limited movements and at the same time in a free movement.. Her presence is mesmerizing. Damoni offers to observe her and "oriental" dance in a different way, not only because the person looking at her from behind seemingly does not know who she is, but because it is an offer to pause to observe for a moment the same "me" or “I”...Damoni adopts a strategy of resistance, of refusal. Damoni also drags her identity behind her in the form of the burning shoes, which she eventually fills. Damoni's claim to the absence of definition is is the definition of political identity, and her choreography embodies this complicated conflicted struggle perfectly well.” (Haaretz, Ran brown, August, 2022)

Alquds (2019) Created as part of Body. Site. Dance. An Initiative of the Jerusalem Academy of Dance and Music in which choreographers open new possibilities for dialogue between the people in the city of Al Quds (Jerusalem). Choreography: Sahar Damoni Music Collage: Yonatan Hollins, Mozart Text by the dancers Al Quds explores opening a new dialogue with the people and city of Al Quds (Jerusalem in Arabic). A flood of questions and experiences serve as the raw material upon which the work is built. Sahar and the performers explored creating in isolation. They built an enchanting site-specific experience in which the locker rooms of the Jerusalem YMCA’s abandoned swimming pool becomes a physical cacophony of the city of Al Quds. Looking at the tempo, politics and behavior of the city’s residents, a new movement emerges. The work aims to question our perception of place and civility. Can a new dialogue exist?

Created as part of “Translucent Borders” Project of New York University, at Jacob’s Pillow and Lincoln Center Festival, USA. Project led by Dr. Andy Teirstein Choreography: Sahar Damoni Composer: Andy Teirstein Dancers: Donald Byrd, Alison DeFranco, La Shaun Prescott, Meirigah Abubakar, Sahar Damoni Musicians and performers: Firas Zreik, Andy Teirstein, Marco Ambrosini, Angela Ambrosini,Yair Delal, Mariel Roberts Fear & Freedom is a work in progress which I presented in New York as part of "Translucent Borders" Project of New York University, at Jacob’s Pillow and Lincoln Center Festival, USA. Project led by Dr. Andy Teirstein. The aim of the project was intercultural dialogue, practice and exchange, focusing on the role of dance and music at geographic, cultural and economic borders. My work Fear & Freedom questions whether artists across “borders” share the same fears and freedoms despite different origins, languages, cultures, and narratives. We explored how the artists from other countries relate to the ideas of fear and freedom. I invited artists with different artistic expressions (instruments, movements, text, and writing) to voice harmony and dischord in search of something universal.

In Pirg'in Sahar Damoni examines the relationships between herself and the men in her life, and considers the hindrances which prohibited her from actualizing these relationships, while considering the cultural agents that accompanied affected her along the way. Pirg'in aspires to illustrate the existing conflict between Damoni and the male figure she is aiming to manage a relationship with. Sahar reverses the social conventions imposed on her as a woman and dancer living in a conservative society. She appeals to these limits, by using her body daringly, dancing on musical genres which reflect the male roles in our society. Sahar meets the motion, in order to break out of these limits.

Path (2015) Choreography: Sahar Damoni Performance: Sahar Damoni, Lamma Namnah Artistic Director: Hillel Kogan Dramaturge: Rotem Tashach Music: Akram Haddad Costume and Decoration: Naim Qasim Production: Curtain Up Festival 2015, Israel In Path Damoni brings on stage the conflict between her passions and desires, and the strict social conventions of the community she belongs to. Her body becomes a scene of opposition between social prohibition and personal freedom and demonstrates the challenges she faces as an Arab women.