STORY OF...

Laila Soliman is an Egyptian theatre director and author, trained at Cairo’s American University as well as at Dasart Amsterdam. She examines sociopolitical changes and their influence on individuals and power structures. Her works, among them MUSEUM OF LUNGS (2018) and WANASET YODIT (2020) were shown internationally. Her opera WOMAN AT POINT ZERO (2022) received the Fedora – Generali Prize for Opera. She already guested at SPIELART multiple times; 2019 as a co-curator for the NEW FREQUENCIES series. She was the artist in residence as well as a guest professor at NYU Abu Dhabi from 2022 until 2024. 

As a versatile instrumentalist and composer, Nancy Mounir is a valued player in Egypt’s alternative music scene. She lives in Cairo and creates original music for theatre productions, films, and art installations. Mounir is interested in diverse musical practices, ranging from Western canon to microtonal Arabic music, playing multiple instruments such as the violin, piano, bass, the theremin and the traditional Egyptian bamboo flute Kawala. She recently released her solo debut album NOZHET EL NOSFOUS.

Trainer, choreographer and performer of contemporary and baladi dance, Sherin Hegazy has been dancing since 1999. A graduate of the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University, she took modern dancing at the Cairo Opera House in 2001, then joined the Cairo contemporary dance programme from 2008 to 2010 at the renowned Emad Eddin Studio, under supervision of Laurence Rondoni. Since 2015, she has been regularly teaching in many art spaces and institutions in Egypt. As a choreographer, she signed several pieces, YA SEM (2016) and VEIL OF MODESTY (2023).

Following her architectural studies at Damascus University and her stage design training at the École d' Architecture de Nantes, Bissane Al Charif began working as a stage designer at the Damascus opera before moving to Paris in 2013. Her first collaboration with Laila Soliman happened during the production of WOMAN AT POINT ZERO in 2022. She also develops her own projects, among them internationally presented multimedia installations as well as sound and video creations such as I ONCE ENTERED A GARDEN (2019).