Read Willemijn Rijpers’ thesis on Contemporary Dance in Beirut
We would like to congratulate Willemijn Rijper, one of our travel scholars, with completing her master thesis with a wonderful 9. In 2013 Willemijn went to Beirut to carry out fieldwork as part of her research master’s program Middle Eastern Studies.
The research centered on the question if and how contemporary dancers in Beirut address social and political matters in their dance practice.
Willemijn suggests that while many dancers have the same concerns regarding their society, some of them address these in their dance practice, while others more or less deliberately choose not to do so and who are instead inspired by other sources. Still others explained how they are (sometimes even unconsciously) affected by particular aspects of having grown up and living in the context of Lebanon and how this in turn shapes their dancing.
Read more about this in her thesis: ‘Contemporary Dance Practice in Beirut: Practical Organization, Social & Political Context, and Dance Performances’.
