A new season of dance by way of Iraq and Fadi J. Khoury
FJK Dance will celebrate its eighth anniversary season at New York Live Arts from October 13-15, featuring a preview of Fadi J. Khoury’s multimedia creation, Off Limits.
A benefit Gala event will follow the opening night performance on October 13. The company will also host a Season Preview on October 12 at Gibney Dance Center.
Khoury told Queer Forty:
“The program of this season to me reflects a journey of self reflection and finding peace within! The choreography and concept of (off limits) are based on the process of coming out especially through the isolation experienced in the lockdown of 2020. Perspectives in ‘coming out’ are relative to everyone’s culture and background, and my hope is for what helped me heal in this creation could inspire the audience and help raise awareness to the importance of authenticity and acceptance in humanity.”
Visual art meets contemporary dance in a cross-cultural dialogue as FJK Dance celebrates its eighth anniversary season at New York Live Arts, presenting a preview of Off Limits and repertory choreography by Fadi J. Khoury.
The full program includes:
TWO (Premiere)
Lead and Lead!
Music: Peter Michael von der Nahmer
Lighting Design: Calvin Anderson
Choreography and Costumes: Fadi J Khoury
Dancers: Anica Grace Bottom and Timothy Ward
Forbidden (2021)
When love is locked and the key is inside.
Music: Abdel Wahab & Hossam Shaker with sound design by Omar Dewachi
Lighting Design: Calvin Anderson
Choreography, performance and design: Fadi J Khoury
Off Limits (Preview)
A multimedia project exploring challenges of authenticity in the face of social norms. An immigrant story will be told through live painting, music, and contemporary dance.
Music: Claude Debussy and Gaspar Cassado
Piano: Melody Fader
Cello: Elad Kabilio
Percussion: Gilbert Mansour
Sound Design and Electronic Bass: Mal Stein
Animation: James Daher
Lighting Design: Calvin Anderson
Choreography, Costumes, and Set Design: Fadi J Khoury
Dancers: Company
Tickets available here. For more information, go here.
About Fadi J. Khoury
Fadi J. Khoury is Artistic Director of FJK Dance. His innovative style – both as dancer and choreographer – showcases his life-long immersion in a world of dance forms. He was born in Baghdad, Iraq, surrounded by the folkloric music and dance of Arab culture. His father, also a dancer and choreographer, was the Artistic Director of the National Iraqi Ballet. Through his father, Fadi was exposed to diverse approaches to dance in Mesopotamia, still present in Assyrian, Syriac, and Bedouin folkloric dances of the Middle East.
Fadi’s multi-cultural background, versatility, and passion for dance allowed him to establish a career in Ballroom as lead instructor, dancer and choreographer at the Arthur Murray Dance Center in New York City. From 2009 – 2013, he placed first in the Top Teacher awards from Arthur Murray International.
Though Fadi had assimilated several dance forms, he was not at home in any of them. In 2014, inspired by a successful collaboration with Sevin Ceviker, he created his own company, where he could continue to refine his distinct, personal style. Every FJK Dance performance reflects his unique mix of experiences, unlike anyone else’s in the current dance scene and still exuberantly evolving.
In 2018, Fadi received a CUNY Dance Initiative award and the opportunity to perform the first production of “UnTold” at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Fadi was recently appointed as the first dance “Artist-in-Residence” at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, Wellness and Recovery Division, Behavioral Services, “to use dance to remove the stigma of, and to enable the public to better understand, mental illness.”
