BIO
Eyas Almokdad is a Syrian Belgian Filmmaker, and Choreographer. AlMokdad holds a Master in Audiovisual Arts (Film) from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) 2021, an Advanced Master Degree in Audiovisual Arts from Luca school of artsBrussels, Belgium 2013. A bachelor's degree from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts – Ballet Department in Damascus - Syria, 2005. AlMokdad's work focuses on experimentation, to explore contemporary forms of art, in cinema and performing arts. In recent years, he has worked on a number of films and performances that deal with political and social issues. He is a researcher in contemporary Arts and education. Founder of Film4Art Productions.
Contact Info, Website @: eyasmokdad@yahoo.com, Linkedin GCM: +32 - 485 609 750 Address: Rue Haute 19, 1000 Brussels - Belgium
Dance Showreel
AS A CHOREOGRAPHER:
2023 - Trojan Women - Euripides WipCool 2023 KVS Box Brussels - Work in progress.
2019 - TRAPEZE: KAAISTUDIOS, Moussem cities Damascus festival, Brussels- Belgium.
2018 - TOURAB: Dance performance, The Opening of the Syria Art Space in the Galerie Ravenstein. Goethe-Institut, with support of the European Union, Cultural Diplomacy Platform, The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), British Council, Institut français and BOZAR.
2017 - DUST: Event ‘Breaking Barriers Together - Removing obstacles to protection’ organized by Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, KVS Brussels 2017
2012 - I DO NOT HEAR MY VOICE: New talents dance festival at KORZO Theatre. The Hague- Netherlands.
2010 - SOLITUDE: Interactive dance performance using artificial intelligence motion detection, by Eyas Al-Mokdad, and programmer Rula Sayaf. Platform for Contemporary Danceat the Opera House of Damascus, Syria.
2009 - THALAMUS: Contemporary dance performance choreographed and performed by Eyas AlMokdad, and Methkal Zghaier. Produced by the National Theatre Damascus - Syria.
2006 - Assistant Choreographer The Opening and the Closing Ceremony of The Asian Olympic Games Doha. With David Atkins Company 2006.
2005 - Improvisation On ID Melody: Improvisation performance, interaction between music and dance.
2004 - Embrace of Springs Operate: Produced by the UAE government. Directed by: Jamal Sulaiman، Choreography by: Eyas AlMokdad.
2004 - The Black Horn Show: Produced by Qatar Cultural Festival. Directed by: Hamad Rumaihi, Choreography by: Eyas AlMokdad. Best Scenography Prize in Gulf Theatre Festival 2004.
2001, 2005 - Choreographer at Gulnar Contemporary Dance Company. Damascus - Syria.
As Dance Educator:
2016 - A Guest Professor of Contemporary Dance at University of VIVES - Kortrijken - Belgium.
2015 - A Guest Professor of Contemporary Dance at KUNTHUMANIORE School. Brussels - Belgium.
Besides being a professional filmmaker, I have practiced dancing and choreography for over twenty years. I graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts, Dance Department, Damascus - Syria 2005. During the five years I spent at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, I was able to practice various types of theatrical and dance techniques. Various types of dance styles Ballet Dance - Modern Dance Graham Technique - Limon Technique - Release technique, in addition, the European folk dance related to the Ballet dance repertoire. Classical miming, theatrical movement techniques (the use of weapons, swords and spears) - Music and Solfege, theatre theories, Scenography and Theatre make-up, Dance and theatre history. I was a dancer in the National Folklore Dance group Umaya Ministry of Culture 2002. I worked as a dancer and choreographer with a local dance group Gulnar dance group 2000 - 2005 . During my work with Gulnar dance group, I had the opportunity as a young choreographer to try out all the techniques and theories that I had learned at the dance school. Member of the Body Theatre group, Directed by Director, Choreographer: Noura Murad, Then I began my journey of discovering the world of choreography art.
Improvisation, Contact Improvisation
From the very beginning of my academic years at the art academy, I was fascinated by the choreographer's ability to create all those movements and the ability to mix different dance techniques. I made my first choreography a month after I started learning dance, the choreography wasn't very interesting, but daring to give it a try opened the door to me for experimentation. As a good listener of music in general and jazz in particular, I was aware that one of the important techniques in jazz music is the ability to improvise and create an improvisational musical dialogue between the musicians and their instruments. I thought it was possible to make dance performances this way, and I called it direct improvisation. I asked a group of musicians friends to participate in my first performance Improvisations on the Maqam of Identity 2002 the idea was simply to create a performance in the way of jazz musicians, a dialogue by improvisation. The success of the performance in the French Cultural Center in Damascus was great.
Improvisation has become one of my great discoveries. In addition to developing my ability in choreography, I was developing my skills in the improvisation dancer techniques, only to discover in 2006 that improvisation is an exist technique associated with contemporary dance, and the technique is professionally called contact improvisation. This was done by choreographer and teacher Ornella D'Agostino. To this day, I have been performing improv solos with musicians or accompanied by a pre-arranged sound and music. This started in Syria, and has continued since I came to Europe in 2011. I performed in Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, and other countries.
Contemporary Dance The expressive ability of the human body.
Through experimentation and in-depth study of all the different types of dance practices I've taken on, I've been moving from all the classical genres I've learned to contemporary forms that seek to liberate the body and expression from technical constraints. And through that understanding of the history of the body, academic dance, and my own understanding of the body in relation to the culture from which I came (Arab culture) in relation to everything I have learned about European arts and philosophies, out of that mix a hybrid dancer and choreographer is formed, and he is searching for his expressive identity in a troubled world.
Political Body I did not chose to be aware of the political role that dance can play in a totalitarian, repressive, dictatorial regime like the one in Syria. From my first experiences I was aware of the political symbolism of the body in theatre and dance. This early awareness of this role of the body in the theatre created a tendency in me as a choreographer and dancer to work on social and political issues related to freedom, he deconstruction of the vocabulary of power, and our relationship with it. This political body was the primary motivation behind most of my solo dance work. After the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, and the war there, that body began to focus on expressing the image of the bloody and tragic war. Eleven years of death and life through dance.
Trojan Women
2023 - Trojan Women - Euripides WIPCOOP 2023 KVS Box Brussels - Work in progress. Supported by Mestizo Arts Platform/WIPCOOP.
Trojan Women - A dance performance does not focus on the emotional impact of disaster images. Eyas Almokdad, takes it further and digs into the memories of both the space and the dismantled bodies, the individuals who once inhabited the ruins, and taps into the collective memory of war victims. Almokdad seeks insights and addresses the grey zone between wars in the present and the past. A simultaneously gloomy, neutral, detailed, and flat image of devastation. An exploration of life through the ritual celebration of death.
Work Team:
Hecuba: Marijke Pinoy - Poseidon: Daniel Demoustier - Sound Design: Ioana Mandrescu - Choreography, Direction, Scenography: Eyas Almokdad
TRAPEZE
KAAISTUDIOS, Moussem cities Damascus festival, Brussels- Belgium 2019
A woman sitting on the trapeze waiting for her husband who went to war. The boredom of the endless waiting for the man to be returning home. The young wife tries to approximate the sense of loss and loneliness experienced by women in a state of war and fear of the next unknown. The soldier returns home covered in blood, the wife does not know him because of the absence of his features behind the harsh mask of war, but she did distinguished him in the end. The wife embraces her husband with eagerly for his painful appearance and this hug stains her dress with blood as well, then helps him to sit on the trapeze and begins to clean his body from the effects of the war in a ritual way as if she purifying him of those effects that are certainly outstanding in the spirit and the body.
DUST
Event ‘Breaking Barriers Together - Removing obstacles to protection’ organized by Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, KVS Brussels 2017
The dance performance Dust deals with the fate of the city of Aleppo, and counterparts from the affected cities in Syria and elsewhere in the world. Through a Syria character stand's up from the rubble of the devastated city, screaming through his body in the face of savagery, the silent world about the new massacre. Screaming in the face of isolation imposed on him, he is doomed and alone in his fate. Then the character try's to blend into a contemporary human figure, to simulate the profound solitude that experienced in the face of large events such as terrorism and extremism. The fear is a siege for movement for transmission to the cool stillness. Dust creates limited in space and movement.
I DO NOT HEAR MY VOICE
New talents dance festival at KORZO Theatre. The Hague- Netherlands 2012.
As Dance Educator
2016 - A Guest Professor of Contemporary Dance at University of VIVES - Kortrijken - Belgium.
2015 - A Guest Professor of Contemporary Dance at KUNTHUMANIORE School. Brussels - Belgium.
Once I started developing my skills as a choreographer, I sensed the synergy between dance teaching and choreography. It's required from both the teacher and the choreographer to have a deep knowledge of the dance techniques used, as well as the ability to understand the capabilities of the dancers they work with. I have worked with hundreds of performers from many disciplines, and as a trainer, choreographer and movement designer, I had to understand their abilities and use them in the best way. This developed into research through teaching dance about the technical and intellectual questions behind the art of dance, and these experiences I share with my students in an open manner, and the work is beneficial to both parties, the teacher, and the learner. My method of teaching depends on my experience in the field of improvisational dance, in addition to my knowledge of different techniques and philosophies of dance, to reach the spontaneous body that moves according to its expressive needs, in relation to theatrical techniques (scenography) and technology (Transmedia).