3rd Body Residency - April 11th - 24th 2022
The Houston Metropolitan Dance Center is excited to welcome and play host to Nora Alami & Jadd Tank co-directors and creators of 3rd Body, April 11th - 24th.
Nora and Jadd’s residency at the Houston Metropolitan Dance Center will be the fourth residency in a series of many to come. So far, 3rd Body has been supported by the New York City Artist Corps Grant, residencies at BRIClab, JACK, & The Petronio Center, in which we began building out the simulations and sections that will make up the 3rd Body universe. HMDC is honored to be a part of the development of this work. We hope to see you at one of the 3rd Body public engagement events. #yaydance
Nora and Jadd will welcome audiences to HMDC through two public engagements.
Photo Credit: Toby Tenenbaum
In addition to these two in-person events you are also invited to follow their journey on instagram @jadd_tank and/or @noralami. You can also further support their project by visiting their Kickstarter Campaign.
Nora and Jadd
Nora Alami & Jadd Tank are co-directors and creators of “3rd Body”. Carving their place in the creative economy as performers, directors, and creative producers - they joined collaborative forces in 2018 while performing as featured choreographers in the Focus on Mediterranean Choreography series in Italy. Jadd Tank, a Lebanese American artist, has toured with Maqamat Dance Company, Michelle Ellsworth, and Cristina Goletti. Jadd has choreographed music videos of Vladimir Kurumilian, Mashrou’ Leila and for feature films Marjoun & The Flying Headscarf (2019) and Amsterdam to Anatolia (2019). Nora Alami is a Moroccan-American dance artist who has been awarded 2022 Resident Artist at Triskelion Arts, Alliance for Artist Communities’ Diversity + Leadership Fellowship, and New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Choreographic Residency. Collectively, “3rd Body” has been supported by the 2021 JACK Residency, 2021 BRIClab: Performing Arts Residency, and the Rest and Restore Residency at The Petronio Center.
With Jadd Tank based in Houston and Nora Alami based in Brooklyn, it is important to them both that the development of this work takes place both in New York and in Houston. Being 3rd Culture Kids themselves, they believe in the importance of bridging between various dance communities and industries that otherwise may not have connected. This residency of 3rd Body will be the first one to take place in Houston, with the space grant provided by the Houston Metropolitan Dance Center.
Photo Credit: Toby Tenenbaum
Nora Alami
(Choreographer and Creative Consultant) deconstructs and integrates historically disparate dance forms. Navigating the overlap between her Moroccan and American heritage, her work builds performative contexts that investigate the embodied experience of colonization and identity politics. In flux between fluidity, tension, awkwardness, and discomfort, Nora presents evocations that are dramaturgical, conceptual, and in ritual. Her tools: radical acts of permission-giving, intentional displacement of cultural vantage points, and multidisciplinarity braiding.
Her choreography has been presented at the Center for Performance Research, New York Live Arts, International Center of Photography, pOnderosa, Colorado College, and Movement Research at Judson Church. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, River to River Festival, and toured internationally at the 2018 Focus on Mediterranean Choreography platform in Castiglioncello and Spoleto, Italy.
She has been awarded the Alliance for Artist Communities’ Diversity + Leadership Fellowship, New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Choreographic Residency, and Miguel Gutierrez’s Landing 2.0. Nora is a 2021 JACK Resident Artist, a 2021 BRIClab: Performing Arts Resident Artist, and a recipient of the 2021 Rest and Restore Residency at The Petronio Center. She is the 2022 Resident Artist at Triskelion Arts. Currently, Nora collaborates as a dramaturg for Medusa: A New Musical, on the Steering Committee for FAILSPACE, and as a creative consultant supporting the arts. @noralami
Jadd Tank
Jadd Tank’s passion for choreography and dance lies in the exploration of boundless possibilities in which objects, bodies and events relate to each other: the spaces we create and the identities that spaces create for us. Nurtured by the cultural intersection of Lebanese and Midwestern traditions, Jadd approaches contemporary performance art and creation with an aesthetic that reflects a versatile mélange – Mediterranean culture, dramaturgy, architecture and postmodern movement techniques.
Jadd Tank’s recent work includes Glimpses of a Future by Yaraqa (as a creative producer, choreographer, and performer) - now available on Netflix - and the digital videos at the Dubai World EXPO 2021 Lebanese Pavilion (as a choreographer and product design lead).
In addition to touring and performing internationally for award winning choreographers such as Michelle Ellsworth, Alias Guilherme Botelho and Maqamat Dance Theater, Jadd has choreographed for stage and film including director Susan Youssef’s feature film Marjoun & The Flying Headscarf (2021 Academy Award Consideration), Music videos of Vladimir Kurumilian & Mashrou’ Leila, and the digital works of Design House T Sakhi and Dubai-based director Dei El-Ayoubi.
Jadd is a Creative Producer and is currently the Product Design Lead at Lebanon-based Social Enterprise YARAQA.
See more of his work at www.jaddtank.com or @jadd_tank