I will dance with those oak trees as long as

performance

I need a street

Empty of bloodstains,

A street that has never seen

Or known terror.

Let it be flawless, let it be flawless, flawless

Like the sex of these girls that are killed unjustly

Let it be long, let it be long, long,

Like their agony.

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Kajal Ahmad

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In Halabja, Iraq, in March of 1988, Saddam Hussein’s regime committed attacked and murdered Kurdish peoples through the use of chemical weapons, as part of the Anfal ethnic cleansing campaign. Set in a carpet store at this time, I will dance with those oak trees as long as takes us on a poetic voyage into the life of three Kurdish women, inspired by the poetry of Kajal Ahmad and the characters Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Ninsun from the world’s most ancient epic poem: Gilgamesh. Carpets, a chair, a suitcase and strings create the environment in which two actresses interpret the three different women and how they react to a violent and unstable outside world.  Accompanied by soundscapes inspired by traditional Kurdish music, this international duo uses objects, puppets, and a multilayered world of reality, dreams, memories, and visions to explore the question of what it means to be a hero when you have no other choice.