Galactic crush

After the disaster: Beirut in music

In retaliation to decades of evil and corruption, a dancer anti-hero and her tactical support side-kick musician, will form a cheaply equipped, and loosely organized crime-fighting power-couple to exact justice! With good intentions and no experience whatsoever; they are a so-so summary of the contemporary reality in Beirut.

The events of this performance take place in aparallel universe, where in retaliation to decades of evil & corruption, a dancer anti-hero & her tactical support side-kick musician, will form a cheaply equipped & loosely organized crime-fighting power couple to exact justice! With good intentions & no experience whatsoever; they are a so-so summary of the contemporary reality in Beirut. This creation is an almost-selfish, sort-of-childish attempt to feed an uncontrollable craving for vengeance. It gazes at the act of dancing as a martial-art resistance against physical, psychological, & human-rights violations, against the violent loss of intimacy, and the scorching thirst for justice.
It re-examines the notion of fiction, in a place where an absurd reality deprived fiction of its capacity to exaggerate. Dramatized figures on stage go through a don quixotic seizure of self-proclaimed heroism facing total despair. Dark humor is a consequence of such a syndrome. The proposal also sheds a dim light on the confrontational relationship between performer and spectator.

Stephanie Kayal is a performance artist, choreographer and dancer. She lives and works in Beirut. In recent years, she has been seen as a performer in shows by different artists and companies. She has performed in Beirut, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Chile, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. NEXT presents the premiere of Galactic Crush, her second creation, slightly related to her first show, Evidence of Things Not Seen (2021), about a family haunted by the dances of their past.

Abed Kobeissy is an electro-acoustic musician based in Beirut. Having taken the Levantine buzuq as his main instrument, his music holds a local identity, without claiming any traditional or ethnic role. In 2016, he co-founded the duo Two or The Dragon with Lebanese percussionist Ali Hout. His music relies on the local urban soundscape, often tackling subjects related to family and home.