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Philosophische FakultätTraumanet

Nora Amin

 

 

 

Short CV

Leading a career in literature, dance and theater since 1993, Nora Amin has been an active part of both the independent theater and dance scene, and the new writing in Egypt, and is considered now one of the key figures of the new Egyptian theatre since her directorial debut in 2000. She started her professional stage career as a professional dancer and a founding member at the modern dance company of the Cairo Opera House (1993/94). Then moved to work as an actress in lead roles at the Hanager arts center till 2002. In 2000, she founded her own independent theater group in Cairo, "Lamusica", and expanded her work to the international scene as well.

 

 

Publications

Fiction

  • Collections of short stories:
  • Parenthetical Phrases, 1994
  • Convex Roads, 1996
  • Episodes Of Sympathy, 1998
  • The Third Half, 2003

 

Novels

  • An Empty Pink Shirt, 1997
  • The Second Death Of The Man Of The Watches, 2000
  • Before Death, 2009

 

Non-fiction

  • "The Contemporary Egyptian Theatre: the art of claiming our right", 2001 (first methodological book in Arabic on theatre and human rights)
  • "Theatre For Change: from the internal to the external", 2007 (methodological book on biographical theatre as a tool for trauma healing and transformation with the model of the first storytelling workshop for women victims of the civil war in Sudan in cooperation with SIHA network).

  • Also produced an audio book of poetry, "The Text" in 2010, and translated fifteen theoretical and fiction books on theatre, dance and cultural studies.

 

 

Research interest

  • Analyzing trauma with a focus on women and violation.
  • Trauma transformation in relation to collective memory, identity and official history.
  • Expression of trauma as a healing medium: the verbal, the physical and beyond.
  • Performing trauma: theatre/dance as a public platform for sharing, recognizing, documenting, removing shame and re-claiming dignity.
  • Voicing the unspoken: the traumatized generations of women victims of war rapes and the ISIS model.

 

 

Degrees and awards

  • Alumni of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Vilar Institute for Arts Management) 2003-04.
  • UNESCO-Aschberg Laureat for the Center of the "Theater Of The Oppressed" in Rio De Janeiro 2003.
  • Recipient of the Samuel Fischer literary award in Germany (DAAD, Freie university and Holtzbrinck publishing group 2004-05).
  • Former Ford Associate at the Five College women's research and studies center in the USA2005 (visiting lecturer on acting, theatre department).
  • Awarded an Ibsen scholarship from “Ibsen Awards”, Norway 2009.
  • Announced by the British Council as the international young cultural leader of Egypt in the performing arts 2009-10.
  • She won several national and international prizes in writing and has contributed in founding an arts management department at the Academy of Arts in Egypt, as well as founding:
  • The cultural management academy at the Culture Wheel in Cairo (2008),
  • CASS (Cairo Acting Summer School) an independent initiative to provide training opportunities for young actors where she served as executive director 2009-2010,
  • AFIT (Alexandria Forum for independent theatre and contemporary arts) where she served as consultant in 2009-2011.
  • She is the founder of an independent project on personal storytelling, "Our Stories", for personal stories in public spaces, communities and popular neighborhoods, 2009-2011.
  • She was the artistic director of the first international independent arts festival, “JADAYEL” in 2002.
  • She taught acting and physical expression around the world and toured with her performances in several countries.      
  • Her most recent projects is "The National Project for Theatre of the Oppressed" where she trains units of Forum theatre activists all over Egypt, the team has now reached 500 activists in 30 cities and developed an Arab network of groups in Morocco and Lebanon.