I am presenting a collection of different styles - from ancient Christian Orthodox, Ottoman Court Music, Folklore to Contemporary - being played on the OUD today, of which most I never perform in my own programs. Different expressions of one instrument.
Being on stage with the Oud, projects many ideas and images - while I don't want to be representing anything, which I could never do justice. "I am not a museum", somone once said. I rather tell about, what the Oud is to me and what it is bringing into my life, how my own life and its story relate and intertwine. How it keeps shaping me.
Ultimately I am becoming someone, I could not have been without the Oud. Stepping outside of ones known, adapting, listening, asking questions... if anything, gives you a clearer understanding of where you came from and the flaws and blind spots attached to the world you partly left, because you never can be in it, in the same way as you were in it before.
I will forever remain in the IN-BETWEEN.
I have worked on the program in spring '23. I present the performance in its original form as it was developed. A lot, too much has happened since then.
Since long I have spend time amongst Arabic friends, who trusted me with their instrument on some curious Sunday. The Oud and its music became a compass leading up to a journey with many stages in its path. The Oud, with the stories it tells, the lessons it teaches, became my constant companion and my closest ally.
This performance aims at sharing glimpses into that journey and the experiences it brought - being that a life's journey is always personal, subjective as well as universal.
THE LAST DANCE - Dominika Alkhodari
(Bird in cage)