Ouroboros by Nejla Yatkin is an evening length interactive theatrical solo dance presented in the round. The dance piece resurrects and centers the ancient healing symbol of Ouroboros through personal story telling including multiple languages  English, German, Turkish and ASL, dance (contemporary and Middle Eastern dance), original composition by Shamou, song (cabaret style, sung live by Nejla) live finger cymbal/zill play, original costume by Katrin Schnabl, as well as original set design by the Delena Bradley.

From the moment the audience enters the space which is set up like a nomadic tent, they are greeted with rosewater and Turkish delights and taken through a journey to feel the life-affirming power of the ancient ritual of a gathering circle to dance, sing and tell stories. The solo dance takes the audience on a journey of memory, place, our current paradoxes and the cyclical and entrapping nature of time and culture.The dance theatre piece is also about the lost history and continued relevance of embodying nature in the form of the snake dance, about embodied feminine wisdoms past and present, and about our relationship to dance and language. At the end of the evening the audience is invited to join in a dance “after party”.

Supporters:
Links Hall Co-Commissioning Fellowship, Sybil Shearer Fellowship Award from the Morrison Shearer Foundation, Finalist Grant from the National Dance Project, DCASE Esteemed Artist Award and Dank Haus in Chicago.

Ouroboros is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co- commissioned by MECA, Art2Action, Dance Complex and NPN. More information: www.npnweb.org.

Ouroboros was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.