My PhD (Reading 2017) focused on a dialogical, collaborative and self-reflexive re-mapping of the relationships between the concepts of Orient, Europe and female Oriental ‘Other’, looking through the prism of belly dancing. In my durational PhD performance titled ‘Dis-Orient Express’ I invited participants into collaborative remapping of the binary opposites of ‘Coloniser/Colonised’, ‘Man/Woman’, ‘Orient/Europe’, punctured by the occasional throwing of pomegranates inspired by the mythical journey of Persephone.
During the six hour performance, audience was drawing and writing in the central area of the performance space. This collaborative drawing performance was an opportunity to question and deconstruct the power dynamic between the opposing concepts of ‘Coloniser/Colonised’, ‘Man/Woman’, ‘Orient/Europe’.
