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'AMEL APPEARED TO ME TO BE THE AUTHENTIC GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER
OF THOSE PROUD DESERT WOMEN, NEVERTHELESS PERFORMING AS A
MODERN WOMAN WHO SEEMS TO HAVE SPANNED THE GENERATIONS AND
COMBINING THESE DIFFERENT WORLDS TOGETHER'
Suriya Ilse in HALIMA Magazine, Germany
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BACKGROUND AND IDENTITY
Born in Algeria, AMEL TAFSOUT (means "Hopes of Spring") is an accomplished well respected international dancer and choreographer of North African MAGHREB DANCE, a story teller, a singer, a language instructor and a dance anthropologist. She is the Director of "The TAFSOUTETTES" Company.
She is an experienced and charismatic performer, who has developed international reputation as someone with great spirituality.
Fascinated by dance since childhood, Amel is versed in dances both new and old from her native Algeria as well as a multitude of ethnic/tribal/folk dances from neighboring countries. She strives to break down barriers between different worlds, specially the East and the West .
Her work draws on ritual and traditional dances from the Maghreb and the Middle East, Africa and Cuba: areas where spirituality is part of daily life. Her research focuses on rituals in Maghreb dance and her work is characterized by a very passionate and spiritual approach to dance: a search for a great harmony between BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT and the awareness of the Human Being as the Medium between Mother Earth and the COSMOS.
Amel is also a well respected storyteller. She works in schools with children from different backgrounds, and teaches them to perform a story or a dance piece.
Migration has been a constant theme in her work and daily life. Combining all the styles of the traditional artist, her creativity reflects the life of immigrants in foreign countries and in particular of the Arab-Berber women. Amel speaks at least 4 languages and is as brilliant and fascinating to talk to, as she is to watch dance. She grew up among the finest traditional dancers and musicians of her country.
In her early twenties she emigrated to Germany where she founded a successful Pan Arabic dance group: BANAT AS-SAHRA (Daughters of the Sahara Desert), a company which was instrumental in dismissing Western prejudices about Arab women and bringing Arabic dance culture to Europe.
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SHOWS AND WORKSHOPS
1987 Amel's arrival in London: teaching and performances in the U.K, Europe and the U.S.A., at various festivals (e.g. W.O.M.A.D.)
1988-1989 Collaboration with the Latin Jazz band 'CHAKCHOUKA'
1989-1993 Active member of ORCHESTRE MAMBO DUNIYA
1990 HARAMBE-AFRICA African Festival in New Castle, U.K.
1991 SANS ETIQUETTE Festival, as part 'the Arabic Women's week, at the I.C.A (London), and the 3rd Oriental Dance Festival Frankfurt/M (Germany)
1992 Active member of the Music Band NOOR SHIMAAL (Northern Lights) as a dancer and singer
Dance Festival, Copenhagen (Denmark)
1993 Pontadarwe Folk Festival with NOOR SHIMAAL
1994 Oriental Dance Festival (Finland)
1995 'AFRICA 95' (London)
1995-2002 On going performances and workshops at 'Die Orientale' Festival in Dusseldorf (Germany)
1997 'SALAM' first festival of Islamic culture in Glasgow and first 'Algerian Carnival' in October 1997 at The Watermann's Arts Centre, London, with SALADIN'S ORCHESTRA
Festival 'WOMEN AND TRADITION' (Multi-Culti) with the legendary Queen of RAI Music: Cheikha Remitti, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (London)
1998 Performance at the Pashas and Poets Gala at the British Museum, London, in presence of Her Excellency AGHA KHAN
Dance collaboration (DUENDE) with the well known Flamenco dancer Rosario and the Indian Kathak dancer Jayashree in the U.K.
1999 Performance of 'SILENCE' and Master Classes at the GLASTONBURY DANCE FESTIVAL
'Nur El 'Ain' (Seeing the Light) in Zurich (Switzerland)
Coinstreet African festival WOZA in London
2000 Performances and workshops for WOMAD in Reading (U.K.), Las Palmas (Canary Islands) and at The GLOBAL SPIRIT, at the Barbican (London)
2 months tour in the U.S.A. and shows, workshops, lectures, story telling at the well known American OASIS DANCE CAMPS
2001 Performance of "NAWAR" (Blossom) with SALADIN'S ORCHESTRA and her company "THE TAFSOUTETTES" in Germany
Special guest at MENDOCINO MIDDLE EAST MUSIC AND DANCE CAMP in California, U.S.A.
International Week in Kiel, Germany, and in Vienna, Austria
2002 "MEETING THE TRIBES" Festival in Florida
Special Guest in Texas, and at MENDOCINO MIDDLE EAST MUSIC AND DANCE CAMP
2003 "Femmes d'Alger dans leurs Appartement" show at "DIE ORIENTALE" Dusseldorf,Germany
"MAJMA" Dance festival in Glastonbury, UK
"MADN" 10th Anniversary in Buckingham, UK
Shows in San Diego and Arizona, U.S.A.
Shows at the "ARAB HORSE festival" in Wellington,U.K.
Conference "CULTURE, ART AND IMMIGRATION" at the "Haus der Kultur", Berlin, Germany
Show and workshops at MENDOCINO MIDDLE EASTERN MUSIC AND DANCE CAMP, California, U.S.A.
2004 DIE ORIENTALE , Dusseldorf, Germany
ORIENTALIA, Festival in Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
Work as a choreographer in PEACE IN THE HOUSE show, Minneapolis, Minesota,U.S.A
MENDOCINO MIDDLE EASTERN MUSIC AND DANCE CAMP, CA, U.SA
Workshops in Austria, Germany, the UK and the U.S.A.
Majma' Dance festival , Glastonbury, U.K.
2005
DIE ORIENTALE, Dusseldorf, Germany
NORTH AFRICAN DANCE CONFERENCE, Ithaca, New York, U.S.A.
TRIBAL EXPERIENCE, Bavaria, Germany
Work in the UK, Germany and Ireland
BERBER CONFERENCE, University of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A
CENTRAL ASIAN DANCE CAMP and show at the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, Washington DC, U.S.A.
USUL AL ANDALUS (Roots of El Andalus), Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
MENDOCINO MIDDLE EASTERN MUSIC AND DANCE CAMP, CA, U.S.A<.br>
TRIBES OF DORIS, Devon, U.K.
OASIS DANCE CAMP North and West, U.S.A.
ARAB DANCE SEMINAR, New Heaven, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Shows with the Pan-Arabic choir ASWAT
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DANCE & MUSIC
She has worked with various well-known performers and bands: Die DISSENTENTEN, 3MUSTAPHA3, HASSAN ERRAJI, CHAKCHOUKA, MAMBO DUNIYA, NOOR SHIMAAL, ORCHESTRE Z'MAAN, and lately SALADIN'S ORCHESTRA, ALI SLIMANI, CHEB ABDELKADER , the very well know Algerian piano player: Maurice EL MEDIONI and Georges LAMMAM.
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MEDIA
Amel TAFSOUT has been featured in 'THE LATE SHOW'' (BBC2), 01 LONDON', 'OPEN SPACE' (BBC), MBC (Middle Eastern Broadcasting), LWT, CHANNEL 4 in PER4MANCE and a variety of European TV programs.
2001 started for Amel with a feature on the first page of THE INDEPENDENT of Sunday
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DANCE ROOTS AND MEANINGS
The Maghreb (North Africa) has always been a crossroad of different cultures, a gate between the West and the East, the North and the South: Where Africa meets the Orient.
North African people are ARABO-BERBER people with various backgrounds including Amazigh (Berber), Arabic, African and Mediterranean elements.
Music and dance are associated partly with Middle Eastern culture as well as Arabo-Andalusian elements of Medieval Spain and partly with Berber and African elements.
The musical contents was transmitted from the Baghdad of the 'Abbasid Dynasty and its 'Golden Age', to the surviving 'Umayyad Emirate in Cordova with which the musical scholar Zyriab identified.
The aspects of the development of the dance focus on various specific Maghreb communities. Firstly among Imazighan (Berber) people in the mountains such as Djurdura, Ahaggar and the Aures in Algeria, the Rif and the Atlas in Morocco as well in the South such as Matmata in Tunisia, in Libya and Mauritania; and lastly in the Northern cities where highly sophisticated Andalusian 'Moorish' dances are to find.
The dance is both a public and personal expression, rich in symbolic dimensions that deal with universal constants in nature: planetary movements and their influence; fertility of Mother Earth; and the Communication between the Earthly and the Divine. Maghreb Dance is about contact with Life and Nature, where the woman represents Nature and the man the Human being.
In Berber regions women's singing accompanies any kind of work, such as the Harvest. Festivals provide the opportunity to see dance and singing as a Unity. Traditional Berber dances are mostly ritual dances. Originally they were a magical act, in order to obtain the fertility of the Mother Earth or the rain .The worshiping of a Divinity or a Spirit of Nature was used in order to gain its protection.
City dances have existed since the Moslem Moors were expelled from Andalusia. The dance and singing focuses on Improvisation. They are associated with Andalusian elements of medieval Spain.
Amel Tafsout is currently using her expertise to lead highly successful master classes for students from different backgrounds such as Arab, European and Latin American and American women and children, disabled children, elderly people, dance and music students, actors, singers and performers.
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DANCE & CREATIVITY
Her performance 'AS SAFAR' (The Journey) composed by the Master Drummer and ethno-musicologist SALAH-DAWSON MILLER dealt with the theme of Immigration.
Her dance performance: 'MIFTAH AL KAHINA' was a tribute to the Berber and Devin queen and to Algerian women.
She performed her piece 'AR-RIYAH' (Winds) in the USA and the U.K. as an expression of the ancient and contemporary.
Her performance 'KHAMSA' (The Hand of Fatima) was about dance as a healing form.
Her other pieces are 'NUR EL AIN' (Seeing the Light), 'SILENCE', 'THE GARDENS OF LIGHT' and 'The BLUE FLAME' were a tribute to the Mysticism of SUFI masters and KHALIL GIBRAN.
- NAWAR'
- FEMMES D'ALGER DANS LEURS APPARTEMENTS'
- USSUL EL ANDALUS'
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LECTURES
- 'AL KAHINA, THE BERBER QUEEN OF THE VII THE CENTURY', at S.O.A.S. (School of African and Oriental Studies in London) for The SOCIETY OF ALGERIAN STUDIES, at the School of Oriental Studies, Oxford University and At the Berber conference at the University of Portland , Oregon, U.S.
- 'ALGERIAN WOMEN' in Europe and the U.S.A.
- 'SUFISM AND SUFI MASTERS' in Germany and Switzerland
- 'SYMBOLS AND TATTOOS' in Europe and the U.S.A.
- 'COSTUMES' in Europe and the U.S.A.
- 'WOMEN WITHOUT MEN' (about professional female performers) and Europe and the U.S.A.
- 'NAYLIYAT, THE DESERT DANCERS' in Europe and the U.S.A.
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PUBLICATIONS
- 'North African WOMEN'S WRITING' in the 'Guide to Women's Literature' (Bloomsberry Press, London, 1992)
- 'Les Femmes Algeriennes' and 'The schooling of Algerian girls' (Bulletin of Francophone Studies, Westminster University, London)
- 'Nayliyat Taenzerinnen' and 'Azriyat: Women without Men' in TanzOriental Magazine, Germany
- 'Cheikha Remitti' in Habibi Magazine, U.S.A.
- 'Oasis of Discovery' and 'Healing Hands' in Mosaic Dance Magazine, U.K.
- Introduction to the Middle Eastern dance and music for the Rough Guide, 2002, UK
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VENUES
In London: Chisenhale Dance Space, Jackson's Lane, The I.C.A, The Commonwealth Institute, The French Institute, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The South Bank, The Barbican, SOAS, The Oval House, The British Museum , etc.
In Europe: Germany,Swizerland, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Spain, Italy, etc.
In the U.S.A.: Michigan, Minnesota, California, Florida, Oregon, Washington, Texas, New York, Connecticut, Washington D.C., etc…
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