Category Archives: Blog

Sometimes I laugh, weep sometimes; sometimes I fall, rise sometimes.

Messiah, in my heart, I bear;
and I, the infirm, whirl…

— Rumi

This morning, I taught a Sufi whirling class in Beirut. It’s always exciting to see new whirling dervishes take flight. Whenever I start my morning with whirling, the rest of the day flows right along…

Thanks to this mention of my NYTimes adoption essay in the Brown Alumni Magazine, I’ve been hearing from old friends from Brown all week…

When I was surveying the ancient city of Persepolis in Iran, I photographed as many of its exquisite reliefs as I could for my teaching and research…

Today in Lebanon, the Beqaa town of Ain al-Jawze was hit with rockets fired by the Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigades. Last night, rockets landed in the towns of Labwe and Nabi Osman–and a Syrian army helicopter shelled Arsal.

Today in Beirut, I spoke on a faculty round-table centered on performance, pedagogy, and the history of theatre in Lebanon from the civil war to the present. It’s a conversation we’re hoping to continue in the months (and years?) ahead…

When I was visiting (living and dead) Sufi teachers in Sudan this winter, this Sufi shrine in the middle of the desert was one of my favorites.

A spiritual teacher is not a true teacher unless he possesses twelve qualities. Two of these qualities are from the attri­butes of God the Most High. They are to hide the faults of man and the rest of creation, not only from others, but even from themselves and to have compassion and forgiveness for even the worst of sins. Two qualities are inherited from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ — love and gentleness. From Hadrat Abu Bakr, the first of the four Caliphs, a true teacher inherits truthfulness, honesty and sincerity, as well as devo­tion and generosity. From Hadrat ‘Umar, justice, and imposing the right and preventing the wrong. From Hadrat Uthman, humility, and staying awake and praying while the rest of mankind are asleep. From Hadrat ‘Ali, know­ledge and courage…

— Sheikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

Mansion
With Bérengère Valour, Marie Lise Naud, Marie Papon and Sandra Iché
May 5th-10th
6:30 pm – 8 pm

We will be happy to welcome you at Mansion for a week of dance evenings, open to mixed levels. This workshop takes place in the frame of an exchange between Mansion and LIEUES, an artistic place in Lyon, France. Sharing our box of tools, we would like to invite you to share a precious time of listening, a time to dance and play together, a time to transform space and time, being present at the moment. We will begin the classes with a collective warming-up. Starting from simple anatomical ideas, we seek to bring the movement nearer to our imagination and to reach a playful state. Through exercises based on the body, the breathing, the consciousness, and through games with the others and with the space, we will explore gestural, rhythmical, and spatial territories. Borrowing tools from dance, martial arts, theater, music, improvisation, we will involve our bodies in differents experiences to find our “own dance”.

An increasing demand for housing and services in Egypt is putting archaeological sites–such as Giza–at risk…

Despite the decrease in bombings in and around Beirut, passenger traffic at the airport was down fourteen percent in March…

Today in class, my students and I discussed this temple relief of the lion god Apedemak with Queen Amanitore and King Natakamani–Meroitic rulers who ruled in the second half of the first century CE…

Today in Beirut, my students and I discussed several ancient queens from Meroe. One of these queens, Amanishakheto, is featured in the video below. Although the video gets a few facts wrong, it’s still worth a watch…

When excavating this winter in Sudan, I surveyed as many desert temples as I could. This splendid kiosk at Naqa is one of my favorite ancient structures in Africa…

On my way home one day from work in Sudan, I ran into this group of girls walking home from school. Since they saw me carrying a camera, they asked if we could take a photo together…