“Many are condemned to starve for lack of bread and many more for lack of embraces.” Eduardo Galeano When we started working on our performance Embraces which was presented in the most intimate space at the Syrian Opera House in 2018, we focused a large portion of its choreography on all types of embraces between bodies: warm and cold embraces; embraces of yearning and sadness; and those with the need for security and reassurance, reconciliation and forgiveness, encouragement and success, loss and grief, triumph and joy; embraces that absorb anger and release tears, and those that simply satisfy the pure desire to embrace. Back then, it did not occur to us that this intimate act, this simple expression of what we feel and want to share with others, could one day expose us to the danger of a lethal illness. We never thought that our next performance might not allow the live participation of the audience whose embraces warm our hearts backstage and by the theatre door. Today, we live in a reality where we suffer the loss ... Read more