In her debut exhibition in the United Arab Emirates, Egyptian artist Sara Tantawy explores a language she came upon while undergoing dance and movement therapy a few years ago. Survivors, a collection of 12 realism paintings of women in dancing stances, is the outcome of this experience and is now on display at the Fann A Porter gallery in Dubai till February 10. It is the second body of work by the artist in her investigation of the historical background of group belly dancing and movement as a means of expressing sadness, resiliency, and joy.
The artist, 29, who received a fine arts degree from Helwan University in Egypt in 2017 adds, “I started investigating this subject when I attended a dance and movement therapy course to deal with my personal trauma and prior experiences. I discovered that dance has been utilized for therapy and expression for millennia, and I wanted to look in particular at its origins in Egyptian culture,” according to the National.
“Throughout history, dance has been utilized to honor, celebrate, and lament on every occasion. It has always been ritualistic and communal.” Tantawy acquired knowledge of the belly dance tradition from traveling performers in ancient Egypt. She sought to grasp how a dancer’s moves and seeks to capture the meaning of shapes, colors, clothing, nature, and moods.
“The paintings show dance as a medium to explore your feelings. You can show your pain, your happiness, your anger and your contentment without saying anything at all,” she says. For instance, the artist used circular canvases to represent eternity in the Dancer At Silver Centre series of three oil paintings. The model, a friend of the artist, poses in the paintings while wearing a white dress and a golden waist belt that Tantawy fashioned herself.
Two other stretched canvases have dancers dressed in full-length royal blue gowns; the patterns and brushstrokes are reproduced in these works. “In dance, colors have a lot of symbolic importance. I looked into the symbolism of it in Egyptian culture and modern movements. For instance, white and blue are associated with the Nile River, a significant body of water in ancient Egypt. White also stands for glory and peace.
In contrast, Salvation features two women posing on a boat while tall grass rises in the background and water flows beneath them. In the picture, the women are gazing upward in hope of good fortune. Tantawy, a resident of Cairo, has previously displayed her work at a number of large-scale group exhibitions, such as the Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in 2018 and the Beijing International Art Biennale in 2019, the Luxor International Painting Symposium in 2020, the Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale, where she won an award in 2021.
After hosting her first solo exhibition, Silent Weeping, Tantawy was noticed by Ghada Kunash, the creator of Fann A Porter, at the Egypt International Art Fair. Tantawy’s first UAE exhibition was commissioned by Kunash, who claims they are constantly looking for young Egyptian artists like her who are motivated by personal experiences and infuse intention into their works. Kunash contacted Tantawy via Instagram.