Our Voice Together Now

Our Voice Together Now is a unique dance exchange between Belfast International Arts Festival, Orient Productions (Egypt) and Sareyyet Ramallah (Palestine).

Funded by an International Collaboration award from the British Council, the project will result in three new works being presented across 2025–2026.

Palestinian choreographer Salma Ataya is developing her piece Everynothing with three local dancers in Belfast. The work will premiere during this year’s Festival at the Crescent Arts Centre.

Northern Irish choreographer and BIAF’s 2025 Artist in Residence, Michael McEvoy, has created his new piece Tá brón orm (Irish for ‘grief is upon me’) with a cast of Egyptian dancers in Cairo. It will debut at the Arab Arts Focus showcase during D-CAF (Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival) in October.

Egyptian choreographer Shaymaa Shoukry is creating a new piece called The Light Within ( نور in Arabic) originally planned to debut at Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival. However, due to the ongoing crisis in Gaza, the all-female cast is rehearsing in Cairo. Her piece will also debut at the Arab Arts Focus this October, with hopes for a Ramallah performance in 2026.

All three pieces will be seen by audiences in Belfast, Cairo and Ramallah over the next two years.

At its heart, Our Voice Together Now is about connection and supporting new talent in dance. Through these new works, artists from Northern Ireland, Egypt, and Palestine come together to create, collaborate, and share powerful stories across borders – a vital act of solidarity in uncertain times.