nasa4nasa is a dance collective from Cairo, founded in 2016 by dancers Noura Seif Hassanein and Salma AbdelSalam. The collective's work, primarily hosted on Instagram, explores image-making and online presence as their ongoing dance practice.
nasa4nasa’s debut performance, SUASH, premiered at the Next Festival and MDT (2018). Recently, they received an award from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture for their latest work, Sham3edan (2023).
nasa4nasa is part of MOUSSEM STAGES 24 with the performance, NO MERCY, and the performance talk, Sham3edan.
No Mercy navigates through our daily virtual and non-virtual ways of feeling. During this 45-minute DJ set, nasa4nasa explores the boundaries of sensuality and desire in interaction with violence. The two female bodies navigate the external gaze while referencing their repertoires of body images, pop, anger, and intimacy. nasa4nasa draws you in, disarms you, and unravels itself in its own drama.
Sham3edan الشمعدان is a new project by nasa4nasa, set to premiere in 2024. In this creation, Noura Seif Hassanein and Salma AbdelSalam embark on a historical research journey into the Shamadan dance (Candelabra Dance) and its evolution in 19th and 20th century Egypt. They explore the transformation of the meaning and significance of this dance within its socio-political context.
In Sham3edan الشمعدان, they create, along with nine female dancers, an extended choreographic installation that examines the shifts in value of the apparatus carried by the female bodies.
The sonic landscape, crafted by sound artist Ismail Hosny, enriches the sounds generated by the devices in the space. This reveals the power structures within a performance that showcases both playfulness and violence, while simultaneously creating new realms of imagination.
