Nora Amin has been a resident of Berlin since 2015, where she is a mentor at the LAFT/PAP (Performing Arts Program/Berlin) and at Flausen+Bundesnetzwerk. An expert on theatre of the oppressed, critical pedagogy and dance/performance, Amin is also an author, performer, choreographer and theatre director. She founded both the nation-wide Egyptian Project for Theatre of the Oppressed and its Arab network, and as founder and artistic director of Lamusica Independent Theatre Group, she directed, choreographed and produced 40 productions of dance, theatre and music. Amin is currently a member of the steering team of the future Dance Mediation Centre in Berlin and board member of the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute. Her latest publication is “Tanz der Verfolgten” (MSB Matthes & Seitz, 2021), an attempt to decolonise the history of Baladi dance from a feminist perspective, linking patriarchy with capitalism and racism.
What is your professional focus?
My focus is on critical discourse in general, and more specifically in connection with dance and the performing arts. I work with the theories of critical pedagogy and the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” as well as the Theatre of the Oppressed. I also focus on the criticism of racism and the feminist perspective in performance and trauma healing in my activities.
What potentials do you see in the certificate course “Artistic Interventions in Cultural Education” for your specialist field?
It offers opportunities to present the marginalised cultures within education, to shift from the Eurocentric vision towards a vision of equality in which all forms of culture and creative expression can be addressed equally, as well as to acknowledge the diverse and marginalised audiences and communities who need to be present with their histories and experiences within all forms of cultural education so that they become equal partners.
Which changes are needed at cultural policy or education policy level to strengthen the potentials of cooperation with artists for Cultural Education in Germany?
We need a cultural policy that not only addresses diversity, but is diverse in itself, and is made by diverse perspectives that are able to redefine the present reality of German society and envision a future of equality and plurality. For this we need a new pedagogy both in cultural policy and in education policy which no longer incorporates eurocentrism or a hierarchy of knowledge or origin.
Nora Amin at “Artistic Interventions in Cultural Education”
Nora Amin is taking part in the course framework as a lecturer in Module 2: “Theoretical concepts and discourses”. If you have any queries or are interested in cooperating, you are welcome to contact zertifikatskurs [at] uni-hildesheim [dot] de