What a stunning spectacle is Suhaila Salimpour’s “Sheherazade.†The show opened last night in NoHo at the El Portal Theater. Everyone with a pulse should go see it. I love a dance show, but this is not your mother’s “Nutcracker.†Sheherazade is an inspired and devastatingly beautiful retelling of the ancient tale, as the audience is invited to sit in for the sultan and spend an evening delighting in the ‘male gaze’. Normally for me, maleness is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Suhaila’s movements are so seductive, so calculated to make the viewer want to possess her which arouse odd and conflicting desires to conquer and to cherish.
The first book my father gave me was a lavishly illustrated edition of “Arabian Nights.†The story of Sheherezade always frightened yet fascinated me. The concept of telling stories to save my own life became a mythological blueprint for my own womanhood. Life on earth has always been exceedingly difficult for women, then and now. How do we cope? I believe it is about sharing our struggle, so that the burden can be lifted for a moment of unity, and from then on we can make the arduous journey together. My father might have been trying to prepare me for the world. “If you want to survive, talk.†Outside of the gender politics of “Sheherazade,†the show is a masterful work of unrestrained brilliance. The supporting dancers each bring their own identity and special beauty to Suhaila’s choreography, treating each arm wave and hip articulation like a lover, and Suhaila’s own dancing is nothing short of sublime.
Collectively they are an undulating, pulsating church of the female body. Even though the harem is extinct, we still have our own immobilizing forms of slavery to contend with, and part of our emancipation has to do with worshiping the female body instead of exploiting it. This show is an important step toward gender equality, which could not be said for “Riverdance†or “Lord of the Dance†or any other show where a bunch of white people are in a line. The only thing I regret is that there are so many beautiful things happening on stage at the same time, I wish I had a compound eye, like a fly, so I could see them all at once. “Sheherezade†is a feminist triumph, combining history, mythology, spirit and sensuality with killer moves and beautiful girls. They also play the big ass zills!