ALY KHAMEES
Artistic Director, Choreographer & Performer
Aly Khamees is the artistic director of the company Below the Skin, which he
founded together with his wife Jelena Mair in Zurich in 2019 and a Tanzahus Zürich Accomplice Artist of 2024. Khamees was born in Cairo in 1986 and is a choreographer, dancer and actor. He received his training in contemporary dance at the Cairo Contemporary Dance Workshop programme curated by Studio Emad Eddin and Laurence Rondoni (2008-2011). Khamees further developed his skills as a dancer and artist by studying and working with various companies in Europe and Egypt, including Desent-Danse, Homa Company (Monkey Fish Technique), Ultima Vez. He has been a member of the International Dance Council since 2013.
Khamees uses the language of dance and performance to address social challenges and issues and engage audiences in dialogue. Through his ongoing movement research based on contemporary dance, power movement and traditional Egyptian street dance, he develops his own movement vocabulary, which he calls Bullet and Knife. He benefited from important residencies where he was able to develop his Bullet and Knife movement vocabulary and test the basic ideas for his solo piece Naslah: Pro Helvetia residency Theatre L'Octagon (2020), Covid-19 working grant of the City of Zurich (2021/22), ATLAS - ImPulsTanz Festival Vienna under the mentorship of Guy Cools (2021), Tanzhaus Zurich residency (2022), Mixed Pickles Roxy Birsfelden (2022), Brückerei Tanzhaus Zurich under mentorship of Alain Platel (2022). Respected in the dance community, Khamees dedicates himself to pushing artistic boundaries and engaging audiences through compelling choreography. Unique to his way of choreography are participatory formats, with professional and amateur dancers involved in the development of his choreographic work. Khamees is an associated artist of Tanzhaus Zurich. In February 2024, Khamees had the opportunity to work with the talented Students of the ZHdK Bachelor in Contemporary Dance in the form of a two week ChoreoLab.
His latest productions are Naslah (Tanzhaus Zurich, Das Tanzfest Basel/Roxy Birsfelden 2023), Breaches (Off Cairo Biennale Festival 2018) and The Absentee (2be Continued and DCAF Festival 2018).
JELENA MAIR
Creative Director, Co-Author & Production
Jelena Mair is the creative director of the Below the Skin company and develops the artistic concepts in collaboration with Aly Khamees. Her professional background is diverse. She studied Expressive Dance and Art Therapy at the Tamalpa Institute in San Francisco (2006), received her Bachelor in Transdisciplinary Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies (2008) and her Master in International Development, Peace and Conflict Transformation in Basel and Innsbruck (2015).
She worked as a project manager in various start-ups and NGOs with a focus on peacebuilding, social inclusion and sustainability. She is currently working for the transdisciplinary initiative School of Commons located at the ZHdK - Zurich University of the Arts. Her personal interests are in the fields of human empowerment, social change, trans-generational trauma and resiliency. She is a lifelong learner following her passions and instincts, she is an organizational architect and loves to create. Furthermore, she is a certified Resiliency Coach (Organic Intelligence®).
Already as a child she spent a lot of time at her mother's theater, around the stage she feels at home. For her, art is an important means of personal and social transformation.