This performance will demonstrate how the body responds to and transcends encounters with digital art/NFTs. This newer form of art is itself a manifestation and product of the world we have created off ground – the metaverse. The improvisatory dance contrasts the carefully curated selection of artworks that evoke emotional richness. The accompanying discussion enables audiences to see what bodily responses to NFTs can look and feel like.


Performance by:

Elizabeth Stott graduated from Utah Valley University with her Bachelor’s degree in Dance, with an emphasis in ballet in 2012. She danced there with Repertory Ballet Ensemble, performing and working with a wide variety of choreographers. She began choreographing while in school and competing in choreography competitions like the Choreography Design Project in Utah Regional Ballet and the National Choreography Intensive put on Regional Dance America. In 2013, she moved to UAE where she began teaching and training young dancers. She joined Sima Dance Company in 2019

Rei Kassandra Co is from the Philippines and she started her training with Sima Dance Company at the age of 9 years old. Her training includes Ballet, Pointe, Modern Jazz, and Contemporary Dance. The Company gave her an opportunity to dance as a professional when she was 12 years old during the Al Qouz Arts Festival and Fujairah International Arts Festival in 2018. Aside from the training that she got from the company, she attended various training from various artists from different countries visiting Dubai. Currently, she is teaching hip-hop, Contemporary dance for beginners, and is one of the lead artists of Sima Dance Company.

Lama's first language is music - she translates real life experiences through singing and songwriting. Singing in both English and Arabic, she finds beauty in the different ways each language can be used to express. That form of expression lives beyond ‘songs’. She envisions her music through art projects - and the songs she writes are just one execution of a bigger and deeper topic, living alongside different forms of artistic expression. That being said, lama took part in an eclectic number of performances, such as Rhyme with Sima Dance Company in both Sima Performing Arts and NYU Abu Dhabi, Art for Palestine in Alserkal Avenue, Art Dubai, and during Quoz Arts Fest 2022 with Volte Art Projects.

Sima Dance Company was founded in Damascus, Syria in 2003 by a choreographer Alaa Krimed, known for his unique works in the region. After noticing a void in the Arab contemporary dance landscape, he took the first step towards filling that gap, aspiring to expose the Middle Eastern audience to the art of contemporary dance. Alaa Krimed’s productions were performed in Damascus Opera House, Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts and various theaters in the region. In 2012, Sima Dance Company moved to Beirut and founded a dance studio there. The studio focused on promoting Arab contemporary dance in Lebanon by further developing the skills of aspiring professionals and qualified dancers. The Company’s efforts were awarded winning the title of Arabs Got Talent in 2014, the Arab version of the international show, produced by MBC. In 2015 the company relocated to Dubai and opened its own space Sima Performing Arts in Alserkal Avenue in 2017. Since then, Sima Dance Company has successfully collaborated with main cultural institutions of the UAE.

NFT curation by:

MORROW Collective is an NFT curatorial platform founded in March 2021 by Claire Harris, Anna Seaman and Jen Stelco. MORROW collective builds the bridge between traditional art and crypto art by hosting virtual exhibitions of individually curated single edition NFT artworks and linking collectors to their physical counterparts. Comprising a team of professionals with deep experience in traditional contemporary art, cryptoart, curation, editorial, marketing, communications and technology, MORROW provides a premium service for existing galleries and artists. MORROW collective are owners of multiple gallery spaces across the most sought after and exclusive Metaverse platforms and collectors with an extensive portfolio including some of the world's leading crypto artists.

Discussion led by:

Anna Seaman who is an arts writer, cultural journalist and independent curator who lives and works in Dubai. Anna is an experienced editor and has worked on several prominent publications. She is also co-founder of MORROW collective, an NFT curatorship dedicated to bringing fine art into the crypto space.

Vamika Sinha is an arts and culture writer, poet, and photographer based in the UAE. Originally from India and Botswana, she holds a B.A. in Literature & Creative Writing from NYU Abu Dhabi and is the co-founder of Postscript Magazine. Her interests include cosmopolitanism, jazz studies, contemporary feminist novels, and cultural criticism through media and the visual arts. Vamika's work has been published in The National, Canvas, The Bangalore Review, and Wasafiri, among others, and she was the first writer-in-residence at Bayt Al Mamzar, UAE. Find her on Instagram @vamika_s or under her street photographer moniker @foodqueenhoney.