Following an open call in 2025, choreographer and performer Nagham Salah Othman has been invited for the residency at BUDA Kunstcentrum in Kortrijk, Belgium. Nagham’s project was chosen from a competitive pool of over 70 applications, and will premiere at the 2026 edition of NEXT Festival.
Nagham Salah Othman (1986, Egypt/Sudan) will be in residence to finalize her project, To Inhabit My Body, a performance that raises questions around aging within the professional dance field. Through an encounter with another Cairo-based female dancer in her 40s, Mona Gamil, Nagham explores her desire to reclaim age as an accumulation of embodied memories, rather than a mere number. Together, they use movement and monologues to investigate how their bodies’ physical strength endures as well as to decipher the specific qualities and emotions revealed by the experiences of their dancing body and its creativity beyond virtuosity.
Nagham Salah Othman is a choreographer, performer, and movement educator. Her practice is characterized by a deep investigation of the body as a cultural archive, blending contemporary dance with African heritage through movement. Nagham explores movement as a tool for dialogue, identity, resilience, and breaking social molds, consistently seeking to redefine the boundaries between the stage and social reality. Beyond the stage, Nagham is an educator and social activist, leading numerous workshops for refugees and local communities in collaboration with international cultural institutions.