Aarzu

This performance is dedicated to my father, 
Kerimujiang Kuerban, 
January 3rd, 1969 -- May 30th, 2019

To you:

When the concept of death encounters the experience of death, the question I ask myself is:
Who am I? 
Would humans survive disconnected from the perception of time? What is meant by farewell if time itself doesn’t exist? 

During the creation of this performance, my father passed away from this living world without bidding me farewell, yet I know that while his appearance has changed, he is still here with me. 

Within the limitations of the living realm and spacetime, we are distant, but will remain close in spirit, his soul merging with mine. And in that spirit, I present Aarzu, dedicated to my father, myself, and you.  

When my dad passed away, I wasn’t able to think. My father’s death has transformed the concept of death as I understood it, into an immediate animal experience. A human experience, an animal experience. Now I dance to understand this empty space between death and life.  I dance for the truth hidden underneath cliché. I dance to existence itself. I dance to the vibration hovering between the question and answer. I dance to live in the past of my faith. I dance to live in the future of my imagination. I dance to answer the question of who am I. I dance to enter the gateway of death.
I shall never know and to know is to know less.
“Who am I?” I ask myself.
“See me, see you,” I dance.