We had the good fortune of connecting with Maha Afra and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maha, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
most people are not aware that dance is culture and history. It is not just entertainment. Dance is a vehicle for social justice, resistance, intersectionality of identities and a powerful tool for positively bringing diverse communities together, whether through participation or just observation.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art is dance, movement. Like all artists, my journey was never easy and is still not easy. I am a female, an immigrant, an Arab, a Muslim, a mother. With each of my identities comes wealth and difficulties, but also clarity and pathways to explore. I never wanted to be defined by one dance. I have always intuitively wanted to equalize dance in every aspect. My logic could not process why should I be doing one kind of dance and not another; why was there a higher form of dance which is the Eurocentric dance? What made it higher, a measure, more relevant? I saw all dance and dancers as important and equal. There is no respect or appreciation of what dance is in society anyway and then there is this awful hierarchy in the dance world, plus the body image and ageism, sexism. My dance company represents everything and everybody. This was never accepted and is still not accepted. You have to pick and choose a corner: a modern dance company, a ballet company, a world dance company, a contemporary dance company… I did not want that and still do not want one corner. Everything can be present in the same space, just like we exist in one world, one state, one shopping mall, one global place. I learned and still learning that it is ok to be different and against the standardized and prescribed, especially when the standardized and prescribed is done by supremacy and demoting, erasing the different. I do not know what I want the world to know. I am a nobody, a grain of sand that wiggles and moves to allow space for other grains of sand to wiggle and move in their own way. Eventually, we are all gone and washed out. I really think is what matters is what we do now , in the present moment. I also forgot to mention money, I have no money, I do not know hoe=w to make money.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, it all depends on where the best friend is coming from and who that person is as a human being. If they are from Mexico, then nothing Mexican for them unless they ask for it. I love long road trips. I love to take people to up North, driving PCH or South to Baja California. I hate touristic places but then when you have tourists they want to do the Disney and th Universal. For those I arrange a drop off, pick up, bus thing for them. I am more of a nature, cultural explorer. Vegas is super interesting to me because it represents the ultimate decadent artificiality and gluttony of the United States. Everything is big, fake, exaggerated, the perfect place to watch people letting go. Food is an addiction for me, but only real food made by real people, no corporate or junk food.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am dedicating my shoutout to the People of Palestine who have been undergoing genocide for almost a hundred years. To their constant resistance when everything they have have been destroyed, stolen and confiscated. I dedicate my shoutout to all Indigenous People who have endured extermination and colonization. I want to give an enormous I love you to mini me, Simy whose shining star is getting brighter and brighter every day and at many levels, personal and social. Thank you for who you are.

Website: www.mahaandcompany.org

Instagram: @mahaandcompany

Linkedin: Maha Afra

Facebook: Maha and Company

Yelp: Maha and Company

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=maha+and+company

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