FJK Dance Unveils 2025 Season
The season will feature three works that challenge cultural narratives, reclaim space for marginalized voices.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz May. 15, 2025
FJK Dance, a contemporary company committed to fostering powerful cross-cultural dialogue through dance and visual art, has revealed its 2025 season, June 17-18 at New York Live Arts. Led by Artistic Director and Iraqi refugee Fadi J. Khoury, the season will feature three works that challenge cultural narratives, reclaim space for marginalized voices, and explore themes of identity, survival, and connection.
The 2025 program includes a bold reimagining of The Dying Swan, a solo reinterpreted through an Arabic lens that subverts the original narrative of fragility and suffering. In this version, Khoury brings his own life experiences to the forefront—living through four wars and being displaced from home— transforming the piece into a powerful statement of survival and self-assertion, performed alongside Palestinian musician Zafer Tawil on Oud. MOVE, a signature work that weaves contemporary ballet, ballroom, and Middle Eastern dance, embodies Khoury’s dual identity as both a classically trained dancer and a Middle Eastern artist — an Iraqi refugee who is also a US citizen and a New Yorker — with rhythms driven by Lebanese percussionist Said Mrad. The program concludes with the world premiere of TO HEART, a multimedia work inspired by Rumi’s poetry that explores the many facets of love from a Middle Eastern perspective. Through live music, calligraphy, live painting, and projections, Khoury invites audiences into a heart-centric space, blurring the lines between tradition and modernity.
"This season is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit," notes Khoury. "I want to show that our stories are not defined by suffering alone but by the beauty and strength we create in the face of it. Maybe The Dying Swan isn’t a delicate woman in white pointe shoes. Maybe it’s a bearded Arab man in black, standing firm against the tide. It’s about reclaiming space, taking up room, and reminding ourselves that even in the darkest moments, we are still here — and we are still dancing."
Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Fadi’s life has been marked by profound displacement and survival. A first-generation refugee immigrant, he lived through four wars in Iraq and the bombardment of Lebanon before seeking refuge in the United States. In 2003, he watched his childhood home burn on television—a haunting reminder of what he left behind. For Khoury, dance was never a luxury; it was a lifeline. As a child, he entertained fellow refugees in bomb shelters, using movement and art to lift spirits and remind them of beauty amidst destruction. Today, as the Artistic Director of FJK Dance, he continues to use art as a form of resistance, transformation, and hope, creating works that invite audiences to reimagine narratives of survival, identity, and connection. The company’s commitment to healing through art extends beyond the stage with its Artist-in-Residence program at NYC Health & Hospitals // Kings County Brooklyn. Since 2018, Khoury has been using dance, painting, and multimedia installations to counter the tension and stress experienced by healthcare workers and patients. The initiative, supported by the New York State Office of Mental Health, underscores Khoury’s belief in the power of art to foster empathy and connection in challenging spaces.
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