about Yaraqa
Yaraqa is a development & creative production agency, working at the intersection of art, impact, and business.
our playground
We bring together a community of professionals & organizations around dance & movement, to build works that help us shift with a world in constant motion and model - meaningful & adaptive - futures ahead.
Our mind, our body, and our context are inseparable! So by imagining more immersive & interconnected worlds, we come one step closer to making the intangible, tangible.
Since 2014, we have been designing and facilitating in-between spaces for knowledge & product development and experimentation:
1/ creative productions
Designing and producing versatile products based on dance & movement, that help re-shape our personal, social, and professional contexts: shaping the way we experience & think, work & learn, create & communicate.
2/ development programs
Facilitating diverse programs for cross-industry professionals converging around dance & movement, to enable exchange of skills & resources needed to adapt and identify new territories for growth and sustainability.
From ideation to design, production to delivery, we draw on our pillars of power to choreograph our work
[photo: micro-lab]
pillars of power
The Intelligent Body
The body knows before the mind becomes aware – it knows how it feels, what it needs, where it wants to be, whom it is drawn to…and why it is alive. This powerhouse of individual and collective knowledge asks to be awakened, and set in motion.
Motion as Catalyst
And the essence of all movement is change. But when we choose to move with awareness, we’re not only balancing and nurturing our body and mind; this momentous change within sets off positive ripple effects on every aspect of our life.
The Power of Context
Luckily our existence is not a solo act for we are intrinsically connected with one another, and with our environment. In fact, we experience the world through our body. And when we immerse ourselves in new spaces, when we activate new narratives, we are allowing ourselves to move, and to be moved in extraordinary ways.
Designed for Impact
Once in motion our intelligence has no bounds. From the simple pleasures to the lasting effects of conscious movement, our experiences become practices. They shift our grounds, change our tunes, and move us forward - personally, socially, culturally, and economically. We move because moving matters.
The Force of Collaborations
And what is sustainability without collective efforts? The potential of movement amplifies through human connections. When human minds and bodies are availed as an alliance of thinkers and makers with shared values, it is then that the pillars of powers are fully exerted.
team
Romy Assouad
Celine Sursock
Jadd Tank
Layane El Hajjar
Joanne Abi Farah
Milou Helou
We work in networks & networked creativity.
We are cross-industry professionals coming from the world of dance & beyond. Alongside us, a large network of equally diverse collaborators & partners.
board of advisors
Carole Guertler
Carole Guertler is an independent consultant in sustainable development, cultural & creative economies and media. She specialized in organisational development & capacity building, project and programme work, grantmaking and communication in the fields of philanthropy, NGO / NPO, social impact entrepreneurship and CSR. She has been trained in culture/arts, journalism/communication and NPO management/leadership; she works primarily in the Mediterranean & Middle East Region as well as in Western and Southeast Europe and maintains an international network and collaborations.
Andre Abi Awad
Since 2008, Andre Abi Awad has trained entrepreneurs and business owners from 53 countries on how to start a business, grow their ventures, and increase the value of their companies before getting investment or selling the business. He's the founder of Entreprenergy, one of the largest communities of Arab entrepreneurs, and the CEO of Digital Smarter, a customer acquisition digital marketing company.
values
Openness to new ideas
Getting comfortable with uncertainty
Collaboration as a way of working
Believing in reciprocity
Practicing “think-do”
long-term contribution
Encourage a culture of movement by making the depth and value of dance visible and accessible
Create job opportunities for movement & dance professionals in conversation with other industries
Introduce and spread dance as a vital tool for personal and collective development
Contribute to a better recognition of the dance sector as a creative sector that employs so many players and brings economical impacts on a local and national level.
