ABOUT
Rania Lee Khalil makes performances and moving image for live audiences. Her artworks reflect on the beauty and disappearance of indigenous plant, animal and human (culture)s. Her embodied art practice reflects on anticolonial ecology, third world feminism, revolution and healing. She makes lo fi videos and emphemeral dances.
Originally trained in dance, somatic movement and Butoh, Khalil brings a sense of quiet and movement to her performances and moving images. Rania is the daughter of Egyptian immigrants to the US who have since
returned to Cairo, where she also lived from 2006-2016.
Rania’s original works have been seen in places including The Judson Church, La Mama Galleria, Martin Segal Theater, Utopia Station and The Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York; Aomori Art Museum Japan, Al Ma’mal Contemporary Art Foundation Palestine, Zawya Cinema Egypt, Kiasma Museum for Contemporary Art Finland and the 56th Venice Biennale.
Rania holds a practice based Doctorate in Dance and Video from the Theatre Academy, University of Arts Helsinki, Finland.
Originally trained in dance, somatic movement and Butoh, Khalil brings a sense of quiet and movement to her performances and moving images. Rania is the daughter of Egyptian immigrants to the US who have since
returned to Cairo, where she also lived from 2006-2016.
Rania’s original works have been seen in places including The Judson Church, La Mama Galleria, Martin Segal Theater, Utopia Station and The Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York; Aomori Art Museum Japan, Al Ma’mal Contemporary Art Foundation Palestine, Zawya Cinema Egypt, Kiasma Museum for Contemporary Art Finland and the 56th Venice Biennale.
Rania holds a practice based Doctorate in Dance and Video from the Theatre Academy, University of Arts Helsinki, Finland.
Awards include Kone Foundation (Finland), CIMO foundation (Finland), Erasmus Mundus (Europe), Fund for Women Artists (US), Zebra Poetry Film Festival (Germany), Bay and Paul Foundation (US), Merce Gilmore Foundation (US), Gibney (US), New York Foundation for the Arts (US)
Rania's artistic research has been made possible with the generous support of the Kone Foundation.
Khalil lived and worked in Cairo, Egypt between 2007 and 2016. She has since returned to the stolen territories of the Lenape and Canarsie peoples in New York City, living in Brooklyn with her partner and child.
(Education) Rania attended Simon's Rock Early College of Bard and completed her B.A. at Hampshire College. Interested in healing in the aftermath of 9/11, she earned a Master's degree in community organizing and family therapy from Hunter College, New York City, with an internship and postgraduate training in the Diversity program at Ackerman Institute for the Family (to train BIPOC therapists). Rania’s work as an artist is informed by this experiential training in the overlap of personal and structural oppression / liberation.
Rania received a second Master's degree in International Performance as Research from the University of Warwick, England, before completing her practice based PhD in dance (performance and video art) at the University of Arts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy with a focus on embodied video making, somatic dance, postcoloniality and environmental justice.
Rania's artistic research has been made possible with the generous support of the Kone Foundation.
Khalil lived and worked in Cairo, Egypt between 2007 and 2016. She has since returned to the stolen territories of the Lenape and Canarsie peoples in New York City, living in Brooklyn with her partner and child.
(Education) Rania attended Simon's Rock Early College of Bard and completed her B.A. at Hampshire College. Interested in healing in the aftermath of 9/11, she earned a Master's degree in community organizing and family therapy from Hunter College, New York City, with an internship and postgraduate training in the Diversity program at Ackerman Institute for the Family (to train BIPOC therapists). Rania’s work as an artist is informed by this experiential training in the overlap of personal and structural oppression / liberation.
Rania received a second Master's degree in International Performance as Research from the University of Warwick, England, before completing her practice based PhD in dance (performance and video art) at the University of Arts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy with a focus on embodied video making, somatic dance, postcoloniality and environmental justice.