Aleph World Fusion Dance

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The Philosophy of Aleph

Aleph is the first letter in the proto-Canaanite alphabet – a system that led to Phoenician, Syriac, Hebrew, Arabic, and other Semitic languages. The Egyptian hieroglyph commonly transliterated as 3 is also referred to as alef, and it was the Phoenician aleph that inspired the Greek alpha.

Aleph symbolizes both a starting place and a stopping place, a place from which to begin and a place to which to return. It stands in for the number 1 in various languages, and is also the first letter of the Hebrew word "emet," which means "truth."

Related to the natural world, aleph is derived from the West Semitic word for "ox" and originally resembled a hieroglyph depicting the head of an ox. Modern Hebrew and Arabic still have the echoes of this first usage where, respectively, "le'alef" means "to train" and "aleef" refers to being tame.

Although aleph is where everything begins, it is traditionally a mark of humility as well. Civilization, perhaps, commences with the merging of language, art, and the domestication of the natural world. But domestication is not dominance when it is done correctly. It is, instead, a realization of community, a creative act that allows us to live together, and learn from each other, in new ways. In an ancient Hebrew midrash (a commentary on and interpretation of Scripture) this is symbolized, for instance, in extensive praise for aleph's modesty and unassuming nature in not demanding to start the Bible. (In Hebrew, the Bible is begun with the second letter of the alphabet, bet.)

Aleph World Fusion Dance celebrates a mixture – a community – of art and movement that finds its roots in the Middle East but realizes the way in which creative acts allow us to live together, and learn from each other, in new ways. Combining the established forms of dance from India, Java, Bali, the Middle East, and beyond, Aleph World Fusion Dance specializes in training in both the traditional forms and the respectful mixing of these forms into something unique. It is a place from which to begin and, one hopes, to return as well – guided by training, truth, and humility.