The odalisques awaken, take ownership of their bodies and their choices, and generously invite us to share a space of sensations and emotions with them. In Turn On, Swiss–Moroccan dancer and choreographer Soraya Leila Emery uses her dual cultural background as a prism to explore the experience of female pleasure. She is joined by artists Léna Sophia Bagutti Khennouf and Donya Speaks, who also grew up between two identities. Drawing on various physical practices—from dance to martial arts—as well as on orientalist representations, they question perception, gaze, and consent. In a shifting, playful space, constantly reshaped by light and sound, where they move both alone and together, each performer asserts her presence with strength and gentleness. They free themselves. And, somehow, they free us too.
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Biography

Soraya Leila Emery is a Swiss–Moroccan choreographer and dancer based in Zurich. She graduated in contemporary dance from CFPArts Geneva in 2014 and from SEAD Salzburg in 2017, before completing a Master’s degree in choreography at ZHdK Zurich in June 2024.
Her work centres on the theme of female pleasure, seeking to define what pleasure is and translate it into a choreographic score that reimagines narratives surrounding female sexuality, bodily autonomy, and empowerment. She approaches pleasure from a feminist perspective, and her research reflects on the preservation and transmission of cultural identity as well as the representation of the Arab female body.

In 2023/2024, she was an associate artist of TanzPlan Ost and created the piece Turn On. In 2025/2026, she will be an associate artist at Tanzhaus Zürich, where she will premiere the solo Coming Soon in March 2026.