Alexandria – Mohammed Al Masry
Twenty female and male dancers of different nationalities or “Dancing Breeze” crew caught attention in Alexandria streets through silent dancing and steady moves with no music. People reacted with their dancing differently, some people were curious and others were upset.
They presented their first performance on May 6 at Corniche El Bahr road in Raml Station area in Alexandria. Their goal was to introduce their art to people, and to make people react to it especially after, it was limited to close places such as the opera.
“Dancing Breeze” festival started its 7th session in May 4 and ended in May 12, coinciding with the Egyptians celebration of Spring Festivals. On the first day, they presented “Wild Landing” dance in front of Amir Cinema by dancer Olivier Dubois, one of the top 25 dancers in the world then, the shows moved between Museum of Kavafis, Al Mansheya Center Garage, Assi Mim Station, French Institute, Corniche El Bahr, Fouad Street, and El Morsi Abu El Abbas Mosque.
Representative of “Dancing Breeze” festival’s producing company, Yassmin Hussein said that, the festival is cooperation between Alexandria governorate, Ministry of Tourism and the European Union, and its main goal is to attract audience to attend the main show accompanied by music in wider places rather than streets and stations. She added that, the festival is held in May every year, and this year festival was unique because of the European artists participation such as, Olivier Dubois who trained 20 Egyptian dancers to present a Russian dance that was first displayed in France 100 years ago.
The dancers actually dance on music played through headphones but the astonishment comes from their moves amid noise and crowding. The festival focus of dancing and rhythmic design but, it was developed to include different artistic performances that combine artists, workers, passers and residents.