Dancing with the ‘enemy’

By Karin Kloosterman August 13, 2014, 1

Pairing up Jewish and Arab children for ballroom dancing turns suspicions into friendships, and leads to an award-winning documentary.

Bringing together 11-year-olds from opposite poles.

 Photo by Nurit Mozes

Whether it’s the cha-cha, tango, or a simple twirl around the school gym, Arab and Jewish kids in Israel are connecting through dance.

The idea to bring together fifth-graders from opposite poles came from Miri Shahaf-Levi, a former dancer, after she saw the movie Mad Hot Ballroom about dance instructor and former ballroom dancing world champion Pierre Dulaine, 70, and his work with inner-city kids in New York.

Nine years ago, Shahaf-Levi traipsed to New York City with the mission of bringing Dulaine, now retired, to Israel. She knocked on his studio door and was met with an exclamatory “Alain, wa’asalam!” an Arabic expression equivalent to “shalom” that’s often heard in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

It turns out that Dulaine was born in Jaffa in British Mandatory Palestine, before Israel became a state, to a Catholic Palestinian mother and a Protestant father from Ireland. When he was four, they moved to Jordan, and later to England.

Dulaine speaks Arabic, French and English, but knows only a few words in Hebrew.

He does know of the incongruities of living in Israel firsthand and told Shahaf Levi he’d go there under one condition: “If you will find me Jewish and Arab children who can dance together.”

Shahaf-Levi, who worked for the government’s Culture Ministry and also as an adviser for the Israel Prize committee, let the idea percolate over the next several years. About four years ago, she arranged Dulaine’s visit to Israel. “I called him and told him that I’ve opened the window. Now it’s your turn to come over and open the door,” Shahaf-Levi tells ISRAEL21c.

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