Cairo Opera Ballet Company

Cairo Opera Ballet Company
General information
Name	Cairo Opera Ballet Company
Year founded	1958; 66 years ago (1958)
Founders	Tharwat Okasha, Leonid Lavrovsky
Principal venue	Cairo Opera House
Senior staff
Chief Executive	Erminia Gambarelli Kamel

The Cairo Opera Ballet Company is the resident ballet company of the Cairo Opera House and a ballet school affiliated to Egypt's Higher Institute of Ballet. Its foundation began in 1958 during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser through the efforts of Tharwat Okasha, Egypt's culture minister at the time, and Leonid Lavrovsky, the former artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, who took a group of Egyptian dancers to Russia for two years of training.^[1] At the time of its founding, it was the only Arab resident classical ballet company in the Middle East.^[2] The Company director was Enayat Azmi.^[1]

With a ballet school established, the company staged its first ballet production, The Fountain of Bakhshisarai, at the Khedivial Opera House in 1966. Nasser himself attended the ballet and awards were presented to the company's management, lead dancers Abdel Moneim Kamel and Aleya Abdel Razek. The company performed a full range of ballets from the classical ballet repertoire including Don Quixote, Paquita, Giselle, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire and Scheherazade. In 1969 the Company hosted the Royal Ballet for a performance of Swan Lake at pyramids in Giza.^[1]

The destruction of the Khedivial Opera House by fire in 1971, followed by President Anwar Sadat severing Egypt's ties with Russia in 1972, led to a serious decline of the company. The company and its ballet school had a resurgence following the construction of the new Cairo Opera House in 1988.^[2]

Since 2004, Erminia Gambarelli Kamel has been the company's artistic director. Trained at the La Scala Theatre Ballet School, Kamel joined the Cairo Opera Ballet Company as a principal dancer in 1982.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2015-06-08). The Encyclopedia of World Ballet. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-4526-6.
^ ^a ^b Abouissa, Mona (2 February 2013). "Ballet in Egypt enjoying an unexpected resurgence". The National. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
^ Shawkat, Nabil (10 August). Costume gallery". The National. Retrieved 6 May 2015.

External links

Official website
Bar'el, Zvi (4 June 2013). "Cairo Opera presents: The rite of the Arab Spring". Haaretz
ElDin, Dina Salah (16 June 2013). "Burning Down The House: Artistic Freedom Under Fire In Egypt". NPR
Metwaly, Ati (14 March 2013). "Requiem for a danseur noble: Abdel-Moneim Kamel". Al-Ahram

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Europe	Académie Royale de Danse Central School of Ballet Royal Danish Ballet school Elmhurst Ballet School English National Ballet School John Cranko Schule La Scala Theatre Ballet School Lviv State Choreographic School Moscow State Academy of Choreography The National Ballet Academy of Amsterdam Perm State Choreographic College Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance Royal Ballet School Royal Swedish Ballet School Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet
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Other	Tokyo Ballet K-ballet Cairo Opera Ballet Company Higher Institute of Ballet Australian Ballet School Beijing Dance Academy Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts The Music and Ballet School of Baghdad