Away from War, Syrians Find Their Rhythm in Ballroom Dancing

Couples dance at a club in Damascus, Syria, June 13, 2022. For the participants, ballroom dancing is a form of release, finding their rhythm in music away from their country’s many social and economic pressures. (AP)
Couples dance at a club in Damascus, Syria, June 13, 2022. For the participants, ballroom dancing is a form of release, finding their rhythm in music away from their country’s many social and economic pressures. (AP)
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Away from War, Syrians Find Their Rhythm in Ballroom Dancing

Couples dance at a club in Damascus, Syria, June 13, 2022. For the participants, ballroom dancing is a form of release, finding their rhythm in music away from their country’s many social and economic pressures. (AP)
Couples dance at a club in Damascus, Syria, June 13, 2022. For the participants, ballroom dancing is a form of release, finding their rhythm in music away from their country’s many social and economic pressures. (AP)

One, two, three, stop. Five, six, seven, stop: A group of young Syrian men and women step, sway and twirl to the backdrop of salsa music, dancing their worries away.

For an hour a week in a Damascus studio, their instructor Adnan Mohammed, 42, teaches a class the basics of Latin dancing, helping his students forget the troubles of war - if even briefly.

"They come out a different person," Mohammed says.

For his students, ballroom dancing is a form of release, finding their rhythm in music away from their country’s many social and economic pressures. For that one hour, they push Syria's 11-year war from their minds, the politics, the anxiety over the economic crisis and the country's constantly depreciating currency.

"They put that energy aside and they start to be optimistic," Mohammed added. "I believe we are giving them the energy to stay in the country. Now there is a reason for them to stay."

Syria’s war, which erupted in 2011, has killed over half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. With the military help of allies Russia and Iran, Syrian President Bashar Assad has managed to crush the armed uprising against him except for a few areas that remain outside of government control.

For the past several years, conflict lines have been largely frozen, but the war has wreaked unfathomable destruction on the country. A severe economic crisis has set in, with many barely managing to make ends meet.

Mohammed, who opened a dance school 15 years ago, says people still kept coming to his classes throughout the war. But the biggest blow was when the coronavirus pandemic shut everything down, even his studio.

With pandemic restrictions now mostly lifted, students have returned to class, looking for a brief respite, a temporary escape.

"People are exhausted nowadays, we can sense a lot of frustration," said Yara Zarin, an engineer who’s also an instructor at the Dance Nation school, where Mohammed teaches.

Zarin explains that the school's goal is not to have their students disconnect from reality but to provide the space where, for "an hour or two ... you can be yourself."

The dance schools offer classes during the week but also dance parties. Small gigs and performances have made a comeback in the country recently, particularly in Damascus.

Last month, a techno dance party organized at an abandoned cement factory just outside Damascus attracted hundreds of youngsters. Complete with a laser show, music and dancing, it was one of the biggest such events since the war started.

Ballroom dancing schools were popular before the war among some segments of society, including three large schools in Damascus that have withstood the war.

For student Amar Masoud, the dance classes are a "breath of life."

"Sometimes, I end up missing classes because I have to work," he says. "But I still try as much as possible to" come to the school.

Mohammed, the instructor, has a second day job to keep up with expenses. He pleads for government support, to help bring back dance to a more organized setting and to how it was before the war. He dreams of representing Syria in international events.

"There needs to be a federation created just for dance so that this can be like before the war, where we would go and represent Syria in Arab and Asian countries," he said.

For Maya Marina, 30, dancing is a desperately needed outlet from war and hardship for her.

"Music takes us to another world," she says. "Here I blow off steam, it’s a respite from the pressures, the anger, the difficulties."



Egypt, Greece Agree to Protect Status of Mount Sinai Monastery

A general view of St. Catherine's Monastery in South Sinai, Egypt, March 7, 2019. Picture taken March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
A general view of St. Catherine's Monastery in South Sinai, Egypt, March 7, 2019. Picture taken March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
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Egypt, Greece Agree to Protect Status of Mount Sinai Monastery

A general view of St. Catherine's Monastery in South Sinai, Egypt, March 7, 2019. Picture taken March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo
A general view of St. Catherine's Monastery in South Sinai, Egypt, March 7, 2019. Picture taken March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany/File Photo

Greece and Egypt have agreed to safeguard the status of one of the world's oldest sites of Christian worship, foreign ministers of both countries said late on Wednesday, after an Egyptian court ruling last week cast uncertainty over its future.

The St Catherine's Monastery, at the foot of Egypt's Mount Sinai, was founded in the 6th century and is the oldest Christian monastery still in use for its original function, says UNESCO, which has listed the area as a World Heritage site, Reuters reported.

Revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, the monastery is at the site where by Biblical tradition Moses received the Ten Commandments.

But last week, an Egyptian court ruling seen by Reuters ordered Orthodox monks to vacate several plots of land that the monks have used for years, including vineyards and gardens adjacent to the monastery compound, on the grounds that they were illegally sequestered, prompting a diplomatic flurry between Cairo and Athens over the site's status.

"We agreed in the immediate future to work towards safeguarding the rights of the monastery, as well as its legal status," Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said after meeting his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Cairo.

"Both Egypt and Greece intend to move forward based on the long-standing tradition and the already established status of an emblematic monastery for its Greek Orthodox character of worship".

Abdelatty said that the ruling preserves the monastery’s profound spiritual value and religious standing, and confirmed that the monks would continue to have access to and use of the monastery and its religious and historical sites, according to a foreign ministry statement. With a long history of diplomatic ties, Greece and Egypt have deepened cooperation in recent years.

St Catherine's is a sprawling complex, and according to tradition it was built around a burning bush where God was said to have spoken to Moses as described in the Book of Exodus. Its library is one of the most extensive worldwide, containing some of the world's earliest Christian manuscripts.