Dancing in Jaffa

               I don’t know how many people would see ballroom dancing as a way to bring peace to the world, but world renowned ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine does.  He believes that teaching people to dance with one another will break barriers.  This is especially true with children.  Mr. Dulaine proved this with his work in New York City schools.  In the documentary Dancing in Jaffa, Mr. Dulaine takes the same principals he used in the United States to his birthplace in Jaffa.     

                In Jaffa, Israel there is a big divide between the Jewish-Israelis and the Palestinian-Israelis.  There is years of animosity between the two groups and Mr. Dulaine is determined to bring it to an end.  He decides to teach five different groups of children at five different schools to ballroom dance and then bring them together into a competition.  This means children of the opposing sides will have to learn how to dance with each other.  Accomplishing something like this will not be easy.

                The first hurdle Mr. Dulaine encounters is getting the boys and girls of their own schools to dance with each other.  They are at the age where touching someone of the opposite gender is a very uncomfortable experience.  Mr. Dulaine spends a lot of time getting boys and girls paired up as they keep wandering off to try and be with their same gender friends.  Once Mr. Dulaine is able to accomplish the pairs, he has to get the boys and girls to actually touch each other.  Most try to hold hands and dance with their shirt sleeves over their hands so they won’t actually be touching.  Eventually the kids work it out and they interact with their partners as they are supposed to in dancing.  That is they do until they encounter the kids from the other schools.  Then it is once again they do not want to touch each other when they are paired with someone who is from another school and culture.  Mr. Dulaine has zero tolerance for this and dismisses anyone who will not follow the rules and dance as is expected.  Not wanting to touch someone who is different shows a lack of respect and understanding which is exactly what Mr. Dulaine is here to fight.

                After the schools have been introduced to each other, Mr. Dulaine selects who from each school will be contestants in the dance competition.  There are a limited number of kids who are allowed to compete and Mr. Dulaine’s choices are a bit controversial.  If I am to go by the complaints of one of the girls, Mr. Dulaine did not necessarily pick the best dancers for the competition.  Since Mr. Dulaine’s true mission is not a dance competition, I would not at all be surprised if this was the case.  One of the girls Mr. Dulaine chooses is Noor, a girl no one wants to dance with.  She is different from everyone else in her school both culturally and familial.  This causes her to struggle a lot, but once she is chosen for the competition, Noor starts to find herself and belong.        

                I will be honest, the actual competition confused me.  To my understanding the pairs were going to be made of kids from different schools.  Yet, somehow one school could win over the other.  How this worked did not make sense to me, but I may have missed an explanation of the set-up and rules along the way.  In the end how the competition worked didn’t really matter.  The point of the competition was to bring these kids who previously led very separate and different lives together for a common goal.  In pursuit of that goal they gained respect for each other and became friends.  One case may have even sparked a romance.  Partners Lois and Alaa got along very well.  They went to each other’s houses and Alaa took Lois on a boat ride.  I do not believe this would have ever happened had it not been for Mr. Dulaine and his ballroom dancing.

             I so greatly admire what Mr. Dulaine is trying to do with children through the use of dance. The world would be so much better off if there were more programs like his to bring people of all ages together, but it’s going to take the efforts of more than just one man. One of the reasons I believe the program was so successful in Jaffa is because of the willingness of the schools to let it in. They could have refused and let things remain as they were, but they didn’t. One woman (I apologize I do not know her name or whether she was a teacher or the principal) was especially supportive of the program. She constantly emphasized respect and hard work to all her students. Even when the class was over, she held her students longer to practice more. According to the notes at the end of the film this program is ongoing in Jaffa and I would not be surprised if this woman were a driving force behind that. It is what I think it’s going to take to have everlasting peace in this world. We need people determined to teach and show respect to others no matter what their backgrounds may be. If people were to do this, we would find that we’re not so different after all. Even if we find this is not the case with someone, as it does sometimes happen, there is nothing to say we cannot be friends anyways. As long as there is respect between people, anything can happen.