The Dubai Opera House

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In Dance in the Gulf 10 June 2016 I noted that "a lot of money is going into the arts as states in the Gulf seek to diversify their economies and that has resulted in the construction of new auditoriums for the performing arts. " I mentioned the Royal Opera House in Muscat which has already hosted the English National Ballet and is about to stage performances by the Eifman Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.

Next door to Oman is the United Arab Emirates. The capital of the Emirates, Abu Dhabi, already has an annual arts festival which included a performance by Carlos Acosta at the Emirates Palace auditorium on 25 April 2016. In 2008 and 2009 the Bolshoi Ballet performed Swan Lake and Giselle in Abu Dhabi.

The other metropolis of the UAE is Dubai which is just about to open a new opera house in an area to be known as "the opera district".   Two ballet companies will perform in its first season: The Russian State Ballet and Orchestra of Siberia which will dance Coppelia on the 15 and 17 Sept 2016 and Giselle on the 16 and
Béjart Ballet which will dance Ballet for Life on 21 Oct 2016 and a gala that includes Seven Greek Dances, Piaf and Bolero on the 22.

Further up the Gulf, Bahrain has a National Theatre which staged the Eifman Ballet's Anna Karenina and Giselle with Anna Nikulina in the title role last year. Qatar has an opera house which has hosted a number of dance companies. Kuwait is constructing an opera house which should open soon.

Dance in the Gulf

Along with lots of interesting news of its participation in the Patron's Lunch, a parade of its dancers and teachers in London, a pop up event in Birmingham and other activities in Leeds and Ormskirk to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday, the latest email newsletter from the Royal Academy of Dance links to an article in the Kuwait Times about Teni Matian, an RAD teacher who "helps girls in Kuwait learn to soar".

The reason I take an interest in the region is that I also blog about intellectual property and other legal issues in the Gulf. I am on the lookout for news about dance in the region because dance notations, musical scores, stage backdrops and even some props and costumes can be copyright works and dancers and musicians have the right in countries that are party to the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations to object to the filming, taping or broadcasting of their performances.

A lot of money is going into the arts as states in the Gulf seek to diversify their economies and that has resulted in the construction of new auditoriums for the performing arts. One of the most impressive is the Royal Opera House in Muscat where the English National Ballet performed Le Corsaire between 10 and 12 March 2016. Other companies that are scheduled to visit that venue include the Eifman Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. The Eifman Ballet will dance Anna Karenina (which Mel saw in Budapest last Monday) between 15 and 17 Dec 2016 while ABT will dance Giselle on 6 and 7 April 2017.

While there is a very well established national ballet in Egypt at the splendid Cairo Opera House where I once saw a performance of Act I of The Nutcracker I have not been able to find any professional ballet companies in the Gulf itself. I believe there was once a very good Iranian ballet but that has been forced underground and overseas (see Wikipedia Iranian National Ballet Company). I have not been able to discern a consensus among my Muslim friends as to whether ballet is compatible with Islam (any more than I have been able to detect a similar consensus among my Quaker friends whether it is compatible even with that faith), but ballet certainly seems to be taught to children in many Islamic countries and not just wealthy ones like Kuwait (see Gaza Ballet School 3 Jan 2016). It would be nice to think of some of Teni Martian's pupils making a career in dance.