emirates man
apr/may 2015
| FEATURE | GAZA It is also the world’s most isolated B-boy crew. There are no teams 86 I
for them to battle against, foreign crews are not allowed to enter the strip, and no international companies will sponsor them. Even the other three elements of hip hop culture – rap, graffiti and turntablism – are all but absent, with only a handful of practitioners scattered across the occupied territory. n a similar fashion to other proponents across the Arab world, the crew upholds the original tenets of hip hop cul- ture by promoting unity, peace, love, truth and respect, although as a western form of expression within a conserv- ative Arab society, it hasn’t been easy. Community scepti- cism, isolation, despair and the destructive forces of war have all formed barriers, with the group’s original training
space – a rented dance studio in the central Gaza Strip – bombed and demolished during the war of 2008-2009. Perseverance, however, led them to successfully crowdfund for a new dance centre in 2012, and it is within this centre that Ahmed now sits. “It’s easy to get upset and for my crew members to get upset, be-
cause sometimes the community is not paying any attention to us and to our dancing. The world, too,” says Ahmed, who is also known as B-boy Shark. “We were in touch with companies like Red Bull – because they organise B-boy events around the world – but they ignored us. Do you know what they said? They wanted us to go to Israel. They wanted us to have a battle there and to join the interna- tional competition. I told them, ‘Do you know that I can’t even get out of the Gaza Strip and go to Jerusalem?’ They think we can just get into a car and drive to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, like it’s no problem. It is not like this. We live in a giant prison.” For Camps Breakerz, breakdancing is a form of release from much
pressures that include more than 50 per cent youth unemployment. It is also a demonstration of capability and flair, which many of those living within Gaza City initially believed inhabitants of the camps did not have, according to Ahmed’s brother, Mohammed Ghraiz. It is one of the reasons why he es- tablished the crew 12 years ago. “We wanted to show the people of Gaza City that the camps do have talent and skill, because some people in Gaza City believe we are uneducated and closed-minded,” says Mo- hammed. “In the beginning we used to dance in a small sports club where we hid ourselves, improving our levels and think- ing how we should spread this new culture between the com- munities of Gaza. Our dancing became mixed with drama and
“Dancing is inside me but every dancer will never be complete. I need to learn and this is what frustrates me about our situation in Gaza”
art in order to explain ourselves better to the people. This way we be- came connected with the community.” That connection goes deep. The crew, which numbers nine,
teaches children dance and carries out workshops with NGOs, while it recently sought funds for another academy in northern Gaza, with its Indiegogo (a crowdfunding site) target of $7,500 reached a few days before the campaign closed on February 26. With the money it plans to open a dance centre in Shuja’iyya in the northwest of the Gaza Strip, one of the areas most devastated by last summer’s war and the scene of the Battle of Shuja’iyya, one of the bloodiest con- frontations of the war between Israel and Hamas. “We believe they [the children] need to dance and learn to focus
DANCING TO A
DIFFERENT BEAT Palestinian dancers take part in a break dance competition in Gaza last year
on art, peace, and love so they forget the awful memory of war,” said the crew on its Indiegogo fundraising page. “We also believe that es- tablishing a dance academy for children there is the best solution.” The crew’s goals are to establish dance academies across Gaza and the wider Middle East; to create exchange programmes with break- dancers around the world; to spread equality and women’s rights in Gaza; and to build an international network called Dance Gaza. For the B-boys, dance is a means of escape. Last year the group
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