Gaza’s B-boys on the beach breathe fire for extra cash
On a warm August evening, Ahmed Abu Hassira spins and twirls as he performs a breakdancing show.
Bare-chested, he adds to his act with fire-breathing in the hopes of eliciting more cash from his audience.
Mr Abu Hassira is part of the Gaza Breakdance Group – made up of men, aged 20 to 36, who honed their craft watching YouTube videos and practising on the beach.
Sand is a well-known dampener of fire as it starves flames of oxygen.
Nevertheless, it’s a perilous pastime, with performers risking serious burns and other injuries to entertain their fellow Gazans and earn enough cash to get by in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
“I know it is dangerous, especially because we don’t have any association or syndicate in Gaza to care about our hobby and sport, but we keep practising and performing because we like what we do,” Mr Abu Hassira, 36, told The National.
One of Mr Abu Hassira’s fellow performers knows the risks only too well.
Ahmed Bustan, 30, has no other source of income with which to support his two children.
He continues to perform despite sustaining serious leg and neck injuries while practising, spitting a fine mist of fuel from his mouth over an open flame to add excitement.
“We used to hold performances daily – but now, with the bad economic situation, we can hardly make one or two shows a month,” Mr Bustan said. The team makes about 200 shekels (Dh208) from each performance, meaning each member takes home about 40 shekels.
“The situation of Gaza forces us to perform such a dangerous work because we don’t have other options. Sometimes I swallow some gas, and drinking milk doesn’t help me to avoid the effects of it,” Mr Bustan said.
Gaza’s ministry of youth and sport suffers from a severe lack of cash, and the little funding it has goes to football.
As such, those with a taste for more unusual activities must join expensive clubs or teach themselves, Mr Abu Hassira said.
“I started doing gymnastics when I was 13 years old,” he said.
“I couldn’t afford any club fees, so my brother, who used to go to a running club, taught me after he saw the training of other children in the club.” Mr Abu Hassira’s experiences learning gymnastics and fire-breathing, and his struggles as a child, have inspired him to teach others.
He opened a gymnasium in 2014 to train children in the sport but was forced to close it after only four months as Gazans focused on reconstruction after Israel’s third war on the territory.
Now Mr Abu Hassira works as a trainer for youngsters at the enclave’s Al Nasser sports club.
“I want to create a new generation of children who understand well the importance of being sporty. Unfortunately, Gaza sometimes kills the spirit of being special, so I am trying to teach my students to ignore any negative reactions that could affect them,” he said.
“I received a lot of negative comments and reactions for our work and performance – but that doesn’t stop me from doing what I love to do.”