Corpsdecairo

Ballerinas dancing in the streets of Egypt while being captured by photographers are creating a new art movement in the country

as two women sit talking on the step of an old building in Cairo, a young woman comes and sits between them casually. Dressed in a white blouse and a short red skirt, she couldn’t be any more different than the other two, both of whom are dressed in chador, the traditional garment worn by Muslim women consisting of a long cloth that envelops the body and head.

What she does next is an even greater contrast. She tightens the straps of her white silk shoes, which, on closer inspection, turn out to be the pointe shoes worn by ballerinas. Then she springs up with a lissome grace and leaving everyone around her spellbound, begins to dance in the old alley.

Since September 2015, this has been happening again and again in Cairo. The dancers are different and the locations vary but the purpose remains the same telling the world about the Ballerinas of Cairo project.

But Taher has a reputation for responding to all comments on the Ballerinas of Cairo’s Facebook page within an hour. And he lives up to his formidable reputation, making time at near midnight to talk about his brainchild.

“I personally love ballet and one of my favorite films is Black Swan,” he said, explaining what made him choose ballerinas as the subject of his photographic project. “Besides, I was really inspired by the Ballerina Project.”

The Ballerina Project, started about 17 years ago by New York-based photographer Dane Shitagi, combines ballet and photography to produce what he calls “the etching of a ballerina’s heart and emotions.” The growing collection of photographs, displayed on social media, from Facebook to Instagram and Twitter, has fed the viewership and kept the project alive.

Taher’s own plan was to get Egypt’s ballerinas dancing on Cairo’s old streets, creating a contrast between the graceful dancing and the “roughness” of the streets, photograph them, make videos and use social media, like Shitagi, to create buzz. At first, he was joined by fellow filmmaker Ahmed Fathy and on a morning of September 2015, the first shooting was held in El Korba, a historical area in Cairo founded in 1905 by a Belgian baron.

The first ballerina, Mariam El Gebali, came from the Cairo Opera House, a landmark in Egypt’s cultural history. Built in the 19th century to celebrate the in-