‘Arabs Got Talent’ winners to build for the future
▶ Mayyas’ Nadim Cherfan tells Saeed Saeed of his plan to set up a new dance studio in Beirut
The Arabs Got Talent grand finale on Saturday was not so much a victory for Mayyas as a statement of intent. Not long after the all-female Lebanese dance group, which has more than two dozen members, was announced as the winner of the televised competition, group leader and choreographer Nadim Cherfan said he wanted it to be a rallying cry for Lebanese society.
It was not lost on him that Mayyas are the first Lebanese act to win the show, which has now completed its sixth season. “This is something we are all very proud about,” Cherfan said. “With Lebanon being a small country and with a small population compared to others, this proves to us that many people from all over the Arab world voted for us because they liked what we presented. This shows that it is our art that made us win and nothing more. We are very proud of that.”
But Cherfan hopes Mayyas’ victory will inspire people much closer to home. While he was happy with the support the Lebanese authorities gave to his dance troupe, which included a special hotline being set up to allow locals to cast their votes, he said more help was needed to change his compatriots’ attitudes towards dance.
“What is lacking is the support of families and the people that are close to you,” he said. “Some parents still think that dancing is not a career and that it cannot take you to big places. They can’t see that dancing is really beyond all these things. Dancing is life and it is something that is really beautiful.”
Mayyas was created seven years ago from a series of dancing classes held across Beirut. Cherfan said his school grew steadily over the years to include a number of age groups, involving both men and women. The decision to compete on Arabs Got Talent with an all-female group was not simply because of the dancers’ talent, with Cherfan also determined to prove a point to sceptics across the Arab world.
“I still think that many people in the region are not comfortable or used to seeing women perform dance on stage or on television,” he says. “We wanted to do that, but in an artistic and refined
way. I wanted to show people how much effort, hard work and sacrifice it takes to achieve such a performance. And I want to thank each and every one of the girls individually for their hard work and for putting up with me.”
Not that dancer Christelle Fakhri was about to complain. The Mayyas member, 24, told
The National that all the hard work the group put in was worth it. “We prepared for five months simply to get ready for the audition phase,” she said. “We had a couple of classes a week. It was hard, but it was a lot of fun at the same time.”
All that hard work was certainly rewarded in Saturday’s finale, when their performance was applauded by the show’s celebrity judging panel. “I don’t mean to be in any way disrespectful to the show, but in a way you guys are bigger than this programme,” one of the judges, Egyptian actor and comedian Ahmad Helmy, said after their performance.
Mayyas comprises a large number of dancers, whose ages range from 13 to 25. Fakhri described the group as a family, with Cherfan at its head. She said the dancers learnt a lot from him, but he was also responsible for fostering a positive atmosphere among the group that carried them to victory in the final. “He is a teacher first and foremost,” she said. “We learn a lot for him. He is very knowledgeable and he is also precise. He treats us as though we are his sisters and this is where the family atmosphere of Mayyas comes from.”
Cherfan said that spirit would form the foundation of a new dance studio in Beirut, which he would build using the group’s cash prize of SAR 200,000 (Dh196,174). He said he would allow Mayyas to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation to revel in their success, before the focus would turn to rehearsals and their next step.
“I only view Arabs Got Talent as the beginning. And this doesn’t apply only to us as winners, but to everyone who took part in the show,” the choreographer said.
“The programme opened the door to all of us who took part and it’s now time for all of us to work hard and continue on our path.”
MBC, which broadcasts the show, has confirmed that
Arabs Got Talent will return for a seventh season, with an option for another one after that. MBC spokesman Mazen Hayek said that the next season would be broadcast in the last quarter of next year, or early 2021.
Some parents still think that dancing is not a career and that it cannot take you to big places ... Dancing is life and it is something that is really beautiful NADIM CHERFAN Choreographer