Abstract

Since the Barcelona Declaration - giving birth in 1995 to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnerhip/EUROMED - dancers of the two shores did realize several common projects, fostering the rise of Arab choreographers and contemporary choreographic structures and achieving through the years considerable professional growth. Its sharing with the inhabitants of the Mediterranean countries, since 1998 also through the Arab Contemporary Dance Platform, enabled the training of a new generation of dancers. Selma and Sofiane Ouissi in Tunisia, Karima Mansour in Egypt, Omar Rajeh in Lebanon are just some examples of choreographers who - having endured a difficult training process abroad, subsequently retransmitted at home - are laboriously and successfully pursuing the goal of creating a shared space for contemporary dance. Further growth prospects, though, are not rosy: while dance is considered suspiciously in several Arab countries, in recent times also cooperation with the Northern shore has been slowing down.