Dancing in Jaffa

Dancing in Jaffa is a documentary film (released last year) by Pierre Dulaine who  is a well-known ballroom dancer and dance instructor. In the film he travels to Israel to teach ballroom dancing to 11-year-old Jewish and Palestinian Israelis with the idea that dancing with your enemy will dissolve political and cultural differences. For the Arab children they are not raised to touch people of the other sex and some of their parents were against this idea. The kids in the film started out mistrusting each other, not wanting to touch each other, but later became friends. A film follows a few kids home to show you what their home life is like. It's an interesting film that gives you a glimpse of what life in Israel is like. It's one of the most heartening films I've watched because it shows how tolerance can be forged between communities who have historically viewed each other as enemies. You can find it on netflix.



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