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Ball dancing legend remembers formative years in 1950s Amman

By Cordu N’Diaye - Nov 03,2014 - Last updated at Nov 03,2014

AMMAN — “When I first started dancing, I walked like this,” renowned ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine narrates to a classroom full of children in his award winning documentary “Dancing in Jaffa”, his head down and shoulders hunched. 

“After three months, I walked like this: “he lifts his head and shuffles across the room. 

“After six months, a bit straighter and after a year I walked tall, my head held high. I was full of confidence.” According to the four-time world champion dancer, the journey that made him the man he is today began in Amman, where “[his] eyes opened up to the world”.
Half Palestinian, half Irish, Dulaine and his family moved to Amman in 1949 after they were forced to leave their home in Jaffa in 1948. "We initially went to Cyprus hoping to return [to Palestine]", he remembers. "When that didn't work out, we went to Belfast, where my father is from but my father's strict, protestant family was not very receptive of my mother, a Palestinian Catholic. My mother's sister, who also had to flee Palestine, was in Amman so we came to Jordan."
The dancer, who moved back to the capital five years ago, remembers a very different Jordan. "When I lived in Jabal Amman in the fifties, it was one of seven hills; now there are 20 plus!" Dulaine told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

"I think the culture was quite lacking back then," he noted "people found it difficult to survive”. 

“We weren't rich but in comparison to people around us — other Palestinians who were wealthy back home but swept the streets to make a living in Amman — we did well.”

"Since then, Jordan has come a long way," he commented. "King Abdullah has brought so many positive elements of the Western world to the country in the form of foreign investments and this has had a huge impact on the culture." 

"Even 30-35 years ago, the wealth of culture that Jordan enjoys now wasn't there," Dulaine noted. 

"It has changed a lot from when I was a child. Jordan helped shape the character that led me to take up dance when I was 14, but had I not gone to England I would not have had the opportunity to become a dancer. Now there are ballet schools, concerts, music academies and art galleries... it's really wonderful." 

Nevertheless, the retired dancer admits a love affair with the “old Amman”. "I have a place in Luweibdeh now," he noted. "I bought an apartment there with my sister [who was named Amanda after Amman, where she was born] because I wanted to reconnect to the place which was such a formative part of my youth. I like the balad [downtown] because it reminds me of the hustle and bustle that was around us growing up. These are the things that come back to me when I'm in Amman." 

In 1956, Dulaine and his family were forced to flee Amman following the Suez crisis. “November 2”, he remembers. “I know the date exactly because my father picked me up from school and we were in a plane on our way to Lebanon within an hour-and-a-half. I was told that a man was killed on our doorstep — as Brits, it was no longer safe for us to stay.”
“I had a wonderful upbringing in Jordan but I feel bad for my parents,” he lamented. “We hoped to come back to Amman [from Lebanon] to reclaim our things but we couldn’t so we moved to Birmingham. My parents lost their home twice. They left Jaffa and they left Amman, carrying nothing but a suitcase.” 
Dulaine started dancing at 14, after a school friend suggested he take a ballroom class. After qualifying as a professional ballroom dancer, he started Dancing Classrooms — a programme which encourages children to dance together to overcome social barriers and conflicts — in New York in 1984 with his dance partner, Yvonne Marceau. The programme, which has extended across the globe, has a franchise in Amman. 

“I reached a point in my life where I wanted to give something back to the community. All I could do was dance so I started with that.” 

“In Jordan, the programme operates in two private schools. A few years ago I tried to bring the programme to Zaatari Refugee Camp. This is my next project. Even if I can’t get them to dance together, I want to get them to dance. Dancing changed me from a shy, refugee kid into what I am today and I want to pass this gift on to the next generation.”

The dancer is currently a judge on the Arabic version of “So You Think You Can Dance” and was keen to express his appreciation of the talent he has witnessed. “When you reflect on the fact these young people have no formal training, yet dance with such quality, such technique and to such a high standard... I’m flabbergasted!” he exclaimed. “We had so many talented dancers from Jordan who, unfortunately did not get through [to the live rounds] but I hope to see a show like this in Amman one day.”

“I feel so blessed”, Dulaine concluded “so lucky, to have the logic of a Westerner and the heart of an Arab. I love the culture of the place I grew up in, the character of Middle Eastern people that is so warm, so kind and full of such wonderfully expressive language. I am blessed to be able to walk in both shoes, comfortably.”

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