Dancing in Jaffa

Pierre Dulaine, an internationally renowned ballroom dancer, is fulfilling a life-long dream when he takes his program, DANCING CLASSROOMS, back to his city of birth, Jaffa. Over a ten-week period, Pierre teaches 10-year-old Palestinian-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli children to dance together and compete together. The film explores the complex stories of four different children, who are forced to confront issues of identity, segregation and racial prejudice, as they dance with their enemy. The classroom becomes a microcosm of the Middle East's struggle to work together harmoniously while still caught in the politics of the region and race. With the guidance of Pierre, the children, who live uneasily side-by-side, learn to dance together and trust one another. Dancing In Jaffa offers an up-close-and-personal perspective of how the future might unfold if the art of movement and dance could triumph over the politics of history and geography.