Breakdance ‘battles’ between competing crews and a steep rise in the popularity of contemporary dance are fuelling a renaissance in Tunisia. Tunis, Tunisia – It is a balmy Thursday night in Tunis and the region’s coolest crowd is escaping the city centre. Headed north towards the nightlife district of Gammarth, these in-the-know trailblazers are leading Tunisia’s burgeoning cultural renaissance.
Tonight, the focus is a highly anticipated competition, a “breakdance battle”. Keep reading The venue, Lazy Club Tunis, is charmingly shabby – beer bottles propped up against walls and broken nightclub paraphernalia stacked up in corners; cracked chairs, shattered crates, a microphone discarded upon a table. By the time we reach the dance floor, compact groups have already started to form.
Onlookers are jostling on the sidelines, the beat swelling as the crowd tightens around a central point of focus. With my view partially obstructed, all I can see is the occasional arched trainer or protruding hand rising above bopping heads. These limbs quickly disappear again, cheers applauding their quick movements.
As I weave my way towards the front of the pack, I begin to understand why the audience is so enraptured. A single dancer is currently occupying the man-made stage in the middle of the crowd. He has just launched into a sequence of convoluted moves involving rapid footwork and acrobatic backflips.
Energised onlookers gradually inch closer to him. It isn’t long before.
