“Dance and music bring people together”
Hassan Bolbol, known as Hassan Soliman Ibrahim Said, needs no special introduction in his homeland, Egypt, in the countries of Asia, North Africa, but also in some countires in Europe, such as Spain, Malta and Italy. There, he is considered a great artist who carries in his heart and in his personal path, a heavy cultural heritage, continuator and faithful servant of an admirable dance tradition.
“I felt like I was flying, I began to dream that I was dancing! I would wake up in the middle of the night, go out into the street and twist around my body. The feeling of freedom and absolute happiness when I dance accompanies me unchanged to this day”, he explains, going back to the time when his love for dance began.
At the age of 11, as a teenager, Hassan participated for the first time in a professional performance and somewhere there the path of his huge career opens, which at this stage has two milestones: his four-year apprenticeship next to the great teacher and dancer of Tanoura Starati, Mustafa Anous and his participation in the leading world-renowned dance group Al Tanoura, based in Cairo.
Success, financial independence and recognition inside and outside Egypt’s borders now accompany the young artist, who now takes the stage name Hassan Bolbol. “I wanted to identify my name with Tanoura! That was my only ambition and I succeeded,” he explains.
In 2010 at the biggest Tanura festival held in Turkey, Hassan Bolbol whirled across a distance of 7 kilometers and took to the main stage of the event for a 30-minute performance. Total presentation time 3.5 hours! With emotion, he also refers to the team he created in 2003 in Cairo. “Three hundred dancers and musicians, we gave Tanoura performances. At the beginning things were difficult, but very soon our shows were sold out”.
The difference in culture, the difficulties in communication, the prejudices that he will most likely face do not put limits on his dreams. “Dance and music bring people together.”