Abdel-Halim Caracalla

Background

Abdel-Halim was born in Baalbeck, Lebanon in 1940.

Career

Growing up in Baalbeck, he watched Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dance, listened to the music of Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald, and finally went to London in the 1960s to study dance with choreographer Martha Graham. Both children work with Abdel-Halim with the Caracalla Dance Theatre. In 1970, he founded the Caracalla Dance Theatre, aiming to bring "a new language in dance with a style based on the amalgamation of the Western and the Oriental.".

Achievements

• Abdel-Halim was also Lebanon"s champion pole-vaulter.