Lebanon comes to Oman: Caracalla brings new show to Muscat

As the Royal Opera House Muscat launches its 2017-18 programme, Abdel-Halim Caracalla's iconic dance company closes this season in style

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It is no exaggeration to call the Caracalla Dance Theatre one of the Arab world's most significant artistic success stories. Growing from a one-man passion project to a mammoth globetrotting dance troupe, the company's eccentric and eclectic mix of styles has remained a constant bubbling presence on the dance circuit for almost half a century.

In the late 1960s, Abdel-Halim Caracalla returned to his native Lebanon after studying dance under the tutorship of famed American choreographer Martha Graham at the newly inaugurated London School of Contemporary Dance. From this wealth of international dance knowledge the Caracalla Dance Theatre soon grew, laid upon foundations intended to bridge stylistic and cultural gaps between Europe and the Middle East. As Abdel-Halim's son and the company's principal director Ivan puts it, Caracalla uses "the alphabet of Western technique to interpret Oriental movement," and it does so to impressive effect.

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