Cairo Opera Ballet Company

The Cairo Opera Ballet Company was established in 1966 and associated to the Higher Ballet Institute (Academy of Arts). The company’s members were coached by Soviet experts. The first production was The Fountain of Bakchisaray directed by Leonid Labrovsky (former director of the Bolshoy Theatre).

The Ballet Company added other great classical ballets to its repertoire, among them Giselle, Nutcracker, Pakhita, Swan Lake and Don Quixote. Later, it also took up contemporary ballets created by Egyptian composers and choreographers such as Osiris featuring the legend of Isis and Osiris and El Nil ballet.

Since 1973, the company has been performing outside Egypt starting in Moscow and Leningrad, then in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, France, Italy, USA, Tunisia, Korea, and China. In 1991, the Cairo Opera Ballet Company was integrated into the National Cultural Centre, directed by Dr. Abdel Moneim Kamel who added to the repertoire of the company his own version of Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Cinderella, Le Corsaire, Carmina Burana, Bolero, Hamlet, Malgré Tout, Zorba, Danses qu’on Croise, and The Rites of Spring.

In 1998-1999, the company participated in the production of Aida at the pyramids platform, directed by Dr. Abdel Moneim Kamel. In 2001, he successfully produced El-Leila El- Kebira. Since 2004, Erminia Gambarelli Kamel has been artistic director of the Cairo Opera Ballet Company which regularly performs abroad. There have been tours to Canada, Mexico, the Czech Republic, England, Jordan, Syria, Mauritius Island, and Japan.