Backstage, Swan Lake, Cairo Opera House dress rehearsals

Shushas class at the Ballet Academys temporary home

Hosni Mubarak, as well as building bridges, also supported the State Ballet

Aleya Abdel Razek remembers her time as the swan queen

Security is tight backstage at the Opera House, directed by army officers

Stress position, a punishment for forgotten dance steps

Winter storm in Alexandria, home of Egypts oldest surviving Opera House

Hani Hassan, prima dancer, with his students

Prima ballerina Ekaterina left the USSR for Egypt, and stayed

Childrens duet. It takes 9 years to make a ballerina

The old ballet academy

Ballet school roof. Do you know hip hop?

MiG 21, another relic of Egyptian-Soviet ties

Opera House Studio. Not everyone is chosen for the Opera House Company

Many Egyptian dancers stop dancing after marriage, so the Company uses some foreign ballerinas

The late Abdel Moneim Kamel, former student of the Bolshoi and ex-chairman of the opera house