Breaking Walls Festival - Where Art Breaks Silence

When we shared our last update in May, we told you about one of the most moving moments of the 2026 Breaking Walls Festival: children from the neighbourhood in Cairo discovering contemporary performance, returning night after night, and gradually making the space their own.

This time, we wanted to take a step back and share the bigger picture of what your support is helping to sustain.

Breaking Walls Festival was founded in Cairo in 2017 with a conviction that remains at the heart of the project today: contemporary performance should not be confined to conventional cultural spaces, and meaningful exchange between Egyptian and international artists should be built through creating together.

Over eight editions, Breaking Walls has transformed places that were never designed as theatres into spaces for performance. Aqueducts, bridges, gardens, libraries, historic buildings and other public spaces have become stages, allowing audiences to encounter contemporary dance where they already are, often outside the cultural institutions where this work would usually be seen.

The scale of that journey is now significant. Since 2017, Breaking Walls has reached more than 10,000 audience members across six Egyptian governorates. Across its programmes, it has presented more than 100 live performances, screened 129 dance films, worked with 415 dancers and performers, engaged 843 programme participants and delivered 35 workshops. It has brought together 34 international artists from more than fifteen countries and 60 Egyptian artists.

But the numbers tell only part of the story.

At its heart, Breaking Walls is built around three principles: exchange, experience and professional opportunity. International and Egyptian artists meet as collaborators rather than as host and guest. Audiences encounter performance in places that are part of everyday life. And every edition creates paid, credited opportunities for Egyptian artists and crew.

This approach has taken different forms over the years. During the pandemic in 2020, for example, Breaking Walls created short “flash performances” in neighbourhoods, on bridges, in cafés and even in the desert, bringing performance to people rather than asking them to gather. In 2021, workshops brought together migrants and Egyptians, including children, with many participants going on to perform for the first time. And in 2023-24, the festival's largest edition to date created more than 100 paid engagements for artists and backstage crew.

Breaking Walls has also created a platform for an art form rarely given space in the region. Launched in 2021, Breaking Walls Dance Films is the first and only festival in Egypt and the region dedicated to dance on screen. Five editions have now screened 129 films, with recent programmes bringing work from countries including Tunisia, Malta, Hungary and Indonesia to Egyptian audiences.

After eight editions, the ambition remains both simple and demanding: to make contemporary dance a living public art form in Egypt, one that can be created, experienced and supported beyond a small number of institutions, while connecting Egyptian artists with the international field on equal terms.

As we begin looking towards the next edition in 2027, your support through GlobalGiving helps Breaking Walls continue that work: creating artistic collaborations, supporting artists and creative practitioners, engaging communities, and preparing the partnerships and production that make these encounters possible.

Thank you for helping Breaking Walls keep taking art beyond expected places, and creating new spaces for artists and audiences to meet.