Prestige interviewed Mr Pierre Dib, to know about his academy and the evolution of dancing in Lebanon.
© Nameless Dance Academy
Your academy was established 20 years ago, how do you face competition today? Our Dance Academy was established in 1994 and the opening was on Valentine’s day February 14th. I have trained 95% of the existing teachers in Lebanon and started the teachers training in Lebanon since 1986; and that is after I left Canada where originally I was trained and won the Ontario Canadian Championship in Latin & Standard in 1980.
Since we have a big academy that offers all types of dancing such as; Ballroom, DanceSport, social, Hip Hop, Street Dance, Oriental, Pro-Am national and international, and of course all types of dancing for Kids, we feel we don’t have a competitor in Lebanon as far as academy. However, we do enter dance competitions in all types of dancing like DanceSport, Pro-Am, Hip Hop, Street Dance etc…
What are the most appreciated dances by the Lebanese? Which classes do they choose mostly? Today in Lebanon everyone is for dancing Salsa, Oriental, and Hip Hop. However since some dance programs started airing on TV, Ballroom (Pro-Am) dancing became more popular.
Do your students participate in international competitions? And did you get any awards? Of course, we have attended many national and international dance competitions in DanceSport and Pro-Am. And we have won most of them and lost some. But when we loose we prepare and practice for the better in the future.
Most importantly, we have now a dancer named Jean-Pierre whom just traveled recently to Slovenia, to study on a full time dance program 6 days a week 10 hours a day, in preparation for world championship in 4 years in both titles Latin and Standard.
© Nameless Dance Academy
Since when did you introduce hip hop in your academy and is this street dance popular to young people? Hip Hop has been around a long time in Lebanon. However I have established and licensed the I.D.O (International Dance Organization) in 2004 and organized a big Hip Hop, Street dance, and Salsa competition in city Sportive where 3000 or little more spectators came to watch.
Also we have organized the first international DanceSport in Lebanon at city Sportive in 2000 and it was Live on TV and had 4000 spectators attending (entry was free of charge for all)
What do you think of the impact of TV shows related to dance? They do help a lot the people who do not understand the difference between all types of dancing. However, most TV programs as we all know are firstly commercial and secondly beneficial as far as dancing. By saying that, I am not being negative and I’m just being real to how it is all over the world.
Pierre Dib & Nameless dance Academy has started and established the following:
1- Lebanese Dancesport federation in 2000.
2- I.D.O (International Dance Organization) in 2004.
3- The Lebanese dance Council in 2011.
We have organized almost every year a big dance competition in Lebanon and attended every year national and international competitions more then 10 times a year for DanceSport, Pro-Am, and Hip Hop etc..
