Suha Khuffash, British Council Project Manager for the Arab world tour of Akram Khan’s Vertical Road, blogs about the performance in the Palestinian Territories.

I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I walked into the Ramallah Cultural Palace last Thursday to see a full house of eager faces waiting for Akram Khan show Vertical Road to start.

For a split of a second I thought I was dreaming. I couldn’t believe that this was the end of two months’ hard work to get the group into Palestine.

The multi-cultural make-up of the company, which included a team of eleven nationalities and different passports, made the show a unique one but also made it much more complicated to get the group and their equipment to Palestine via the two border points.

This would never have been possible without the substantial support we received from our colleagues in the British Council Jordan Office, British Consulate in Jerusalem and our partner The First Ramallah Troop.

When the show started, the 900 people sitting in the hall couldn’t help but go completely silent to watch this magical and outstanding performance. The end of the show was marked by a falling curtain that symbolically separated death from life, but in Ramallah Cultural Palace the end was marked by a standing ovation.

The show was later followed by a discussion with Akram Khan and two of the dancers, who spent more than 40 minutes answering questions from an audience that wanted to understand all the hidden aspects of the show.

After the show we all went to celebrate this huge success and the great team spirit that made everything possible.

Read more about Akram Khan’s Vertical Road, which was also performed in Beirut as part of this tour..