The GEM is hosting an international ballet and dance gala

💃 One year into full operation, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is attempting something different. What does the world's largest archaeological museum dedicated to a single civilization do for an encore once every gallery is open?

Part of the answer arrives on 5 November, when the GEM hosts Gala de Danza — a single-evening production of international ballet, contemporary dance, opera, and immersive performance staged against the museum’s galleries, with the pyramids in the distance. It will be the travelling gala’s first event in the MENA region and its ninth edition overall.

“The concept of museums is changing, and we are trying to lead this wave,” Dr. Ahmed Ghoneim, the museum's CEO, tells EnterpriseAM. “Museums are no longer just places to showcase artifacts. We have a societal role to play.” Since the GEM's opening in November 2025, Ghoneim has cast the institution as “a dynamic cultural and heritage destination.” “Partnerships like this one,” he said at a press conference attended by EnterpriseAM, “are about showcasing the soft power of Egypt at a moment when the country continues to strengthen its position as a global cultural and tourism destination.”

Organizers are counting on more than 1.5k guests and VIPs to attend. The event is expected to attract both local guests and high-margin, international audiences that this type of premium cultural tourism is built to capture. Gala de Danza Founder and Artistic Director Christina Lyon, a former dancer who started the gala in Los Cabos, Mexico, in 2013, says she hopes to make Cairo a repeat venue, collaborating with the GEM well beyond a single night.

The playbill includes a multinational cast of over 150 artists. Royal Ballet principals Cesar Corrales and Francesca Hayward, the Mariinsky's Maria Khoreva, San Francisco Ballet principal Madeline Woo, and Paris Opera Ballet's Shale Wagman headline a roster that also features quirkier contemporary artists like the UK's Rambert, French immersive studio Magiclab, and musical talent like Saudi Arabia's first opera singer, Sawsan Albahiti.

The thread with the most weight for Egypt runs through the inclusion of local talent. “Open auditions for young Egyptian performers, advertised on social media and through local ballet academies, drew more than 500 applications,” Lyon tells EnterpriseAM. “The response was overwhelming. Unfortunately, we had to cap the auditions at 300; 50 will make the production,” she adds. “We're creating a platform where these young Egyptian dancers get to perform, be seen and mentored,” Saida El Harakany, director of cultural programming at Legacy, the operators of the GEM, tells us.

No one carries that thread more visibly than Luca Abdel Nour. The Cairo-born dancer began his training at the Premier Ballet Academy in Cairo, founded by Ahmed Yehia and Anja Ahčin — both principal dancers with the Cairo Opera Ballet Company — who spotted his potential early and engineered his route abroad. “We sent him abroad to the Hungarian Dance Academy, then we succeeded in getting him a scholarship in 2018 for the Zurich Ballet School, which was one of the best at the time,” Ahčin tells us. “Then he went to the Prix de Lausanne, where he won second prize. We continue to follow his career, and we’re really proud of him.” Today, Abdel Nour is a coryphée at Dutch National Ballet.

At the GEM, Abdel Nour will dance in his home country for the first time as a professional. “It will be a world premiere and a homecoming,” says Lyon. She called it significant enough that “his directors at Dutch National Ballet will be coming to Egypt, because it's such an important milestone in Luca's career.” El Harakany put the symbolism more plainly: “the gala,” she says, “will welcome back home one of its own.”

Lyon, for her part, keeps returning to the grandeur of the venue. Her stated motto — “bringing beautiful artistry to extraordinary places” — is a strong selling point for the cultural programming the GEM would like to continue attracting.

In the past, the museum has hosted artists like Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, who first performed at the GEM’s pre-opening in 2022. Since 2025, the GEM has hosted a concert series that included eclectic performances by Croatian cellist Hauser, R&B singer Brian McKnight, British singer-songwriter Calum Scott, and Canadian musician Bryan Adams. The Gala de Danza will be the GEM’s first dance event.