Swan queen recap The Bolshoi Ballet Theatre of Belarus arrived late at their rehearsal of Swan Lake ballet, which they were to present the next day at the Cairo Opera House. Their tardiness caused the highly unusual situation of two prima ballerinas rehearsing their dance at the same time. Unable to run through their routine in their allotted places, the ballerinas, who both play the swan queen and who rotate on alternate days, were forced to take turns to access the stage, something that photographer Sherif Sonbol says he has not seen in his 25 years in the business. Last week, veteran Italian maestro and pianist Leone Magiera was on his first visit to Egypt to conduct the Cairo Symphony Orchestra at a concert at Al-Gomhuriya Theatre. The orchestra played the best of Beethoven, Ravel, Rossini and Mascagni. Magiera had accompanied late internationally renowned opera singer Luciano Pavarotti during most of his concerts. He had written a biography of Pavarotti titled: Pavarotti As I Knew Him. The Australian Embassy in Cairo has donated LE58,000 to fund a new bakery workshop that will provide vocational training to children currently working in dangerous occupations and unable to access regular educational services. The bakery workshop project is being run as part of a wider programme to address child labour issues managed by the NGO, New Horizon Association for Social Development (NHASD). Australian Ambassador Robert Bowker paid a visit to the bakery workshop last Monday and presented a certificate of achievement to New Horizon Chief of Trustees Nady Kamel. Fashion designer Iman Eve held a fashion show at the InterContinental CityStars presenting 60 evening and wedding gowns for the 2008 collection. Ten models participated in the fashion show including aspiring young actress Menna Arafa, who modelled two outfits for children. The event was presented by Soheir Gouda and featured pop singer Maye Selim. photos: Ayman Barayez A reception was held at the Shephard Hotel to bid farewell to Palestinian Ambassador Fandar Al-Dogani as he ends his posting in Egypt. The event was attended by Omani Ambassador Abdel-Aziz Al-Hanaai, Syrian Ambassador Youssef Al-Ahmed and a bevy of Arab and foreign diplomats. At the Cairo Opera House's Music Library gallery, Tunisian Ambassador to Egypt Abdel-Hafiz Al-Herqam and Cairo Opera House Director Abdel-Moneim Kamel inaugurated a joint exhibition titled "Egyptian-Tunisian Vision" by Tunisian artist Atf bu Shareb and Egyptian artist Adel Gazarin. Bu Shareb showcased 30 oil paintings depicting his native scenery, while Gazarin displayed 50 photographs of tourist sites in Tunisia. The event was attended by head of the Cairo Opera House galleries and museums Fayza Abdel-Moneim, former minister of petroleum Abdel-Hadi Qandil and head of the Egyptian-Tunisian businessmen's association Yamani Felfela. The Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt (BCFE), in collaboration with the Heliopolis Club, organised an open discussion titled "Raising Awareness about Breast Cancer". It was attended by BCFE's Chairman of the Board Dr Mohamed Shaalan, veteran actress Ragaa El-Geddawi, who herself survived breast cancer, in addition to popular broadcaster Osama Mounir among other media figures. Assistant professor of law at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Amr Shalakany, has been selected as a Carnegie scholar by the prestigious Carnegie Corporation of New York for his commitment to investigating new lines of research in modern Egyptian legal history. Through his research titled The Redefinition of Sharia in Modern Egyptian Legal Thought: 1798-Present, Shalakany traces the changing definition of Sharia over the past two centuries of Egyptian jurisprudence, and challenges the commonly accepted idea that there was a transition from Islamic law to secular law in 1883, arguing that legal secularism existed in Egypt even prior to 1883. Before joining the AUC, Shalakany was the Jeremiah Smith Junior visiting assistant professor at Harvard Law School, where he taught comparative law and Islamic law. Prior to that, he served as legal advisor to the PLO Negotiations Support Unit in Ramallah during the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and taught at Birzeit University where he helped set up the law clinic. Shalakany has also worked as a securities lawyer with the Baker & McKenzie law firm in London. Assistant professor at Helwan University's Engineering Department Suzanne Abu Ouf was invited to participate in the fifth International Conference for Education held in Coimbra, Portugal, as the main keynote speaker. She presented a paper entitled Identity and Gender in Egyptian and African American Communities: A Reading of Some of the Works of Naguib Mahfouz and Lorraine Hansberry. Twenty-one countries from Europe, Canada and the US participated in the conference. Abu Ouf also held the first Egyptian event in Coimbra to introduce Egyptian women and ancient Egyptian civilisation to Portuguese and other participants. Representatives of a number of Portuguese universities met with her to discuss details of cooperation with their peers in Egypt for the first time through their participation in two of the projects designed by Abu Ouf in the field of higher education and community development.
