Opening Of Entertainment Sector: iLuminate Show!

With pumping hip hop beats and electrifying dancers, Saudi Arabia has launched what’s being call for as an entertainment revolution for the conservative kingdom, which usually tightly restricts music, dance and theatre. Hundreds of men and women, side-by-side, hooted their appreciation and clapped to the beat as New York-based theatrical group iLuminate took to the stage in Riyadh last month.

In a country without public cinemas or theatres, iLuminate’s stage show was a rarity. That is about to change, according to the kingdom’s General Authority for Entertainment, which has lined up WWE wrestling, Arabs Got Talent performances, a food festival, comedy, Monster Jam motor sports and other events in the coming weeks. It is the latest sign that the sands are shifting in kingdom, where a new generation is gaining growing influence, which signals a new era in Saudi Arabia.

The iLuminate dancers performed on a darkened stage in electrified glow-in-the dark suits, telling the stories of urban America against the thumping backdrop of its beats. The kingdom forbids alcohol, and unrelated men and women are forbidden from mixing. That means “single” men eat in a separate section at restaurants. But in a sign of flexibility, there was no segregation in the show, where men and women sat together inside the “convention hall” at Princess Noura Bint Abdul Rahman University, a campus exclusively for women.

People said, living in KSA from years they had never seen such a show and hopes there will be more like it. The creator of iLuminate, Miral Kotb, says it was an honor to bring “such a different type of theatre and art to this culture” where the audience was so receptive.

Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, a 31-year-old son of Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, is the driving force behind Vision 2030, an economic and social diversification plan which he released in April to wean the kingdom off oil. Among its wide-ranging goals is development of tourism and entertainment. Hundreds of people each night attended the iLuminate show performances in Riyadh & Jeddah