- Title: Belly dancer keeps Tunisians entertained through coronavirus lockdown
- Date: 30th March 2020
- Summary: TUNIS, TUNISIA (MARCH 26, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TUNISIAN BELLY DANCER, NERMINE SFAR, PERFORMING IN HER LIVING ROOM IN FRONT OF SMARTPHONE SFAR CHECKING MOBILE PHONE AND HUMMING ALONG WITH MUSIC VARIOUS OF SFAR DANCING
- Embargoed: 13th April 2020 16:17
- Keywords: Art COVID-19 Coronavirus Dancer Tunis Tunisia
- Location: TUNIS, TUNISIA
- City: TUNIS, TUNISIA
- Country: Tunisia
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001C78UMAF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Tunisian belly dancer Nermine Sfar attracts thousands of online fans with the message "Stay at home and I'll dance for you."
Dressed in a shiny belly dance costume, Nermine Sfar twirls to Arabic pop music while live-streaming her performance straight from her living room. One of her videos was watched by some 130,000 people on Facebook.
"Everyone is talking about this coronavirus, about illness and death. This is where the artist plays a role. In the movie Titanic, when the ship starts sinking, musicians begin to play and go on until the end. They never give up. They wanted to make people happy. And I want to make people happy, despite the fact that deep inside me, I'm very scared," Sfar said.
Her show on social media is providing light entertainment in a country that imposed a general lockdown, closed cafes and restaurants and stopped all international travel. Tunisia has confirmed 278 cases and eight deaths so far.
Sfar was already popular on social media before the outbreak, with tens of thousands of followers.
On the first day she performed, two weeks ago and before the lockdown was announced, she donned a surgical mask and gloves over her dancing costume, telling everyone to follow the government's advice to stay at home.
Her message appeared to get through where the pleas of politicians did not, drawing immediate interest from tens of thousands of people and a cascade of humorous - and sometimes indecent - comments.
Sfar then pledged a nightly "corona dance." When she failed to perform one night, thousands of messages went up from fans begging her to return to their phone screens.
"I know it is difficult to stay at home and be confined in one place, but we can try to create a warm atmosphere in our homes," Sfar told Reuters.
(Production: Jihed Abdellaoui) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: This clip's Audio includes copyrighted material. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing the audio contained in this clip.