Saudi grooves to new beat as entertainment opens up

With pumping hip hop beats and electrifying dancers, Saudi Arabia has launched what's being hailed as an entertainment revolution for the ultra-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 evening.
Anywhere else, it would have been a normal night out. But 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 the oil-flush desert kingdom, where a new generation of royals is gaining growing influence.
"This signals a new era in Saudi Arabia," said Ahmed al-Hemedy, 27, who watched the iLuminate show with a group of friends.

"I never expected to see something this magnificent in front of my eyes," he said, questioning why this type of entertainment didn't come sooner.
"The show was brilliant!"
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.

Wahhabi Islamic thought, on which Saudi Arabia is founded, frowns upon music and forbids paintings of the human form.
The kingdom took a more conservative course, including the banning of cinemas, after fundamentalists in 1979 seized Islam's holiest site, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, to oppose perceived Westernisation. They were eventually dislodged in a deadly assault by security forces.
Many Saudis spend their entertainment dollars in neighbouring Bahrain and Dubai.
The kingdom outlaws alcohol, even in luxury hotels, 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 at last night's show, where men and women sat together inside the "convention hall" at Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University, a campus exclusively for women.

The hall bore a striking resemblance to an impressive theatre, with red seats, balconies, and an atrium lobby where vendors sold nachos, popcorn and donuts.
Saudi women lined up for their snacks dressed from head-to-toe in black abaya robes, according to local custom.
Entertainment-starved expatriates were among the youthful audience who spent between 50 and 900 riyals (USD 13.33-240) for tickets.
Salman Ziauddin, 30, of India, said that in his eight years in Saudi Arabia he had never seen such a show and hopes there will be more like it.