Alaa Krimed is a luminary of the Middle East's contemporary dance scene. For the better part of the last decade, the Palestinian choreographer has been an ardent advocate of the art form through his Sima Dance Company, which he founded in Damascus in 2003. On a path that has been full of displacement, dance has remained his anchor as he first left Syria to avoid the war, then Lebanon to avoid the instability, to finally find a place for his creative practice to be nurtured in the Emirates.