DUBAI: Estee Lauder is celebrating women during Ramadan with their newest campaign titled “Reach for the Stars,” featuring three boundary-breaking Arab women at the center of a promotional video.
The campaign stars Samira Al-Khamis, one of Saudi Arabia’s first ballerinas, alongside Amna Al-Qubaisi, the first Emirati female race driver, and Nayla Al-Khaja, a film director and producer from the UAE.
Each of the inspiring women in the short film pushed the envelope by dreaming big, working hard and paving the way for women in the region.
Al-Khamis, who earned recognition as a dancer and was featured on the official poster of the first Red Sea International Film Festival, developed an interest in ballet at a young age. She grew up around dancers, including her older sisters, who she watched perform on stage when she began her journey.
“Watching them gave me a powerful sense of inspiration and it stuck with me; it gave me a unique sense of fulfillment that I couldn’t find anywhere. Now it’s my responsibility to give back to my community and the new generations by passing on the passion and knowledge of dance,” she told Mille World.
The 25-year-old recently opened her own studio in the Kingdom, Pulse Personal Training, as a way to help nurture the growing local dance community.
Pulse Personal Training is among a growing number of dance studios cropping up in the Kingdom’s major cities, such as Jeddah and Riyadh, in recent years.
One mother decided to establish a dance center for women and girls after her four-year-old daughter showed a passion and talent for the classical art. An instructor at the school said she had been inspired to teach dance to children after following the career of Al-Khamis.