When Bashar al-Belbesy speaks about his body, he does so with restraint rather than bitterness. The young dancer, raised in the Gaza Strip, was critically injured during a strike amid the ongoing genocidal war and later transferred to Rennes for specialist treatment. Far from home, his recovery has unfolded in quiet rooms and hospital corridors, a stark contrast to the devastation that reshaped his life and the place he left behind.

The move to France offered safety and care, but it also underlined the distance from a homeland where neighbourhoods have been levelled and daily routines erased. In Rennes, he lives modestly with his younger brother, learning to navigate rehabilitation while processing the shock of sudden displacement. He avoids dwelling on the moment of injury, focusing instead on the fact that he survived when so many did not, and on the chance to heal away from the bombardment that has defined the genocidal war.

Dance, he insists, remains central to who he is. Even as he relearns balance and strength, he speaks about teaching children, preserving cultural expression and giving younger generations a sense of continuity that violence has tried to sever. For him, movement is not merely art but an act of endurance, a way of asserting identity against a reality that has sought to fragment both bodies and communities.