Gala de Danza
- Aug 4
- 6 min read
Gala de Danza Founder & Artistic Director Christina Lyon offers a preview of this year’s gala at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Writer Andrea Manokian
It’s not every day that you find yourself deep in conversation with a woman whose first job was dancing alongside Michael Jackson in the iconic Pepsi commercial at just 13 years old. But, in all honesty, this is just a blip on the extensive résumé of Christina Lyon, Founder and Artistic Director of Gala de Danza.
Christina Lyon was born in Newport Beach and began dancing at age 12. By 13, she was invited to train at the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. She earned the Friends of Joffrey Scholarship and won first place in the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards. Most of her summers were dedicated to training at the School of American Ballet in New York, and at 16, she joined the American Ballet Theatre, touring internationally and appearing as a guest artist with the English National Ballet in London and the Bavarian National Ballet in Munich. After an acclaimed dance career, she hung up her ballet slippers and shifted her focus to a new endeavor: Gala de Danza.
What began in 2013 as an intimate gala has since grown into a grand display of excellence, artistry, and community, showcasing performers from 28 countries over the years. The gala has earned an exceptional reputation and has featured collaborations with acclaimed artists such as Tate McRae, Derek Hough, Melissa Hamilton and more.
As the gala’s Founder and Artistic Director, Christina is known for discovering and nurturing talent before they achieve international stardom. Speaking about Tate McRae, Christina recalls, “Tate was a phenomenal talent whom I coached in classical ballet. The first year she came to the gala as a performer and the second year as a dancer and performed a piece to her voice, then her third year as just a singer. I thought, oh my goodness, she’s really got something here,” shares Christina. After performing at Gala de Danza, Tate’s career took off, and she is now a Grammy-nominated artist with more than 15 billion streams.
The origin story of Gala de Danza began in Los Cabos, Mexico, in 2013. While vacationing in the region, Lyon fell in love with the local community and inquired about nearby dance schools. That inquiry led her to Danza Tellez, where she met 15-year-old Mariana Carillo. “I started Gala de Danza on behalf of Mariana who had never seen live performing arts,” says Christina. After watching Mariana dance, Christina immediately recognized her extraordinary talent. She invited Mariana to live with her for three years, giving her the opportunity to study dance and hone her craft. Mariana went on to attend the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance on a full scholarship and performed in the inaugural Gala de Danza, among other accomplishments. “It all started with this young student, Mariana,” Christina explains, often referring to her as her “muse” throughout our conversation.
Lyon goes on to share yet another inspiring story of a dancer whose life she helped monumentally change. During the inaugural Gala de Danza, 13-year-old audience member Andrés Zúñiga approached Christina after the performance and expressed his desire to perform in her gala. Naturally, Christina invited him to the studio the following day to assess his skill set. “He was an absolute natural, Andrea,” she exclaims. Christina connected Andrés with The Rock School for Dance Education in Pennsylvania, where he received a full scholarship to train. Today, Andrés is the first Mexican-trained dancer with the New York City Ballet and recently promoted to Soloist.
It’s stories like these, which Christina shares with unmistakable enthusiasm, carefully articulating the name of every dance school and every individual, that reveal the true intent of her heart. She loves the art of dance, but she also loves giving talented artists and creatives the stage she believes they deserve, a stage they might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. “I do the gala for young people because the next generation is our future audience goer, our future patron, our future professional dancer, and our future artist,” she explains.
This year marks the ninth edition of Gala de Danza. It’s set to take place at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Cairo this November, in partnership with GEM Experience, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the museum’s grand opening. This year’s gala will feature 150 dancers, a performance by Sawsan Albahiti, the first Saudi opera singer, renowned saxophonist Valentin Kovalev, the Paris-based illumination dance group MAGICLAB, Principal dancers from the Royal Ballet and many other world-class artists. “We’re taking the museum from a static environment and making it a dynamic one with live performing arts—we’re going to make the museum come alive,” shares Christina.
This year’s gala will showcase Swan Lake Act II, and as an avid ballet patron myself and someone with a deep appreciation for the craft, I couldn’t resist asking Christina if there was any significance behind the artistic decision. “What better way to have a celebration of one of the oldest civilizations in the world with one of the foremost classics?” she notes. The juxtaposition of an ancient civilization and a classical work of ballet is fitting. In fact, when Gala de Danza held auditions in Egypt, inviting dancers from local schools to participate, they had to close registration early. Within one hour, 500 dancers applied for just 100 open spots.
In addition to featuring renowned dancers from around the world, Christina is intentional about incorporating local talent into Gala de Danza in meaningful ways. This year, a standout artist is Luca Abdel-Nour, a French-Egyptian dancer who will return to his birthplace of Cairo for Gala de Danza, where he will choreograph and perform a world premiere. The performance marks his first professional appearance in his home country. “This is a grand homecoming for him. His father has never seen him perform as a professional dancer,” says Christina. That is, until this year’s Gala de Danza.
Christina’s natural ability to speak so highly of the dancers she works with is an admirable quality. “There’s this young boy from Southern California, Leon Yusei Sai, who just won the Youth America Grand Prix at 15,” she says. It turns out Leon’s dance teacher, Salwa Rizkalla from Southland Ballet Academy in Fountain Valley, CA, is a former Egyptian ballerina born in Cairo. Gala de Danza will serve as a defining moment for both of them, as Leon will take to the stage and Rizkalla will watch her student perform in her birthplace. These intimate moments are far from rare, and while speaking with Christina, we uncover many other ways this year’s gala will serve as a kismet moment for both artists and attendees.
The sheer size of the Grand Egyptian Museum is enough to take you aback, let alone the gala that will take place inside it. At 117 acres (nearly 500,000 square meters), the museum’s expansive footprint puts it on par with the Louvre, although two times the size and five times the size of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The British Museum. It is the largest archaeological museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization, housing more than 100,000 ancient artifacts and sitting just minutes away from the Giza Pyramids.
With an event of this magnitude comes a sense of social responsibility and philanthropy that Christina has an innate desire to nurture. She speaks candidly as she tells me about last year’s gala, which took place at Central Hall Westminster in London. “Last year we donated the entire first show to London Youth under the patronage of the Duke of Edinburgh. This year we are going to be working with Changemakers in Egypt,” she says. “We also ask all of our dancers to give back as part of their contract,” she adds.
And in case you’re wondering how a professional dancer learned the ins and outs of planning a highly acclaimed gala, the answer is three words: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. When Christina was a young dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, she crossed paths with Jacqueline, who served as Chair of the company’s board and helped organize its galas. “It was through her that I learned the art of producing, the art of galas, and working with sponsors. She’s my inspiration and became my idol in terms of how to produce galas,” says Christina.
Gala de Danza brings art, dance, music, fashion, and more to those eager to experience it. The production is elegant, yet its goal is to remain accessible—whether by elevating young local talent through a dedicated spotlight, or welcoming audience members like Andrés Zúñiga, who experience it with sheer awe. As Christina concludes, “You don’t have to be a professional to come watch a gala. I think of galas as a celebration. It's a celebration of dance, a celebration of music and art. That's the essence of what Gala de Danza is, and we hope you will come celebrate with us!”
Gala De Danza will take place on November 5th, 2026 in Cairo, Egypt. Tickets here.
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