Nigel Lythgoe talks 'Dancing in Jaffa'

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- In the new documentary "Dancing With Jaffa," world renowned ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine brings his "dancing classrooms" program to the city where he was born.

His goal? To bring Jewish and Muslim children together through dance.

Jaffa is one of the few cities in Israel where Jews and Arabs co-exist peacefully... but not without tension.

"And they're teaching the kids that. So it's really difficult, I think, to sort of bring people together that are taught at an early age to hate each other," said executive producer Nigel Lythgoe.

"I hope that, you know, we're going to get DVDs out to schools. And that would be really great if schools show it. I think you've got to do, you know, what they're doing by indoctrinating the children. But let's indoctrinate them with goodness and love rather than hatred. And that then I think we'll make a difference in the world."

In the film, several kids with different religious and cultural backgrounds spend 10 weeks learning how to dance. Then they team up to participate in a spirited dance competition.

Lythgoe signed to the project after the initial filming and helped turn 400 hours of footage into the movie you see. He says it was quite a project.

"What I loved about it at the end is there are all the ladies in burkas on their cellphones and taking photographs and actually mixing with the Jewish ladies and saying, 'hey, let's go for coffee,' and you know, 'let me buy your kids some clothes.' It was quite interesting," Lythgoe said.