Aziza of Cairo

Today I want to share a beautiful clip from one of Cairo's popular current belly dancers.  This is the Egyptian Aziza, not to be confused with the American belly dancer of the same name.

Egyptian Belly Dancer Aziza of Cairo

This is a longer clip in which she dances to a shaabi/mahagranat sounding song, followed by a more traditional (though modern) baladi song.  At about 11 minutes in she starts a drum solo and this is really worth watching to see how she dances it, picking and choosing what she dances to, playful yet riveting to watch.

I love watching clips of Aziza and I think she is very adept at changing her dance for her audience.  Her nightclub clips have a different feel to when she is dancing on stage at festival like she is here, and it is very instructive to see.  But even here, dancing at an Eastern European festival, she retains the nuance, timing and ease that I love in classic Egyptian dance even as she adds flashier elements that are suitable to this situation.  She adapts for the crowd but never loses what is her.  I love this and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

To contrast this with a nightclub show, see this earlier Aziza post.

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And just a reminder that I will be performing in a live music and belly dancing show at Tannourine Restaurant in San Mateo one week from today.  Details on my Shows page.

Thanks for reading!

Hager Hamdi (هاجر حمدى)

Here is a cute clip from a dancer I haven't featured before, Hager Hamdi (هاجر حمدى).  I found her one day when I was browsing on The CaroVan Classics page. 

The little information I found about her seems to indicate that she was an actress who also danced, rather than strictly a belly dancer.  I always enjoy the natural and relaxed style of the "actresses who dance" and this is a really fun and happy clip.

I also love that there are a lot of backup dancers, so you get to see so many different costumes.

The dancer in this clip is Hager Hamdi (1924-2008) who plays dual roles in the 1951 Egyptian film ‘El Moallem Bolbol’ (‘Bolbol, the Boss’ المعلم بلبل). She initially plays a movie star named Suhair whose sudden departure leaves the director of the film Wahid (Kamal al Shinnawi) looking for a replacement. He finds Suhair's lookalike in a teacher named Bolbol also played by Hager Hamdi. The film also starred Ismail Yassin and Riyadh al Kassabgy. The male singer in this clip is Egyptian comedian Shekuku and the female singer is Suad Mekawy. Trivia 1: Kamal al Shinnawi was Hager Hamdi’s husband at the time. Trivia 2: 'Bolbol' (also spelt Bulbul) means songbird or nightingale. Does anyone else remember the Afghani whistling genius, Bulbul, the Nightingale of Herat?

The caption above is from The CaroVan.

Classes in South San Francisco resume tonight!  Info on my Classes page, we are going to have a fun session.

And I will be performing at Tannourine Restaurant in San Mateo on Friday,  May 4th.  The details are on my Shows page.

As always, thank you for stopping by my website :)

SSF Classes Start Wednesday!

Hello Dancers,

One last reminder that our short Spring Session at the South San Francisco Parks & Rec starts this Wednesday, April 25th!

Beginning goes from 7-8PM and Intermediate goes from 8-9PM.  This is a quick 4 week session, so even if you've been busy, please consider joining us!!

You can register easily through the SSF online system - use class code 167428 for Beginning and Class Code 167429 for Intermediate. 

Complete class info is as always on my Classes Page.  See you Wednesday!

ps - until then, how about a little Monday Glamour:

Beautiful Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal

Melhem Barakat and Fifi Abdo

This is one of those clips that I watch over and over and over again.  I just love the whole relaxed and happy vibe it has, and Fifi's personality and musical feeling just shine through.

Melhem Barakat is a classic Lebanese singer and I love his music.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I hope your week is going well!  My classes page is updated with registration info for classes starting next week!

Rakkasah!

Just the word Rakkasah makes the pulse of any belly dancer race!  Imagine immersing yourself in a world of belly dance for a full day or even the entire weekend!!  I look forward to it every year and this past weekend did not disappoint.

There are always many highlights - seeing old friends and greatly admired dancers, listening to beautiful music all day, being inspired by everyone's costumes and cover-ups, shopping and browsing for belly dance essentials and of course performing too!

This year my most favorite moment was getting to be a small part of a tribute to Elaine Arneson (Zelina), a dear friend and beloved Bay Area belly dancer who passed away earlier this year.  Truth be told, it was very difficult to know I would be going to my first Rakkasah without her radiant smile and matchless sense of humor to greet me.  But getting to be a part of her tribute meant the world to me.  I have danced with the troupe El Ashab once before, with Elaine, and it was so much fun.  Here is a photo with Elaine on the left.

El Ashab - Photo by Carl Sermon

I will look forward to sharing pictures and video from her tribute as soon as I have them.  In the meantime, it was wonderful to share memories of her with the other dancers yesterday.  She inspired us all and the best way to honor her is to never stop dancing, because she danced all the way through her life and it was such a privilege to know her.

That's all for this time.  I am working on updated the Classes page and I will post again when I have the new information ready.  SSF classes start on 4/25.