Fall 2020 Virtual Classes

Hello Dancers,

Well, we’re still sheltering in place here in California, so let’s keep belly dancing from our homes.

My Fall teaching schedule is up now on my Classes page. Registration for the classes through the SSF Parks and Rec starts on 9/4 for SSF Residents and 9/8 for everyone else. And the one bright side of virtual classes is that you can take them from anywhere, so please feel free to join us.

You can register for the Parks and Rec classes directly on their website. I hope to see you in class.

In addition to teaching, have also been using this shelter in place time to go through years of performance footage. I have always lacked the confidence to share my dancing on social media and so I neglected this part of being a dancer. It’s been nice to go through them all now and I will start sharing some here. I am working on my YouTube channel and I hope you will consider subscribing.

Here is one of the performances I posted there. It’s a lovely American Cabaret style performance from 2014 featuring live music by local belly dance favorites Meridian Band. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you all for reading and I will look forward to seeing you in class.

August Virtual Belly Dance Classes

Hello Dancers,

Virtual belly dance classes continue in August. You can join us anytime during the month. I’m offering Beginning, Intermediate and Mixed-Level Mornings this month, and a couple of the classes are free thanks to special funding from Kaiser Permanente. You do not have to be able to come to every class, just join us when you can. Complete details are on my Classes page.

This photo shows my teaching backdrop. The sparkly curtain puts me in a good mood every time I see it :). It’s the little things right?

Happy Dancing!!

Belly Dance History

Last week Bay Area Belly Dance Legend Sausan, owner of Al-Masri Egyptian Restaurant in San Francisco and Master Belly Dance Teacher, shared an article about the history of belly dance and I wanted to share it here as well for my students. This article is from January 2020 and is a nice historical sketch of our beautiful art form from its mysterious beginnings to its present day difficulties in Egypt.

The entire article is worth reading. It’s long but it’s short for the material it covers, if that makes sense. I will share a few important points here.

The article describes the roots of the dance as performance:

“Like many Egyptian authors on the issue, Bigad Salama, the author of a recent volume on the history of belly dancing, argues that it was in the 1920s in Egypt that belly dancing saw the beginning of an evolution that took it straight to its golden years in Cairo in the 1940s and 1950s.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Egypt, particularly Cairo, saw several types of belly-dancing performers. These were essentially the ghawzi and the awalem. There are distinctions that dance anthropologists often make between the two groups, with the second being seen as more upscale and professional in its movements.

Neither group had a particular choreography to adhere to or clear concepts of the movements involved. However, the second group, Salama argues, was more set to dancing to the rhythms of the music and could also sing. While the ghawzi danced in public, essentially in moulids (religious festivals), the awalem danced in private, often for segregated audiences.

At a time when Egypt was part of a wider empire that saw the emigration of many ethnic groups, the dancers were also never strictly Egyptian. They were also Armenian, Greek, Jewish, and southern and eastern European.”

— Ahram Online, The Twists and Turns of Belly Dance

The article describes the growth of the nightclub scene in Cairo starting in the 1920s and the dance’s place in the movies as well, and the ups and downs it takes to reach the modern era. I liked this quote about the vital importance of improvisation in belly dance by Pierre Haddad, a dance instructor in Raquia Hassan’s school:

“The learning process of a truly professional dancer is not about memorising a set of moves, but rather is about learning where the moves come from so that she can decide her moves according to the music,” [Haddad] says.”

— Ahram Online, The Twists and Turns of Belly Dance

Later, the article describes how Egyptian society starting becoming increasingly conservative and how this has negatively impacted the dance, both because there are fewer places to perform and because fewer Egyptian women want to become dancers, leaving the dance to foreign women who may not have the same cultural feeling or understanding. The article mentions Dina, who has brought the dance into the modern era and who is one of its most passionate advocates both within Egypt and worldwide.

If you understand French, this YouTube video report from France, which was shared on Samrah’s page last week, goes into even more detail about the difficulties faced by the dance today. It’s a nice compliment to the article. It shows the working life of a dancer in the Cairo cabarets and it also tells the story of a controversial university professor who was fired from her job when a video of her dancing was posted online.

La danse du ventre est un pilier de la culture égyptienne, aussi populaire que les pyramides. Certains font remonter la danse orientale au temps des pharaons...

I think the important thing for us as students to realize is that the dance holds a very complicated place culturally. It can be hard for us as foreigners to understand so we really have to make an effort if we love the dance. I will keep trying to share cultural information here as it is now hard to have these conversations in class since we are virtual.

On a happy note, let’s end with some classic Dina.

Classes continue online. The most current information is always on my Classes page. Thank you for visiting!

Samia Gamal (سامية جمال)

Hello Dancers,

Today will just a really quick post because the week completely got away from me.

This is a beautiful oriental fantasy style clip featuring the legendary Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal (سامية جمال). The kind of thing you will only see in the glamorous world of the movie musicals.

Samia Gamal performing in the 1947 Egyptian film 'Habib Al Omr' (Love of My Life حبيب العمر) which starred Farid al Atrash, Lola Sedky, Hassan Fayek and Ismail Yassin.

The caption is courtesy of TheCaroVan, whose Vimeo channel I always encourage students to check out!

My schedule of virtual belly dance classes is up on my classes page and you can always contact me if you have any questions.

I’ll be back with more next week!

Fifi Abdou (فيفي عبده)

I stumbled across a wonderful interview with the legendary Egyptian belly dancer and actor Fifi Abdou (فيفي عبده) in Vogue Arabia and I wanted to share a few quotes here because her comments touch on how belly dancers are perceived in the Middle East.

With regards to her acting roles and the portrayal of belly dancers in film she says,

“Belly dancing is far from decadent. I used to dance, but at the same time I was taking care of a whole family, supporting myself and bringing up my daughters.”

— Fifi Abdou in Vogue Arabia

About her feelings for belly dancing the article says,

“She loves belly dancing and fiercely defends it, defying anyone who attacks her and underestimates its value. Belly dancing rewarded her with love and opened the doors of local and international fame, enabling Abdou to win the hearts of people. She, in return, danced for everyone, including presidents from all over the world. She’s even walked the red carpet at the Cannes film festival, and sat with Hollywood celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone and Elizabeth Taylor.

The 66-year-old Abdou is comfortable in her own skin and satisfied with her work as a professional belly dancing artist. She has no remorse and feels no shame, even though the profession is not always valued in the region. The long years haven’t marked her face or soul with wrinkles, but made her character more experienced and her thinking more mature.”

— Vogue Arabia

The photographer Youssef Nabil who took the photographs for the article, says this about Fifi,

“She is such a warrior, a simple and bold woman. I like her courageous way in defending belly dancing in our society, be it verbally or by means of dancing despite her age. She granted belly dancing a ‘dignity’ in the recent decades, and I share the same attitude with her because in my work, I always seek to uphold this art form that we’ve maintained in Egypt since the age of the pharaohs.”

— Youssef Nabil in Vogue Arabia

I encourage you to read the entire article if you have time, it is really worth it. They also took beautiful photographs of her in a more barefaced style which is interesting to see, though I am not sure what Vogue has against eye makeup - it seems like they always want everyone to look the same, like their version of what ‘classy’ and ‘tasteful’ is.

And I also encourage everyone to follow Fifi on Instagram - her freewheeling personality seems tailor made for social media. Lately in quarantine she has been posting videos on IGTV of her dancing from home, all made up and in costume and it is really inspirational and absolutely joyful!

I can't seem to post any of those clips here so instead I will leave you with some vintage Fifi in hot pink from 1986. I just love those seemingly effortless shimmies - she is incredible!

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Thanks as always for reading and I hope that everyone has a great week. The schedule for July and August dance and finger cymbals classes in up on my Classes page.