Thread: Egyptian Icons -- pick 6

I'm planning a "Famous Egyptian Dancers" session for my advanced students.

My intention is to show video clips & discuss what makes each dancer unique, how s/he represents & defines his/her era, and how s/he has influenced the dancers who've come after. I planned on doing them chronologically

It's a 6-week session, so it makes sense to try to cover 6 dancers -- though I could batch them I suppose, into 'golden age greats' 'icons of the 60s & 70s' etc.

I have a good idea which dancers I consider the 'must-know names' and which video clips I'll want to show, but I'd love to hear what other teachers would include! (or what students would want)

Samia...oh gosh or Naima or Tahia
Soheir
Nagwa
Fifi
Dina
Randa

But there's so many I bound to exclaim..how did I omit her? Lucy, Mona Said for instance and so many 40-50s
but spreading out I couldn't leave any of these out but everyone has their favourites.

My six, in roughly chronological order:

Taheya Carioca
Naima Akef
Souheir Zaki
Fifi Abdo
Mona Said
Dina

It's hard to keep it down to six! To winnow the list, I went with those whose mature styles to me seem most consistent and "their own." This doesn't necessarily mean they didn't work with choreographers: I know Dina worked extensively with Ibrahim Akef, for example, but she assimilated his ideas with hers and others into her own iconic style. This is what puts you on my shortlist.

A longer list would include Lucy, Nagwa, and Randa. Lucy is for sure one of the greats in my book, and she has certain signature moves and gestures, but it's a little harder to pinpoint one "Lucy" style since she likes to reinvent herself. She and Nagwa both took on many different looks and identities over time depending on who they were working with and what struck their fancy. As I understand it, Nagwa is especially appreciated by Egyptians in the business for her savvy as a producer, staging the dance as a big, television-friendly show with sets and costumes and production numbers. Her dancing is gorgeous and powerful, but I've never felt it was "her own" in the way that Fifi's or Soheir's was. Randa is amazing, and her evolution and influence are taking the dance in a very different direction, but it's still in process.

I adore Farida Fahmy, but I think of her in a different category because of the context in which she danced. Samia Gamal, too.

I'm really happy you said "Egyptian" so I wouldn't have to figure out what to do with Nadia Gamal. :)

Fifi at her best but I love any clips from "The Cherry Picker" and of her "shisha"

I love her early stuff in films (movies) of the late 50s and early 60s but I think she is very distictive for her "shows" Nagwa was very much an all round entertainer and I know was a great favourite for these all singing dancing shows so I picked a typical one of those.

So many delights to choose from ! That's a very popular one.

there is also the lovely green bedlah clip but it's such bad quality.

There's oodles of Dina but I love ths one in a very conservative costume. ts probably a good idea to find one of her in a signature costume!

Each of these I believe took belly dance on to another place but there are so many wonderful Egyptian dancers
It's so so hard to choose.

I would use this one..it is early enough in her career to demonstrate the rather " rebellious" and unlady like nature of her dance. I would cast her as the original Dina.

Samia Gamal
Taheya Carioca
Naima Akef
Nagua Fouad
Souhair Zaki
Fifi Abdo
Mona Said
Lucy
Tito
Randa Kamel
Dina


I couldn't do it in six, this was the shortest list I could make. Each of these dancers represent something very important to me in Egyptian Raqs Sharqi. If we are including folkloric, Mahmoud Reda and Farida Fahmy are indispensable.

Also, one would have to discuss Badia Masabni.

Nadia Hamdi, Shoo Shoo Amin and the Mazin family are also really on my short list....this is so hard...

I can't seem to do it in six either. If I absolutely HAD to, my list looked like this
Tahia
Samia
Fifi
Soheir
Mahmoud Reda
Dina

But that list was missing soooo many of my favorites, and some really influential figures.


I have a longer list, that includes 18 dancers broken out over 6 categories. I'm just not sure I can really cover that many. It would be so easy to spend 6 weeks on just Fifi, for instance! Perhaps I can cover one representative member of each group each week, and offer homework that is broader for those who want more.

(precursors - Banat Maazin, village baladi, etc)

1) Golden Era
Badia Masabni (mention)
Taheya Carioca
Samia Gamal
Naima Akef

2) Transitional
Fifi Abdo
Soheir Zaki
Mona Al Said
Nagua Fouad
Lucy

3) Reda Era
Mahmoud Reda
Farida Fahmy

4) The Teachers
Raqia Hassan
Aida Nour
(mention Ahlan Wa Sahlan & Nile Group festivals)

5) Raqia’s Descendents & influence
Dina
Randa
Soraya Zaied (represents influx of S. American dancers)

6) Other important figures
Tito
Nour (represents influx of Russian dancers)

I'm thinking I may have to split this topic over two sessions. No way can I cover Fifi, Soheir, Mona, Lucy and Nagua in an hour!!!! LOL

Taheya
Naima
Samia
Nagwa
Fifi
Dina

I'd pull Reda out of this list. He and Badia Masabni are probably the two most important people in Egyptian dance that can be identified by name; however, he doesn't consider what he does belly dance, no matter how much he may have influenced everybody else. Both Badia and Reda represent a visionary quality that transcended dancing. The others were mostly just very, very good at moving their bodies and packaging themselves as entertainers. They weren't looking at the dance and imagining bigger possibilities.

I can see the interest in talking about Randa, She's one of the most influential dancers working now, but is she going to be that remembered twenty years from now? I don't know that she will, outside of the dance community. I'm not sure she's captured the zeitgeist the way the others did.

Just wanted to mention that I am itching for someone to make a DVD (or DVD series!) that covers exactly this topic--a really good, noodley DVD along the lines of Ranya Renee's work. It would be an expensive project, I'm afraid, since the producer would have to get rights for the clips. But I would absolutely love a DVD that offers both in-depth discussion of the contributions of these dancers and instruction on their individual styles.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

I can't seem to do it in six either. If I absolutely HAD to, my list looked like this
Tahia
Samia
Fifi
Soheir
Mahmoud Reda
Dina

But that list was missing soooo many of my favorites, and some really influential figures.


I have a longer list, that includes 18 dancers broken out over 6 categories. I'm just not sure I can really cover that many. It would be so easy to spend 6 weeks on just Fifi, for instance! Perhaps I can cover one representative member of each group each week, and offer homework that is broader for those who want more.

(precursors - Banat Maazin, village baladi, etc)

1) Golden Era
Badia Masabni (mention)
Taheya Carioca
Samia Gamal
Naima Akef

2) Transitional
Fifi Abdo
Soheir Zaki
Mona Al Said
Nagua Fouad
Lucy

3) Reda Era
Mahmoud Reda
Farida Fahmy

4) The Teachers
Raqia Hassan
Aida Nour
(mention Ahlan Wa Sahlan & Nile Group festivals)

5) Raqia’s Descendents & influence
Dina
Randa
Soraya Zaied (represents influx of S. American dancers)

6) Other important figures
Tito
Nour (represents influx of Russian dancers)

I'm thinking I may have to split this topic over two sessions. No way can I cover Fifi, Soheir, Mona, Lucy and Nagua in an hour!!!! LOL

I was going to make my own list, but it was looking too much like this one. I don't think you can pick just 6. I like the idea of breaking it up into these sections and presenting various dancers per class. Maybe split up the "transitional dancer" section into 2 classes, and stick 5 and 6 ("Raqia's Descendants" and "Other Important Figures") together?

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

Taheya
I'd pull Reda out of this list. He and Badia Masabni are probably the two most important people in Egyptian dance that can be identified by name;

The idea is for my students to have a brief education on the history of Egyptian dance, I think I *have* to include them... but I agree my students don't really need to see video of either one, just hear about their influence while watching video of said influence.

Damn, Reda is a 6-week course!

I also agree that it's too early to tell about Randa's potential future influence. Her vigorous approach might become all the rage for decades of future dancers, or remain her personal hallmark, hard to tell. But it's hard to ignore her if the topic of the week is 'current dancers working in Cairo'

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

Maybe split up the "transitional dancer" section into 2 classes, and stick 5 and 6 ("Raqia's Descendants" and "Other Important Figures") together?

Oh, this is a good idea!

Tahiya Karioca
Samia Gamal
Fifi Abdo
Suheir Zaki
Nagwa Fouad
Dina


I personally am not crazy about Samia's style or Nagwa's style. But I remember when I first started dancing the 1st 5 on my list where the ones the Arabic clientele I worked for waved about. If I switched out Samia and Nagwa, I would replace them with Mona Said and Lucy.

I did wind up doing the full list of 16 and breaking up the Transitional Era dancers. Last night was the first class, on the Golden Era dancers.

In addition to watching Samia and Tahia, we watched Dandash's impersonation of them and little Feyrouz doing Tahia. I think watching a caricature of a style makes it easier to pinpoint the hallmarks of the style.

i thought my students would be disappointed that I hadn't allowed time for dancing, it was all lecture + videos. They LOVED it. They're planning on bringing snacks next week & are looking forward to a whole 6 week session of pure education!

(all of them are in other classes or performing groups as well as this class, so they'll still be dancing at least a little each week at other times).

I'm so pleased! Thank you all for your help.