Thread: Question about Souher Zaki videos

I have a VHS tape of a Souher Zaki concert. The title is simply "Souher Zaki" and the cover photo on the box shows her wearing a green costume. The name "Movses Panossian" appears prominently on the front cover. It was produced by Hollywood Music Center. In the video, there is a frequently an annoying circular frame of flowers that appears, lingers a while, then mercifully goes away, only to return later.

I'm wondering whether the DVD that I see on Dahlal's web site titled "Souher Zaki: Sweet Star of Cairo" contains the same material. If it's different, I might want to buy it, but if it's the same material, maybe not.

The "Sweet Star of Cairo" one has a cover photo that appears to be the same costume that she wears at the beginning of the one I have. That's what makes me wonder whether they could be the same video.

Does anyone know whether they are the same?

Sounds like the same one, I have the sweet star of cairo, and it has the annoying circular frame of flowers ...

Sweet Star of Cairo has Suhair in a black & white costume, looking rather like Morticia Adams. It is a single concert, with no costume changes.

Shira, it sounds as though your vhs tape has more on it than there is on the SSC dvd, so I'd hang on to it.

Originally Posted by beafarhana

Sweet Star of Cairo has Suhair in a black & white costume, looking rather like Morticia Adams. It is a single concert, with no costume changes.

Yep, a very unflattering costume with poufy sleeves and a skirt that looks like a fabric factory exploded. On top of all that, Suhair is not dancing well in this video.

The "flowers" in the overlay are a senescing pot of geraniums mostly going to seed. Very lame.

Whether you have the same video or not, I would not recomend the Sweet Star of Cairo because it is not showing Suhair's best dancing by a long shot.

Sedonia

Just for curiosity's sake, which video would you say shows Soheir Zaki's dancing to best advantage?

Shira.. The question I have wanted to know myself too...

I haven't found one yet. Only the old videos which are made to vcd. They sell these in Egypt. The dancing is ok, but the technical quality is not.

I can't remember the exact title, but I like the one featuring Soheir Zaki and Nagwa Fouad in Abu Dhabi. No time to check at the moment, but I think she dances in two beledi dresses, one red and one blue?

For a long while when I started, I had only seen Sweet Star of Cairo, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why SZ was so adored by so many and so widely described as sweet, demure, and graceful -- to me, SSC has her "flinging herself around" quite a bit, and it doesn't show anything like her style or appearance as I had heard them described. When I saw the Abu Dhabi one, I got it. I'm still more of a Fifi girl, but all the accolades for Soheir make much more sense to me now.

ETA: It's probably called something obscure like "Nagwa and Soheir in Abu Dhabi!"

I have a video of Soheir that I like very much, but a friend gave it to me years ago and I don't know what video it's originally from. She dances to "Nebtedi" in a red assuit dress with giant paillette trim. Anyone know this clip? I would love to buy an original to replace this fuzzy pirated version.

Hi, Latifa. That may actually be from the video I mentioned. I'm on deadline at the moment (I know, I know -- so why am I here then?) but can check it out later this afternoon.

Suzana

Originally Posted by Zana

Hi, Latifa. That may actually be from the video I mentioned. I'm on deadline at the moment (I know, I know -- so why am I here then?) but can check it out later this afternoon.

Suzana

Aha! Mine doesn't feature Nagwa too, so I didn't put 2 and 2 together. But take care of your deadline!

Off I go!

Originally Posted by Zana

it doesn't show anything like her style or appearance as I had heard them described.

I have heard from people who frequented Cairo "back in the day" that Soheir Zaki was a more versatile dancer than we tend to think of her. In particular, one man I know described her night club shows as being very different form the pieces she would present for braodcast media, and he preferred her nightclub style as being more energetic and dynamic.

(Actually I'm being tactful. what he actually said was "I don't know why she's so boring when on TV")

She was amazing when we saw her in 1988... I have some great pix from that show.

It seems to me that in a lot of the Soheir clips that are on youtube and out of context, she's kind of "treading water" in place, doing the same moves repeatedly. Maybe she only had a tiny spot to dance in, or other restrictions, because of the filming circumstances.

O.K. The Abu Dhabi vid is good but it's Sohair in her younger days when supposedly her style was simpler. In fact, most of the videos available of her, plus most of the movie tableaux are of her younger days and younger style.

Two Egyptian dance experts whose opinions I trust (Aziz of Salt Lake City and A'isha Azar of Spokane) have described to me how much more complex her style became in her later years of dancing (late 80s early 90's). Unfortunately, other than the Sweet Star vid, there is no easily accessible (for us in the US) footage of her during these later years that I know of.

The footage A'isha has, that I have seen but not studied carefully, is an old worn out VHS tape that was converted from a pal VHS tape that came from Momo Kadous in Germany, where Sohair did some shows in the early 90's after she had begun to retire. If you go to Momo's website, and click "bazar" you will see some of these (search for "saki"). However, I have written to him and he only has them in pal VHS format. I have thought a couple of times about buying them, but they are expensive and I don't have a way of converting them.

I wish he would put them out on DVD.

Sedonia

Hi again. I checked on this ('cause a girl's got to break for lunch, right?) and the case reads "Saut Wa Soora 1214, Najwa & Suhair Zaki in Abu-Dabi."

Didn't have time to note down all the music, but here are the segments in order:

1. Stage performance by Nagwa in sleeveless lilac assuit with silver paillettes and big hair. Even the musicians have big hair -- the ones that have hair, anyway.
2. Stage performance by Soheir in the red assuit with short bell sleeves and giant gold paillettes. Nebtidi is the first song in this set.
3. Stage performance by Nagwa in one of her classic 70s bedlah costumes that from the front appears to consist mainly of legs, fringe, and hair. It's black and silver. She's wearing a headband that for me says "Charlie's Angels," for some reason.
All three of the above feature cane, as I recall.
4. Studio performance by Soheir on a set of circular risers. Extremely covetable assuit dress in a rich dark blue -- somebody find me one, please!
5. This is the weird one:
Nagwa in shiny, fringe-y red and a relatively restrained glossy bob is miniaturized and projected onto an ornate inlaid table behind which loom two seated singers. Male singer also plays oud and wears a tarbouche; female singer seems to be wearing a tiara. Tabletop Nagwa's size relative to the singers and the table changes throughout the clip, but she is shown on the table throughout. She dances a couple minutes of this segment on her knees, which I don't remember seeing her do elsewhere.

This brought up two OT-but-related questions for me, which I can re-post elsewhere if they're in the way here:

Does anyone know there are plans to re-release the Saut Wa Soora videos or the material from them on DVD? I remember hearing a couple of years ago that SWS had had to shut down because the pirates were bleeding them dry, but that's the last I knew (or thought I knew) of them.

Where does the idea come from that it's disrespectful not to wear a concealing slip or other base layer under an assuit dress? Is that incorrect? I've heard this from several instructors I consider very reliable, but Soheir at least certainly isn't wearing anything but a bra and panties under hers. I've noticed this in old movie clips as well. For me it's mostly academic -- I prefer not to show my legs much anyway because they're not especially pretty. But I would like to know if it is generally considered OK to wear, say, a plain red bra and straight red skirt under a red assuit dress or whether more coverage is advised.

This is a pretty good clip of Sohair:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ejkhspdgdo]YouTube - Eddy's Egypt Presents Soheir Zaki[/ame]

Originally Posted by Zana

Hi again. I checked on this ('cause a girl's got to break for lunch, right?) and the case reads "Saut Wa Soora 1214, Najwa & Suhair Zaki in Abu-Dabi."

Didn't have time to note down all the music, but here are the segments in order:

1. Stage performance by Nagwa in sleeveless lilac assuit with silver paillettes and big hair. Even the musicians have big hair -- the ones that have hair, anyway.
2. Stage performance by Soheir in the red assuit with short bell sleeves and giant gold paillettes. Nebtidi is the first song in this set.
3. Stage performance by Nagwa in one of her classic 70s bedlah costumes that from the front appears to consist mainly of legs, fringe, and hair. It's black and silver. She's wearing a headband that for me says "Charlie's Angels," for some reason.
All three of the above feature cane, as I recall.
4. Studio performance by Soheir on a set of circular risers. Extremely covetable assuit dress in a rich dark blue -- somebody find me one, please!
5. This is the weird one:
Nagwa in shiny, fringe-y red and a relatively restrained glossy bob is miniaturized and projected onto an ornate inlaid table behind which loom two seated singers. Male singer also plays oud and wears a tarbouche; female singer seems to be wearing a tiara. Tabletop Nagwa's size relative to the singers and the table changes throughout the clip, but she is shown on the table throughout. She dances a couple minutes of this segment on her knees, which I don't remember seeing her do elsewhere.

This brought up two OT-but-related questions for me, which I can re-post elsewhere if they're in the way here:

Does anyone know there are plans to re-release the Saut Wa Soora videos or the material from them on DVD? I remember hearing a couple of years ago that SWS had had to shut down because the pirates were bleeding them dry, but that's the last I knew (or thought I knew) of them.

Where does the idea come from that it's disrespectful not to wear a concealing slip or other base layer under an assuit dress? Is that incorrect? I've heard this from several instructors I consider very reliable, but Soheir at least certainly isn't wearing anything but a bra and panties under hers. I've noticed this in old movie clips as well. For me it's mostly academic -- I prefer not to show my legs much anyway because they're not especially pretty. But I would like to know if it is generally considered OK to wear, say, a plain red bra and straight red skirt under a red assuit dress or whether more coverage is advised.

Thanks, Zana! Obviously my friend didn't copy the whole video... but then again she knows that Nagwa was never one of my faves.

There are a lot of Saut wa Soora DVDs, BTW. I get mine from Bellydance Marketplace on eBay.

Thanks for the DVD tip, Latifa.

Care to weigh in on the underwear-for-assuit-dress issue? I have a lot of respect for your views.

Suzana

Morocco's Stars of Egyptian Dance #4 features 1979 and 1983 footage of Suhair Zaki. It's not as bright and clear as the made for tv stuff, of course, but I think it's well worth the cost (esp. since one of my favorites, Aza Sherif, is also on that video).

I have some of the clips from "Saut Wa Soora 1214, Najwa & Suhair Zaki in Abu-Dabi" on a DVD I got on eBay a while back--of course it's at home and I'm at work, so I can't tell you what it's called. That Nagwa tabletop clip seriously makes me nauseous, I don't think I've ever watched it all the way through (I'm not a big fan of hers anyway). It's also got Suhair in the blue dress on the circular risers, and one of my favorite performances ever, Aza Sherif doing her baladi-desert-drum thing. I'll try to remember to look it up when I get home...

Originally Posted by Zana

Thanks for the DVD tip, Latifa.

Care to weigh in on the underwear-for-assuit-dress issue? I have a lot of respect for your views.

Suzana

Suzana, I've seen several dancers from that era wear sheer Assuit or metallic lace dresses with just undies and a hip scarf. And there are many clips from the Golden Age dancers that show dancers wearing bedlahs with very sheer skirts and visible underwear. My own preference is to wear at least a slip underneath my Assuit dresses. I would rather have the audience watch my dancing than be distracted by a peep show.

Thanks, Latifa. That's good to know!

On the subject, I actually ordered the Souhair Zaki in America dvd from Jodette but she never sent it. I've been meaning to bug her about it again, but I'm not sure that will help much, because I have let a considerable amount of time pass. here's her website:

Jodette International

Do any of you a)have this video and if so what do you think of it?

b)have local access to Jodette and can get a copy from her, since ordering from her long distance has proven futile for me?

I'd really like to get my hands on this footage. I think it's of the later variety that Sedonia mentioned.

Ooh! keep us updated.

Originally Posted by shems

On the subject, I actually ordered the Souhair Zaki in America dvd from Jodette but she never sent it. I've been meaning to bug her about it again, but I'm not sure that will help much, because I have let a considerable amount of time pass. here's her website:

Jodette International

Do any of you a)have this video and if so what do you think of it?

b)have local access to Jodette and can get a copy from her, since ordering from her long distance has proven futile for me?

I'd really like to get my hands on this footage. I think it's of the later variety that Sedonia mentioned.

okay, I got my dvd from Jodette. I don't know if it's Souhair in America or Souhair Live, because I ordered the one, but it was labeled the other. I'm going to have to call her and find out for sure and possibly get the counter part as well. The footage is a little old and fuzzy looking, though not too bad, and the camera person occasionally wanders into a crowd shot, but Souhair's dancing in this video is great. I'd say totally worth picking up.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Just for curiosity's sake, which video would you say shows Soheir Zaki's dancing to best advantage?

I borrowed a video once of her and it was one of my favorites. I believe it was called "Egypt Night" (or Nights) The first number she does is in a green costume. She does various styles in the video which is great. I believe this number is also from that video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfRATlwjxqo&feature=related]YouTube - Suheir Zaki - a bellydance Legend[/ame]
Someone told me once that it was re-done under a different name but I cannot verify that. There is also another one of my favorites where she dances down these round shaped stairs. It used to be on You Tube as well but I could not find it for you. I believe this one is from one of the "Old Time Dancers" series.

She also has a lovely number in, "The Legends of Bellydance." There may be more than one, but one of my favorites is in this DVD. Here it is on You Tube: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH4q8gYlYEI]YouTube - Soheir Zaki[/ame]

She is one of my favorites too and it is tough to find footage of her.

Good Luck,

Lisa

Originally Posted by Lisa Michelle

She is one of my favorites too and it is tough to find footage of her.

Good Luck,

Lisa

She is one of my favorites, too, but I have to say that none of the footage I've seen holds a candle to the performances I saw in Cairo in the 1980's. She's really a magical dancer and I'm so glad I got to see her live. Her costuming was much more flattering too. She wore a lovely pink costume that made her look like a princess, and a green sequinned beledi dress that I still covet, with little paisley appliqués. Hmmm, I have pix somewhere.

I have definately incountered the little circle and flower thingy on some of the Suhar Zaki tapes, as well as the camera men who seem to have a foot fetish or zoom in on other places suddenly! (One reason we know they are "camera men")

I have one DVD that I love with mostly Suhar, but there are also pieces with other dancers, including a Kaligi performed by a very young Fifi Abdo! (I love Fifi!!!) Anywho, the DVD is simply called "Egypt Nights" Produced and Distributed By MEGA MUSIC Company. You should definately check it out, its one of my favs.
-Shani

Originally Posted by shanidancer8

I have definately incountered the little circle and flower thingy on some of the Suhar Zaki tapes, as well as the camera men who seem to have a foot fetish or zoom in on other places suddenly! (One reason we know they are "camera men")

I have one DVD that I love with mostly Suhar, but there are also pieces with other dancers, including a Kaligi performed by a very young Fifi Abdo! (I love Fifi!!!) Anywho, the DVD is simply called "Egypt Nights" Produced and Distributed By MEGA MUSIC Company. You should definately check it out, its one of my favs.
-Shani

I googled and can't find it, where would one get "Egypt Nights"?

Originally Posted by Lisa Michelle

She also has a lovely number in, "The Legends of Bellydance." There may be more than one, but one of my favorites is in this DVD. Here it is on You Tube: YouTube - Soheir Zaki

Ah yes, this performance comes from the movie al-Fatenah wa-l-Saalouk, sold in DVD form with English subtitles as Beauty and the Scoundrel. You can find it at FineArt Film!, Arabic DVD . Soheir's role is a very minor one - some gangsters go to a club where she happens to be performing. The story line in this scene focuses on the gangsters' conversation, and Soheir is just eye candy. (In other words, if you already have Legends there's not really any point in buying Beauty and the Scoundrel as well unless you would enjoy a movie about gangsters who stalk a young woman in the belief she knows where some booty is hidden. This is the only dance scene in the entire movie, there really isn't any story context to speak of, and Legends contains the entire scene intact.)

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Suzana, I've seen several dancers from that era wear sheer Assuit or metallic lace dresses with just undies and a hip scarf. And there are many clips from the Golden Age dancers that show dancers wearing bedlahs with very sheer skirts and visible underwear. My own preference is to wear at least a slip underneath my Assuit dresses. I would rather have the audience watch my dancing than be distracted by a peep show.

Definitely what Latifa said! I usually wear a slip under Assuit, lace, other sheers for the same reason.