Thread: Naima Akef's Birthday.

So few are truly talented and those who are rarely possess sufficient tenacity to drive such talent towards achieving greatness. Naima Akef possessed both unusual qualities.

As a child she challenged her older sister to become the star of her family-owned circus. As a young teenager, she fought with spectators on the streets of Cairo while performing acrobatics to keep starvation at bay. Later in her teen years, she forwent sleep while working at the Casino Opera choosing instead to practice overnight in order to learn new dance techniques.

By the time she was in her early twenties, she was Egypt’s darling of the silver screen, a position she would occupy for nearly a decade. During that highly fertile period, she revolutionized how the dance was to be presented in motion pictures.

Of her dance, contemporaries thought she combined innovation with uncommon grace. Samia Gamal opined that no one had done more to further the dance since Carioca and Badia Masabni said Akef was the most industrious artist she’d ever encountered.

Her untimely death was a debilitating blow to Egyptian arts. She would have been 82 today.

Aw, no clips? Here are a couple she's famous for:






She experimented with other styles of dance. She's doing a mambo here with some guy who looks sort of familiar...




Here's a cute medley of dances where she also sings a bit.

Thanks for letting us know today would have been her birthday! I remember the first time I saw the movie Tamra Henna, I was really struck by her strong charisma.

She was such a multi-talented person, able to sing, dance in multiple styles, and do acrobatics.

Her sister Fatma lived and worked in San Francisco for a time in the 1960's, at a club called the Bagdad.

when she first started dancing at Ali El Kassar's theater in 1944 she was immediately noticed for her nuanced interpretation. Like Minerva, she leaped forth from the body of Egyptian music fully mature. I see that in her very first on-screen moment dancing next to Abdel Aziz Mahmoud.



At first, one sees Taheya's and Biba's influence in that early performance. But it's that graceful Effortlessness that enthralls. Abdel Aziz Mahmoud wrote Ya Mzawa'a Ya Ward in 1939 (ten years before this performance) and it's an extraordinarily delicate composition. It was also one of the very first songs that Morsi Gamil Aziz wrote the words for (he was only 18 at the time). Akef renders that delicate composition, Gamil Aziz's sumptuous allegory, and Abdel Aziz Mahmoud's serene and elegant voice with equal delicacy and elegance. To me, what Akef does in this clip is the essence of Raqs Sharqi. Through her, the already ethereal dominion of esthetic, poignant music is transcended into a realm of nearly inexplicable beauty.

Originally Posted by Alexandrian

I see that in her very first on-screen moment dancing next to Abdel Aziz Mahmoud.

Interesting that you would link this particular clip. I came across it last week while pulling clips for Aziz Mahmoud and I didn't even recognize her at first. (I'm still wading through the list of names of musicians you've posted in other threads.) I also find the length of his tie interesting. I believe the fashion in the US was for ties that just barely hit the top of the belt in 1949. That is one crazy-long tie.

At first, one sees Taheya's and Biba's influence in that early performance.

I'll have to take your word on Biba's influence. This is the only clip of Biba I've come across, and other than both doing the splits, I'm not sure I would have noticed a similarity. Naima's armwork is much better than Biba's. I'm tempted to link this clip in the "History and urban legends" thread, though. She appears to be doing those weighted downs that I've heard people claim Souheir "invented."

Biba's influence is actually one of the most significant in the early development of the dance. During the early days of the Casino Opera, Badia ran the joint, did PR, hired dancers and designed the sets. Biba did most of the choreography and costume design. Carioca, Gamal, Akef and Biba's sister, Zouzou, all acknowledged her influence and you can see how they all share some common technique. She never had much of a repertoire as a dancer however. She clearly preferred a behind-the-scene role as a producer and the hostess of Egypt's most famous performance arts salon.

Wasn't Beba the one who was the German spy during WW2? Didn't she die in a very suspicious car accident in 1950? I read that somewhere in Egypt.

Naima's arms and hands were exquisite. I had never seen this clip before.

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Didn't she die in a very suspicious car accident in 1950? I read that somewhere in Egypt.

Could be. Egyptian Wikipedia (ببا عز الدين - ويكيپيديا مصرى) calls the accident "فظيعه" ("terrible, shocking") and Elcinema (السينيما - ببا عز الدين) went with "أليم" ("painful, grievous"). Whatever kind of accident it was, it wasn't good.

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Wasn't Beba the one who was the German spy during WW2? Didn't she die in a very suspicious car accident in 1950? I read that somewhere in Egypt.

Naima's arms and hands were exquisite. I had never seen this clip before.

I don't know much about Beba, but Hekhmat Fahmy was the dancer who was arrested for being a German spy during World War 2. So far as I know, Hekhmat was the only dancer arrested for spying.

Asmahan al-Atrache (Farid's sister) was a singer who died in a suspicious car accident in 1944. Journalists spread gossip that she was involved in spying, but she had never been formally arrested/charged with it, so I view it as unsubstantiated rumor. But then, another unsubstantiated rumor spread around her death was that it was arranged by Oum Kalthoum to remove a competitor.

Rumers. Always interesting as a guide to alterior motives.

My favorites are the ones surrounding Asmahan, especially the one about Umm Kulthum.

The spying accusation was de rigeuer in Egypt between the end of WW2 and 1954. Very convenient and always impossible to prove.

Biba's end was one of those head-on collision topple-into-the-Nile things. Not pretty.

One of the tv channels here has put together this excellent retrospective on Naima Akef's film career.
Part 1:


Part 2: