The "Fifi Abdo" Hip Circle

In class last week I referred (again!) to the "Fifi Abdo" hip circle.  This is my label, but Fifi Abdo, a top dancer in Egypt starting in the 70s, does it very well and very often in videos I've seen of her dancing.  On this site, I have a page with information for new dancers.  One of the videos is the one I'm reposting here.  She's wearing a classic white robe and dancing with live musicians and finger cymbals.  This one of my favorite videos of her dancing. The hip circle is at 1:17 minutes.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.  I never tire of watching this clip!

Egypt Explored in Upcoming Panels

Two panels on the ongoing changes in Egypt are coming up, both sponsored by the New School.  First, on Thursday, April 12, the New School presents a full day of talks titled "Egypt in Transition."  At 10 a.m. is "Roots and Character of the Egyptian Revolution" with speakers including Cairo journalist Yasmine El-Rashidi who impressed me last September at the Brooklyn Book Festival;  at 2:30 p.m., "Possible Outcomes of the Egyptian Revolution"; and, at 6:30 p.m., a keynote lecture on Egypt's future will be presented by Saad Eddin Ibrahim, founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies.  The event is free but registration is required at the Center for Public Scholarship's registration website or by writing cps@newschool.edu

Mona Eltahawy

On May 3, at 8 p.m. Mona Eltahawy and other guests will give an update  in "Understanding Egypt."  This event also takes place at The New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th Street in Manhattan.  Tickets are $15; 866-811-4111. This event is part of PEN World Voices, an exploration of international literature that happens every spring.  

Film: "Egypt: The Story Behind the Revolution"

Egypt: the story behind the revolution " Trailer 2" from Khaled Sayed on Vimeo.

Filmmaker Khaled Sayed showed his film "Egypt: The Story Behind the Revolution" at Alwan.  Seeing these activists recount their own experiences was valuable as was seeing original and reproduced clips from news agencies.  There was the reminder that  middle class students who started the uprisings were joined by the masses a few days later, a tearful reminiscence from a protester who claimed she had no expectation at first they would be able to remove Mubarak, and all interviewed voiced a continuous refrain that people from all classes and religions were brought together as a unified voice of Egypt, one longing for dignity.  Most of the audience members who asked questions after the screening were primarily interested in hearing themselves talk (assumed repression of the woman's voice, religious strife, and other Orientalist reductions), but Sayed graciously managed to get in some original information about more recent ongoings, such as his disappointment with political tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood who, according to him, stooped to the campaign tricks of the ousted predecessors.  A film definitely worth seeing.  

Randa Kamal: Egyptian Style Dance

I love this video for many reasons.  I've seen Randa every time I've been in Egypt and her graceful athleticism has always impressed me.  She has a style that's strong and as "no nonesense" as I've seen.  Additionally, in this video, you can really see her legs and the posture that is often called "Egyptian style" in the States.  By this, I mean the straighter, long-legged posture that gives the shimmies and hip-lifts the relaxed flavor of an afterthought that in my view is inherent to modern "Egyptian style" belly dance.

And....Randa always looks like she's having a great time time!  

Level 2 Class: Entrances with Veils

In last Friday's class, I mentioned both the famous dancer Dina (the music we were using for an exercise was named for her) and also the use of the veil as an entrance prop more than a dance prop. YouTube has a great video of Dina demonstrating this technique. This is an older video, but Dina was still in amazing shape when I last saw her, and in this clip, she dances beautifully. The music is live and worth the watch.

Enjoy! Bring your veils on Friday!

Revolution on Every Street in Egypt

To follow events: The Nation: Revolution on Every Street in Egypt, M. Lynx Qualey still reporting on arts and literature while living in Cairo in Arabic Literature (in Translation), and on Democracy Now: Live Coverage of the Mubarak Resignation.

Watching Egypt

This moment in Egyptian history is sobering and stunning. Speculations are useless, but in trying to stay informed of shifting elements and powers, the following resources have been most informative for me:
Democracy Now's Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports live from Cairo:

and also offers perspective from Egyptian novelist Nawaal El Sadaawi and on the US's role. Also the Angry News Service and the Nation have been worth reading. My friend M. Lynx Qualey has had her thorough and important site, Arab Literature(in English), suspended.

Reading Notes: Flaubert (2) Landscapes with Slaves

Continuing my literary excursion with Flaubert, the slavery connotations disturb me far more than the prostitutes or the sexualized interpretations of the dancing. The dancers (almeh and bardashes) appear to have some agency, (Kuchuk Hanem employs her own servants and keeps her money in the bank), and are worth conversing with in Flaubert's view. The slavery system depicted--the ships from Nubia, the older women hired to console the young female slaves embarking on their dismal futures, and the man who got away--haunts because the people exploited have no voices, no direct interaction with Flaubert. Flaubert, in his southern most jaunt in Upper Egypt, sees a camel running through the desert with a Nubian man tied to him. Flaubert surmises that the slave is being pulled to freedom by the animal.


Flaubert reports these sights. The fact that he reports them perhaps says what he is able to at that time. But the cool reportage is unnerving mixed in with the detail of an idealized landscape and laced with the specificity that would become part of the future novelist's trademark:
Sunset over Medinet Habu: The mountains are dark indigo (on the Medinet Habu side); blue over dark gray, with contrasting horizontal stripes of purplish red in the clefts of the valleys. The palms are black as ink, the sky is red, the Nile has the look of a lake of molten steel.
When we arrived off Thebes, our sailors were drumming on their darabukehs, the mate was playing his flute, Khalil was dancing with his castanets; they broke off to land.
It was then, as I was enjoying those things, and just as I was watching the wave-crests bending under the wind behind us, I felt a surge of solemn happiness that reached out toward what I was seeing, and I thanked God in my heart for having made me capable of such joy; I felt fortunate at the thought, and yet it seemed to me that I was thinking of nothing: it was a sensuous pleasure that pervaded my entire being."