Egyptian belly dancers are an endangered species. On the road to extinction. That is, if there isn’t a belly dance renaissance in Egypt sometime soon. Even Dina fears as much. For the truth is, aside from Dina, Randa, Camelia, and more recently, Aziza, there is a conspicuous lack of good Egyptian belly dancers on the market. This is ironic, considering that most of us imagine Egypt to be Planet Belly Dance, and that Egypt is the home of belly dance legends Samia Gamal, Fifi Abdo, and Soheir Zaki. There are also at least 40 million Egyptian women living here. You would think that with those numbers, this music and dance-oriented country could produce a few more star belly dancers. Yet the reality is that an ugly combination of economic and socio-religious factors is robbing this country of one of its greatest artistic achievements.
I remember first moving to Cairo and being excited about all the belly dancers I thought I would see. Expecting to discover hundreds of naturally talented women, I visited nearly every venue that featured belly dancing. But what I expected and what I discovered were two different things. To my dismay, the level of dancing here of most Egyptian belly dancers is appallingly low. To be frank, it is quite bad. With the notable exceptions of the four superstars I previously mentioned, the majority of Egyptian dancers leave a lot to be desired.
Here’s why. First, their technique is generally limited and awkward, a result of their never studying the dance seriously. Second, props such as veils, canes and melayas are irrelevant. Not too many dancers incorporate them into their performances anymore. If they do, they do so rather unskillfully. Third, their costumes are usually cheap, raunchy, and reinforce the negative image of belly dancing that we try to combat. Fourth, their stage presence and overall professionalism is lacking. I lost track of the number of times I have seen a dancer take the stage looking pissed. Hence the mind numbingly lame performances I have grown to expect from most dancers here.
While this level of performance is expected in the cabarets of Haram Street (Pyramid Street), it is unacceptable in five-star venues. In cabarets, the customers are mainly Egyptian and Arab men who are there for the flesh factor. In five-star venues, however, both tourists and Egyptians expect to see a quality belly dance show. The dancer is representing belly dance to the world, and in many cases, introducing it to tourists for the first time. It is therefore essential that top tourist venues avoid third rate dancers at all costs, as that has been known to cause dissatisfied tour guides to demand refunds.
I speak from personal experience, having witnessed this many times. Customers feel that the performance they watched was subpar and not worth what they paid. So, they ask for a refund. I would too if I paid to watch a woman with a gloomy look on her face chew gum and prance around the stage doing absolutely no hip or belly work. When this happens, venue management compensates for the loss in revenue by deducting the refunded amount from the total given to the dancer and her band.
Intrigued as any of us could be by this apparent absurdity, I decided to talk to some Egyptian dancers about it. The results of my conversations are both telling and sad.
According to my ‘research,’ most of these dancers have never trained a day in their lives. Not a single dance class. They admit this with pride, thinking it gives the impression that they are belly dance prodigies. Classes are for foreigners and failures. A more sociologically interesting reason for their refusal to train, however, lies in their views on belly dancing. The very same women who dance professionally believe that what they are doing is shameful. Which means it is haram (sinful). And something cannot be both sinful and art at the same time. Thus, what is haram does not deserve any serious effort. The belief that performing belly dance is sinful is mainly indebted to Islam, which holds a firm grip on the collective Egyptian imagination. Like other religions, Islam requires strict female modesty and frowns upon women who publicly expose their bodies.
This way of perceiving the dance is also the result of a system that keeps its people starving in every way—intellectually, culturally, economically, and for many, quite literally. Average Egyptians are too worried about where their next meal will come from to be thinking about art (yes, the economic situation here is that bad… and fragile and unpredictable). One little terrorist attack, or perhaps a revolution, and these women find themselves out of work and at the mercy of their meager savings (and men). In a country with no guarantees and no social safety nets, it is inconceivable that dancers would spend any part of their income on something as frivolous as a dance class. Rather, they invest their earnings in acquiring assets, mainly apartments and cars, and on their kids’ education. This shows how art cannot flourish in a society unless a certain minimum standard of economic well-being has been attained.
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Things were not always this bad. Just thirty years ago, the Egyptian belly dance business was thriving. At that time, Egypt had a reliable flow of Arab tourists from the Gulf who came to enjoy the fruits forbidden to them in their own puritanical societies. Their presence and petrodollars fueled Egyptian nightlife, of which belly dancing was a mainstay. These Gulf tourists, along with wealthier Egyptians, were the biggest patrons of well-known dancers. They were the ones who did the hiring at weddings and at other private functions. Starting in the nineties, this all went downhill. With the conclusion of the first Gulf War, many Kuwaitis and Saudis living in Egypt went back home to rebuild their countries. Others stopped vacationing in Egypt on account of the harassment they received from religious fundamentalists who would try to dissuade them from entering cabarets. Basically, the entertainment industry’s main source of funds had dried up. So did artistic innovation.
With the economy as bad as it is now, not even the belief that dancing is haram can stop women from making a living as belly dancers now. If anything, belly dancing has become more attractive as a profession. This is because it is relatively lucrative and requires no skill set whatsoever. Kind of like prostitution. Hence the association. The least a dancer can make in one night in a cabaret is 100 EGP (roughly $17 USD), which is a decent daily income in Egypt. (For perspective, more than half the population lives on less than $2 USD a day.) This is assuming she only dances at one cabaret and makes no tips, which isn’t typically the case. Most dancers work at multiple venues every night and make tips in addition to their salary, so they are making much more than 100 EGP a night. Indeed, between salary and tips, a dancer could make thousands of pounds in one night. Most Egyptians do not make that much in a year! So, it’s understandable that from a financial perspective, belly dancing is a good source of income, however shameful it might be.
Another factor negatively impacting the dance scene here is the changing entertainment preferences of younger Egyptians. Whereas belly dancing used to be a popular form of entertainment up until recently, western style discos, alcohol, and drugs have become the preferred methods of amusement these days. But the biggest competitor to the dance thus far is the DJ. Compared with hiring a belly dancer to dance at a restaurant or at a wedding, hiring a DJ is cheap and easy. And it is devoid of the stigma that comes with hiring a belly dancer in more conservative circles. Additionally, people’s attention spans have narrowed. Fewer people look forward to sitting through a dance performance when they have the option to tear up the dance floor while the DJ spins. People are looking for a more interactive entertainment experience these days. Unfortunately, this results in fewer performance opportunities for professional belly dancers.
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If you have never been to Egypt before, or if you have but are not really familiar with the dance scene, you probably think I am lying or exaggerating the gravity situation. I assure you I am not. Even talent agents constantly complain about the lack of good Egyptian dancers. I guess it’s the kind of thing you have to see to believe, though. Like when I took a friend with me to see an Egyptian dancer on a Nile cruise, she confessed that until she actually watched the performance, she thought I was exaggerating when I warned her how bad it would be. Actually, she thought the dancer was a lot worse than I had described!
It is counterintuitive that in the birthplace of belly dance, this beautiful art is dying. And speaking of death, if you ask Egyptians who their favorite belly dancer is, most of them will say Samia Gamal, who is, well, dead. As for the current generation of belly dancers, Egyptians generally claim they aren’t fond of them or even know who they are—except for than Dina, of course. But many consider a porn star rather than a dancer (their words, not mine).
Alas, this is the current state of the art. Its development and very survival depends on Egypt undergoing some major social, economic and political reform. More liberal attitudes towards women, art, and gender relations, coupled with a bustling economy, will be necessary to revive the glory days of this dance. But with the Beard Brigade on the loose, it is difficult for me to envision these reforms taking place. If anything, I’m concerned the Beard Brigade will deal belly dance its final death blow.
My fears are not exaggerated. One need only look at how these fanatics burned down several cabarets on Haram Street during the first weeks of the uprising. And that was not the first time either. This same exact thing has happened before. In 1977, religious fanatics burned twelve Haram Street cabarets to the ground in an attempt to cleanse Cairo of its ‘vice.’ While Egyptian nightlife made an eventual rebound, the idea that nightlife is haram made a huge impact on the dance scene. Belly dancing has never been the same since.
In addition to being one of the reasons dancers generally don’t put serious effort into their art, the condemnation of belly dance has deterred many women from entering the profession in the first place. It is also the reason many of the dancers quit as soon as they snag a husband; he becomes their main source of income. Unfortunately, it is usually the younger, prettier, more talented dancers who wind up ending their careers prematurely. This has resulted in a serious decline in the quality of dancing, and a Cairo night scene that has become more about sleazy hooker joints than about music and dance.
That being said, one can only hope the Beards find more important things to do once they take over Egypt. Short of that happening, I’m afraid the dance profession might be seeing its last days.
For additional perspectives on this topic, check out the following links:
Belly Dancing: A Dying Art? (http://dance-news.blogspot.com/2009/12/belly-dancing-dying-art.html)
Belly Dancer Fears Her Art is Dying (http://www.bhuz.com/belly-dance-traditions-styles/16425-dina-egypt-belly-dancing-dead-part-1-a.html)
FYI- Of Muslims and Music (http://casbahdance.blogspot.com/2006/03/fyi-of-muslims-music-from-national.html)
Gilded Serpent presents: Interview with Safaa Farid (http://www.gildedserpent.com/art38/LeilaINTSafaa.htm)