SAHRA SAEEDA'S JOURNEY THROUGH EGYPT: FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTURE AND BEYOND...

 Sahra Saeeda is an international treasure, one of the grande dames of oriental dance. She is to Egyptian dance what Howard Carter and his discovery of King Tut's tomb were to the world of archaeology.

She’s taught and inspired thousands of dancers all over the globe during the course of her incredible career.  She is a generous and giving instructor, passionately sharing wealth of knowledge of raqs sharqi and Egyptian folklore, in both her international dance workshops as well as her popular four -part intensive, Journey Through Egypt, which she also presents around the world.  Her incredibly elegant, soft and thoroughly Egyptian style of belly dance is gorgeous, and she performs with command and grace, reflecting an almost otherworldly passion for the dance that is extremely rare. She has always been a huge influence on me, not only as a baby dancer, but also to this very day…and I’m sure many other dancers can say the same thing!

  Sahra is quite possibly one of the world’s leading authorities on Egyptian dance, and her position is unique: though scholarly and thorough in her approach, her writing and field research is never dry or boring because she adores her work.  And unlike almost any other scholars, Sahra didn’t just study the dance in its myriad forms, she lived it.

Sahra at UCLA with Mahmoud Reda & Farida Fahmy

  She is one of a small handful of foreign dancers to have really “made it” in Egypt, becoming a star.  In 1983, a fortuitous chance meeting with The Reda Troupe’s legendary diva Farida Fahmy at UCLA’s Dance Ethnology Masters program where they were both studying, lead to a longstanding and close friendship, which ultimately facilitated Sahra’s move to Cairo.

 Sahra recalls,

“I was doing my Masters Theses on the zeffah – the Egyptian bridal procession- and was asking questions but getting all sorts of different answers. When I asked (Farida Fahmy) about this, she asked me if I knew what cities, villages or areas the people I was talking to were from; or if knew anything about their class, socio-economical group, or that sort of thing.  She told me that the only way I would really find out the answers was to come to Egypt…so I did!”

Sahra with Sayyed Al Joker, in the Le Meriedien days

  In 1989, Sahra departed for Egypt, on what was supposed to be a three month long research trip. Instead, from an audition Fahmy set up, Sahra wound up living and working in Cairo for nearly six years, performing nightly at the chic Le Meridien Hotel doing countless shows with her own orchestra and back up dancers.

  As if that wasn’t enough of an accomplishment on it’s own, in between rehearsals and shows, she used her time to put her extensive scholarly background in Athrolopology and Dance Ethnology to work.   Throughout the years, Sahra’s creative output has been as significant as it is prolific- there are few artists whose body of work can compare to hers. Aside from making terrific performance  & instructional videos and recording music CDs while in Cairo, she also did extensive field research, filming all over Egypt.

Saidi Wedding, shot during a JTE research trip

 Journey Through Egypt is based on her work, study and lifestyle, and has been an absolute must for dancers of all levels for years. Recently, JTE has gone online, providing a much-needed resource   for dancers who really want to understand where these unique folkloric traditions stem from.

 And even more recently, Sahra has started a Kickstarter fundraiser to convert her   extensive library of over thirty years worth research to digital file before they disintegrate- and so they can be put on line.  She has hundreds of audio cassettes and video tapes to digital, so they can be put online, preserved as a resource for anybody- dancers, musicians, scholars, costumers, dance aficionados- to study and enjoy into the future.

“During my time in Egypt, I sought out people to interview about the various dances found throughout the country and more…. from stars to  “lower class” dancers- it doesn’t matter to me, it’s all valid, and all of it needs to be preserved!”,
Sahra says. Taking a breath, she continues,
“Recently I rounded up all of the old tapes that had been scattered about my office and storage unit and my assistant and I found over two hundred cassette tapes packed with research footage on the various dance zones of Egypt!”

Sahra with superstar Fifi Abdou, Cairo, 1990's

There are books in the works, too, which will be presented in both online and hardcopy format.

“ The way I am doing the series of books is similar to my Zeffah Primer. It will be a series, with each book about fifty pages,” she says,

 “The first "volume" of each region will be an overview of the area and the dances within it.  I like to structure my research this way:

1. To note which dances are of the indigenous (non-professional) population in their daily lives

 2. The local professional dancers & musicians and how they dance

 3. How the regional group represents the dances of each area of the country

 4. How Mahmoud Reda and the Reda Troupe represent this region's dances on the theatrical stage

 5. The way the Kowmeyya Troupe does the same

 6. How Cairo entertainers (particularly belly dancers) represent each region’s dances in the professional context of their shows. “

 Though this is a massive undertaking, clearly Sahra is more than enthused   to continue   her important work, her life’s work. The incredible response to her Kickstarter funding project has been more than she could have ever hoped for.

“ Now I can keep returning to Egypt to do even more research!”                               

Bedoiun girls from the Siwa Oasis

  She adds, “And I can also hire a professional videographer and sound person, instead of taking film on my crappy little camera, with the sounds getting drowned out by Cairo traffic! I’ve secured a fantastic interpreter from Aswan who used to work with National Geographic, too!’

 She stops for a moment before admitting,

“I’m so overwhelmed an honored that I get to do this… we’ve reached above and beyond even our Stretch Goals, and everyone has been so generous…. the comments and the things people are saying…well, I’ve actually been sitting here crying with happiness for the past three days!”

 If you would like to make Sahra cry even harder- and help preserve the history of our art for future generations by contributing to this important project, please visit this link, which will be live for only FIVE MORE DAYS:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/421917208/journey-through-egypt-dance-archive

Keep up with all of the news on Sahra’s JTE Facebook Page here:

https://www.facebook.com/JtE.Egypt

 

In Situ: Sahra in Aswan, Egypt, 2013

CAIRO AFTER HOURS PART II

After having whet my appetite during my mind-boggling evening at Amoun in Cairo’s Mohandeseen District, I was on a mission to experience as many “locals only” type late-night Egyptian cabarets as possible!
The next night, my friend, Ahmed, a merchant from The New Khan Al Khalili Bazaar took me to The Lido.
“You will LOVE this place”, he promised, making me swear that if I did, I wouldn’t go there on my own, because “Sometimes bad people go here”.

He also told me that on one occasion, he’d brought the legendary Egyptian dancer Fifi Abdou to the Lido and she had a great time, although none of the regular patrons thought it was really she…
”You will see why!”, he said, arching an eyebrow.
We took a cab to Pyramids Road, and the Lido, which is located in the lobby of a slightly run-down hotel. Walking through the dark, open-air lobby/patio, many people greeted Ahmed, while I took note of the surroundings: groups of men and veiled women sat around smoking shisha, their attention directed towards two television sets: one a modern big screen TV mounted near the ceiling, the other a static-ridden vintage black and white model with “bunny-ears” antennae sitting on the counter of an un-manned front desk.

It was a little after 2:00 am when we nipped through a doorway into the club. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I noticed a sea of crowded tables and chairs, gargantuan shisha pipes cluttering the narrow aisles, their hoses providing an obstacle course for the waiters bustling around holding chairs over their heads, or darting precariously through the crows with pans full of glowing orange live coals for the pipes. The walls, some of them carpeted, were decorated with swags of disco lights tacked up in swirly patterns. The decibels were almost deafening in the tight space, but the band on the stage that dominated the room was great, consisting of an organ player, a violinist, two tabla players and a riq (tambourine) player. Whoever was singing the mournful shaabi had an amazing voice with a break in it - not unlike Hakim’s- but as I scanned the stage, I couldn’t seem to find the singer. I assumed he was walking around performing from the audience until I happened to look down. My jaw dropped when I realized the booming voice was coming from a tiny, barely two foot-tall dwarf! Clad all in white, he smiled and joked with the audience, clambering up on chairs between numbers to shake hands and high-five the patrons at their tables.

Seeing my reaction, Ahmed laughed and assured me I would also not believe my eyes when I saw the dancers. As if on cue, the tiny shaabi singer’s sister, also a little person, joined him onstage. In a red and gold beledy dress and coined head scarf, she danced exuberantly as her brother sang, performing an energetic drum solo as women from the audience joined in to dance along with her, towering at least three feet over her head!
Amidst the din, Ahmed ordered drinks and food, which arrived on an elaborate aluminum-foil-covered platter, resembling a cross between a spiky metallic UFO, and a miniature Mosque fashioned from tin foil, minarets and all.

Between the thick smoke in the air, the loud music, insane food display, the hot coals constantly brushing past me behind my back, plus the sheer amount of bodies pouring into the cramped club I almost felt as though I had entered a an alternate dimension, like Alice through the Rabbit Hole into Wonderland… or an Egyptian version of a John Waters movie- but things got even crazier.

Identical twin teenage dancers entered, their eyes and lips lined like Los Angeles-style “lowrider” gang-banger chicks. Both eschewed traditional bedlahs, clad in Western-Style “hoochie girl” dresses and high heels. At first, I thought they were audience members, but Ahmed assured me they were not. They appeared bored as they danced, cracking their gum in time to the drums and basically keeping their eyes on their own reflections in the mirrors lining the stage. At this point, the owner’s pre-teen daughter made the rounds of the club, serving beers. When I commented that this would NEVER happen in the States, we had laws against minors being in bars and nightclubs, I was told she had literally grown up in the cabaret! Indeed, she worked the crowd like a pro, laughing and joking with the customers, dispensing gum and candy to her favorite customers. She threw her arms around Ahmed’s neck as though he were a beloved uncle and greeted him affectionately.

The belly dancing twins were followed by a singer with two-toned bleached hair and long hair extensions, who was in a white 1980’s style fringed leather jacket, many studded belts and over-the-knee boots. She belly danced as she sang, and many female audience members joined her onstage to dance, including the owner’s daughter. More house dancers in crazy nightclub wear, not the traditional bedlah, followed the singer. One finally came on in an actual costume, and Ahmed buried his head in his hands.

“ Oh, no…” he moaned, gesturing towards the owner’s daughter, “She HATE this dancer!” he exclaimed, “Watch this!”

The little girl bounded onto stage, and began performing along side the oriental dancer, imitating every move - down to the dancer’s facial expressions. The little girl knew the dancer’s whole set-only she performed it better. Whenever the dancer looked away, the girl would stick her tongue out or make a hideous face in the dancer’s direction, lampooning and exaggerating the dancers seductive moves much to the delight of the audience! Apparently, this impromptu “show” was a regular occurrence at the club.

Once again, by the time we left, the sun was rising, and the Lido showed no signs of slowing down.