Oriental Dance Stars and the Egyptian Golden Era

Badia Masbani

• Born in Lebanon around 1896
• Moved to Egypt in 1920's
• She opened the first music Hall in cairo called "Opera Casino"
• She trained many stars such as Tahia Carioca, Samia Gamal, Naima Akef
• She introduced into belly dance folk steps and improved the way to dance adding more arms moves and using all stage. From this it was known as Oriental Dance or Raqs el Sharki

Tahiya Carioka

• Born is Ismaileya, Egypt around 1915
• When teenenger she went to work with her family in Cairo where she started her carrer as dancer
• She was introduced to Badia then started to dance in Opera Casino's trupe and gradually became famuous
• She starred in not less then 150 films in that period
• She was know as Carioka as she introduced into belly dance Brazilian Samba moves improving shimmies

Samia Gamal

• Born in Egypt in 1924
• She also started her carred in Opera Casino and trained by Badia
• Samia was also trained in ballet and modern danced which later she introduced techniques into belly dance improving our posture and stage skills
• She soon became famous and starred in films includding the famous Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ (1954) with French comedian Fernandel and ‘Valley of the King’ (1955) with Robert Taylor.
• Samia also introduced veils to the dance inspired in Hollywood films
• She had a short relationship with the composer and musician Farid el-Atrash who later split up with her and refused to marry her

Naima Akef

• Naima  starred in many movies and theatre productions and once won the first prize at a festival of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow
• She also took part of the dancers in Kitcat with Beba

 

Farida Mazar Spyropoulos

• Born in Syria around 1871
• She was the firs Oriental Dancer to perform in US at the "Street Cairo" an exhibition held in Chicago in 1893

 

Hekmet Fahmy

• She danced with Beba and Naima in Kitcar cabaret
• She became famous for espionage in Cairo during Second World War, she used her charming to extract important information from English to pass to Germans
• She was imprisioned in 1942 for 2 years after she was suspected of spying for the Germans
• After the was in 1946 she produced a film called "Almotasharidah"

 

 

Shafiqa Al-Qibtiyya

• Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1851
• She was student of Shooq, the first Oriental Dancer in Egypt
• Shafiqa was already famous in 1920's as she was the pioneer to the candelabra dance
• She danced for years in a club called El Dorado and later she opend her own Club know as "Alf Leyla"
• Saddly she became addicted to coccaine and died in 1926

 

 

Houreyya Mohammed

• She worked for Badia Masbani in Opera Casino which opened doors to the cinema

 

Hagar Hamdi

• Hagar took part of many Egyptian films in 40's.
• In the film "Abou Halmous" (The father os Hamous) she plays a dancer in a club. 1947
• She can be seen in more then 30 films in that time and danced in most of them
• She retired in the 1950's and went into clothing business
• She worked with Badia in Opera Casino but got fired as Badia didn't belive in her potential
• So the actor Youssef Wehbe treined her. Once she was ready he gave her a role in his film in 1944.
• She proved in her films that she was indeed a good dancer and actress and she became famour lates 1940's
• She was married 5 times. Once with Kamel el Shenawi (who played her husband in one of the films)
•  She died in 2008 at age 88.

Beba Ezzedin

• Born in 1910 Beirut, Lebanon
• She started her carrer in Beirut
• She opened her own club called "Kitkat" where also Naima Akef danced
• She was well know in the high society and the government circle.She remained famous in 30's, 40's and 50's
• Beba was very successful dancer and business woman earning the equivalent of 150.000 Euros per month by that time.
• Besides being a belly dancers she faught agains English coloni as a Patriot and freedon fighter
• When Badia left Cairo to Syria she sold Opera Casino to Beba. So Beba became a very powerful and successful business woman. She hired high profile dancers and musicians.
• Singers like Souad Mekawy performed in her nightclub
• Beba died in 1950 at age 40 in a car accident

You certainly can find more about these dancers browsing on internet through Wikipedia and Google. All these informations I had collected from teachers around the world. But I did find on internet similar information. You also can see some films with these Stars on youtube.

 

Remember that from these ladies Belly Dance was spread to the world and improved to attract more audience. These ladies are the begining of the Oriental Dance as we know today, before was Gypsy, tribal and gawazee style.

Belly Dance from 1930s and European influences

In 20's and 30's there was plenty of Egyptian films that added belly dance in it's story making it more popular. Egypt was a huge film industry by that time till late 40's. From this period is dated the beginning of a revolution in it's way to dance.
To make belly dance more worldwide, the film producers added veils to make more mysterious, swords making more challenging, high heels shoes making more elegant and other props from Egyptian folklore and gypsy influences. These elements professionalized belly dance and attracted more audience.
If you really love belly dancing you must meet Ms. Badia Masbani! She is considered the godmother of Oriental Dance. She was Lebanese and moved to Egypt early 20's where she worked successfully as actress and dancer. In 1926 she opened the first music hall in Cairo named "Opera Casino" or "Madame Badia's Cabaret". She offered a variety of intertainment such as music, comic, dance and magic. The Opera Casino became a real success and really attracted the tourists from Middle East and Europe.
Badia really contributed with belly dancing introducing to the folk styles such as Shaabi, Gawazee, Baladi, Saidi and Melea more thecnique. These folk styles were danced mostly in one spot using limited arms positions. Badia then introduced snake arms, lift arm and use all stage space. She also was pioneer to choreograph belly dancing for stage shows.She also added classical musicians to the traditional line up of riqq, darboukka, ney and zurna. These musicians then would introduce rhythms from all Middle East, Turkey and Greece, at that time Ottoman Empire.
With all this changes, Badia professionalized belly dancing and it became Raqs el Sharki or Oriental Dance.
But also around1900 French trevelers got fascinated with the rhithms and the hip moves of the gawazees dancers. They described in their travel stories as "danse du ventre" or Dance of the belly. That is why we call Belly Dance.

The Origin of Belly Dancing

It is still not clear in the history when and where excaly started Belly Dance in the World. The closer scientists and anthropologists could get is that Belly Dance started in the ancient Egypt as part of the local religion around 5.000 years ago.
As far as we know, some kind of dance, similar as belly dancing, was executed inside the templos as part of an Egyptian religion. Only special and selected women would dance to attract fertility for humans, animals and nature. These women was called priestess. In this period the religion was matriarchal beliving the women was real God, because they bleed every month and have babies but do not die. For that reason they believed the women had special powers and an conection with the divine.
Later on, many wars and invasions happened in Egypt and Middle East. Specific in 639AD when the Islamic invasion happened they took the Egyptian dances religions as part of the public intertainment and no more as a pagan religion. From there Egypt was no longer preserving their original anscient religion and became Muslin, an patriarchal religion. From this periodo belly dance was seen as part of intertainment in parties and weddings.
Because of the constant wars in this period many women lost their partners. Some of them could marry again or share a husband with other women, some of them became prostitute and others dancers on the streets. From this belly dance became a business when some women, normally gypsies, would sell their dance or intertain people on the streets and private events to get money.
The street belly dancers would receive loads of coins, and they would attach these coins in their belts to save it. More coins, better dancer! that is what they belived.
The best dancers ware invited to dance in the castles to the kings and rich people. These would give them jewelry like rings, earings, bracelets and necklaces. These jewelries the dancer would save attaching them in the costume. That is why nowadays we still use costumes with loads of crystals and rich sequins.
From 639AD till 1930AD, belly dance became an important public intertainment. It was a way to live for many women in that period.
In that period the belly dance would be freestyle and improvising. With loads of hips and arms moves. The music would come from drums, cymbals, harps and many styles of pipes.