The Bellydancers of Cairo

Last night, I watched The Belly Dancers of Cairo. It's an excellent but sad documentary on the state of raqs sharqi in Egypt today. Despite the increasing popularity of the dance internationally, belly dance is dying in Egypt. Through interviews with Egyptian dance legends (eg. Dina, Nagwa Fuad, Lucy), current performers, a Muslim feminist, and a variety of Egyptian men from different walks of life, we can see how dancers are simultaneously loved and reviled. We are given cultural and religious context for this apparent contradiction.

Although raqs sharqi from the golden age of Egyptian cinema is looked upon fondly by the conservative men interviewed, their appreciation is conflicted. Dancers are looked upon as whores, a view reinforced by the dance films shown on a daily basis. Dancers in movies are invariably portrayed as wanton women, or gangsters' molls. To allow a female member of one's family to become a dancer would bring shame down on the entire family. More liberally-minded men may date a dancer, but once they get married, or once she bears children, she will have to end her career.

The film touches on how women in the public eye are considered to have questionable virtue. However, there is no mention of Oum Kalthoum, who was considered a national treasure. I can't help but be curious to see if she was considered a floozy at the same time that she was revered.

The documentary ends on a bittersweet note. Although the dance is dying in Egypt, it has spread itself over the world. These non-Egyptian dancers are responsible to carry on the legacy, and to save what would otherwise be a dying art form. And just so we're not without context, the DVD has an excellent features section which contains full-length performances by a variety of Egyptian dancers.

I need to get myself a copy of this. I recommend it to students of all varieties of belly dance (whether traditional Egyptian or any of the more modern fusion variants).

As a belly dance instructor, I found this to be a terrific tool for understanding the strange place raks sharki has in Cairo society -- Dancers are enormous stars who are beloved and command huge sums for performances, and yet they are seen as prostitutes.

The film includes interviews with Samasem, Dina, Lucy, Nagwa Fouad, Khayreyya Maazin, and others. Eman Zaki talks at length about her mothers' recollections of dancing for Badia Masabni.

The special features include eight or nine performances and the filmmakers' lengthy discussion about their experiences during filming. They were charmingly open and honest about all their experiences and I enjoyed the discussion almost as much as the documentary!

I was riveted throughout the entire documentary AND the special features. This is a must-have for the library of serious dancers or dance teachers.

I had really high hopes for this documentary and it certainly covers topics which are of both importance and interest. The reason I gave this only 4 stars is not because the content or production wasn't good but rather that it lacked the proper depth. I understand that producing something with a limited budget poses serious limitations but at the same time if you don't go in-depth enough it's still almost wasted money. For example, religion plays a huge part in the acceptance of bellydance as a social practice and as a performing art yet all we really hear is an anonymous look into religions role by an unidentified man. While I would respect the unidentified man's testimony regarding a general public view I cannot take his views on religion seriously without some credentials. I'm sure that while in Egypt they could have stoped by Al-Azhar and asked for someone to talk with about this. If you want to know what the religon says and how that's been interpreted you should go to a source who has proper credentials. It would also have been nice to hear from the dancers how they reconcile seemingly contraditory religious beliefs with their professions. In addition the majority of information we are given by someone about Islamic beliefs revolves around an incomplete section regarding hijab and modesty but is not backed up by the Qur'anic veres and supporting hadith. This documentary did do a very good job of exploring some of the socio-cultural dynamics of choosing this profession and how that affects both performers and their families but even this could have been explored on a deeper level. Although I sort of felt this throughout the entire production it's especially clear through the directors commentary (part of the special features) that this is presented with a western slant. It very much presents a western bias in taking in the information to the point where an Arab or Muslim viewer would probably feel a little jaded. It is not a very neutrally presented documentary with all it's biases and does tend to not only present things from a western view but also gives the interpretation of that being the proper ideology that one should have. All in all you can't expect a single, self-produced documentary to present the sort of in-depth knowledge that would take the discovery channel a couple million and an entire series to properly showcase. If your a bellydancer, dance ethnologist, or just interested in bellydance, Egypt, or performing arts in general I'd still recommend this documentary since what is covered is still good and at least gives a starting point for further research and exploration. Just keep in mind if you really want to understand the content you will need to do further research and it will probably be an extensive amount of research which you would need to do. As for people upset about not seeing full performances, keep in mind this is a documentary on the position of dancers in Egypt on the social and culturual scale and not simply biographies or performances of them. It does show short clips throughout the film but it does not include full performances in the documentary itself. It does however include quite a few full performances in the special features section of the DVD. The performances themself could be sold as a seperate video for nearly the same price so if you think about it this is almost a two-for-one deal.

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