other day when they taught Egyptian folkloric dances . ( On alternate days Mahmoud ’ s wife taught ballet ) It was thru them that I met Nazla Al- Adil and Samia Gamal , both from whom I received private coaching at the Reda Studio . In the evenings I was dancing at Sahara City , a large tent supper club geared towards tourists that actually featured authentic folkloric entertainment . It was there I met and worked with Ibrahim Akef who was training the Ghawazi troupe from Sumbat for the show . Part of their performance included lifting tables and chairs with their teeth and balancing them over their heads as they danced and played Segat . I filmed them but the footage was choppy so I never released it .
Aisha with Yousef , father of the Banat Mazin , 1977 - Photo by J . J . Ali
At a night club in Giza called “ The Swan ”, I met the legendary Sofia Helmi , one of the last of the m ’ alimahs ( female master teachers ). She would take in young girls from poor families and train them to perform in her night club . Later , I learned that with the exception of Mahmoud , Farida and Samia , all of the performers who were Ghawazee were Domari , or Middle Eastern Gypsy people . Since I had not been specifically looking for “ Gypsies ”, the subject of ethnicity initially didn ’ t come up whenever I met gypsy performers . Later I learned that both Ibrahim Akef and his famous relative , the dancer Naima Akef , were Domari . I was told the Akefs came from a family of circus performers . It was on my second trip in 1973 in the Luxor area that I finally found the group I had been looking for and learned that they were called the Banat Mazin ( or “ Daughters of Mazin ”).
Learning from the Ghawazee and Advice for Students When I returned to Egypt in 1973 , I traveled to Luxor , where I met the infamous “ El Baron ”. He was considered to be well acquainted with not only the Banat Mazin but all the families of musicians and dancers that were Domari . He introduced me to them and arranged for me to perform with them for tourists on a Ferryboat . It was he who told me there were three groups of Gypsies in Egypt : The Nawar , the Halab and the Batar . Since they are Nawari , the Mazin girls lived in a neighborhood where only Domari lived . When I visited them I would go alone , taking a small horse-driven buggy . If a friend from Luxor drove me , they would drop me off in front of the house and never came inside . When the Mazin girls would visit me during the times I was working and living at the Winter Palace or the Etab hotel , I would have to come down and meet them outside on the veranda . Because they were Nawar it was forbidden for me to invite them into the hotel , and most outsiders avoided visiting them in their homes . When we gave a performance it was generally in a garden , a courtyard or on a ferry boat on the Nile , and we had to be specially licensed for that occasion . While I was filming the Ghawazi at Baron ’ s villa for a sequence in Wedding in Luxor , his family members stayed upstairs and didn ’ t come down until the sharqi musicians from Cairo were rehearsing and the Ghawazee had left . It has been almost 18 years since I ’ ve been back to Egypt , and I ’ m not certain if that sort of discrimination still exists , but it probably does .
How did they feel about you wanting to learn about their music and dance ? Were they accepting ? Was anyone hesitant to provide information ? They were flattered by my interest in them , and during various interviews , sometimes gave different answers depending on what they thought I wanted to hear .
January 2017 � The Belly Dance Chronicles 19