She did her best to educate
me in the areas of history,
folklore, various vocabularies,
and nuances as well as musical
interpretation. It’s because of
her that I was able to eventually
land in Egypt. Without
Gamila’s help and support, I
wouldn’t have been ready. So,
it starts with Amal, and she
led me to Rayhana – if I hadn’t
met her, I wouldn’t have met
Yasmeen, and then I wouldn’t
have met Gamila; I would not
have started this journey.
What prompted the move to
Egypt?
After many Egyptian musicians
whom I had worked with in
NYC had encouraged me to
think about trying to make a
dance career in Egypt, I guess
you could say that “the straw that broke the camel’s back” was
Dr. Mo Geddawi. I had taken various workshops with him
over the span of several years. He said to me that if I really
cared about this dance, and was serious about it, I owed it
to myself to go to Egypt to learn and understand more. So,
in 2008, I made it happen. I knew the time was then, and
I knew my life was going to change. The first stop was the
Pyramisa hotel, where I attended the Nile Group Festival. I
took 3 costumes, a few thousand dollars and had a six month
“open” ticket. I figured that if I get work, I’ll stay, and if not,
I’ll go back home. (I sub-leased my apartment in NYC).
So, at Nile Group there was a teacher whose class I attended
– Ehab Atia (an Egyptian who lives in Germany) – he
asked me to do a duet with him for the Teacher’s Gala
Show. During this show, I was seen by Gaby Shiba, also
an instructor at Nile Group, who is a dubke dancer from
Lebanon. He was working in Cairo, and approached me to
work with him for weddings and events. It’s through him
that I met other dancers who worked with the Reda Troupe
and some other troupes in the area. They told me about
video clips and auditions for other work.
One of the guys there told me about a show that was coming
12
The Belly Dance Chronicles
July 2016
up in Luxor. And, so I went to the audition. I was the only
girl there. They had been hiring female dancers from abroad,
but I was the only Egypt-based dancer (on that occasion).
My audition was literally during the smoke break of the
male ensemble rehearsal. It was a bit unnerving with thirty
Egyptian guys sitting around watching me, but I tuned
them out and focused on what I was being asked to do. The
dance captain taught me some combinations, and then I had
to improvise to random music. I was offered the job on the
spot. That was my first official contract in Egypt.
Why Egypt? How long did it take you to feel “established” in
Egypt as a belly dancer?
I was always drawn to Egypt. Even as a child, I felt like
I must have lived there in a past life... or perhaps, it was
just a foreshadowing of the adventures that were to come!
Because of my experience in NYC with Gamila and all the
Egyptian musicians and venues I worked in–Egypt was the
obvious choice for me. I never even considered anywhere
else for this experience. Even years later, when I was offered
work in Dubai, as enticing as it seemed, I wasn’t ready to
leave what I had worked so hard to achieve in Egypt. I
wanted to keep going. As far as feeling established, it took
at least a year to prove to people that I was doing it for real,