#Badia Masabni

[pau-pau2513]

Historia de la danza árabe

La historia de la danza árabe es rica y diversa, y se ha desarrollado a lo largo de siglos en las regiones del Medio Oriente y África del Norte.

La danza árabe tiene raíces que se remontan a la antigüedad, y se ha influenciado por diversas culturas, incluyendo la egipcia, la persa y la india. Se cree que la danza árabe originalmente tenía un propósito ritual y se practicaba en celebraciones religiosas y ceremonias tribales.

A fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX, hubo un resurgimiento de interés en la danza árabe, especialmente en Egipto. Fue en esta época cuando surgieron grandes bailarinas como Badia Masabni y Samia Gamal, que contribuyeron al desarrollo de estilos de danza modernos.

A lo largo de los años, la danza árabe ha evolucionado y diversificado en diferentes estilos y formas regionales. Cada país y región tiene sus propias tradiciones y estilos de danza, como el "dabke" en el Levante, el "shaabi" en Egipto y el "saidi" en el Alto Egipto.

Actualmente se practica en bodas, festivales y eventos culturales, y continúa evolucionando con influencias contemporáneas y globales.

[faithfulfitness]

Badiaa Masabni

Badia Masabni is the last Alem in Egypt, an entertainer, singer, belly dancer, actress and business woman, born to a Lebanese father and Syrian mother. Since the 1920s, she has been known for opening a series of influential clubs in Cairo.

Learn more about belly dance

[saraia]

Egyptian bellydance legends: Badia Masabni, Tahia Carioca, Naima Akef, Samia Gamal, Fifi Abdou, and Dina Talaat.

[nbapprentice]

how to design your apprentice 101:

there’s one rule, and one rule only to designing your apprentice:

if they look like this

you’ve already lost

now, i’m not making this post to be nit-picky or petty. as a disclaimer i am white, but i’ve seen enough posts from frustrated roma and middle eastern bloggers explaining why these depictions/outfits are racist. i have tried to find websites and solid sources for them, but most that comes up are many, many “top 7 racist costumes!” clickbait articles so. that should give you a hint.

1. let’s start with esmeralda. the “[g slur] fortune teller” is basically the most exposure us white people have had to romani people. it is a racist stereotype that has been used for C E N T U R I E S to paint roma as deceitful witches ready to eat your christian children or what have you. now, the Apprentice isn’t implied to be of any ethnicity, but i’ve seen enough apprentices that follow Esmeralda’s design to a T to know where the “inspiration” for it came from. PS: that esmeralda was written to be morally upstanding does not erase the racist history behind characters like her (in fact, in the novel she’s a non-roma child roma kidnapped because according to catholic france that’s just what non-catholics love to do)

2. the wonderful belly dancer outfit. you know who wear these outfits? belly dancers. is your apprentice a belly dancer? possibly! but would they wear it outside of a performance, or under the harsh mediterranean sun? if they wanna end up like a fried up little crisp they do! did you know this outfit literally did not exist before the 20th century? it was not even made FOR anyone in the middle east. “Badia Masabni, a Cairo cabaret owner during the early 20th century, is credited with creating the modern bedlah style. It has been suggested that the bedlah was inspired by glamorous Hollywood costuming, or created to appeal to Western visitors.” (i know wikipedia isn’t the most reliable source, but this is other stuff i’ve heard from middle eastern bloggers so i’m inclined to believe it)

i don’t mean to attack anyone, and this was not provoked by any specific person. lord knows i’ve fucked up and used racist tropes in what i meant to be nothing but harmless fun. but every time i go check the arcana tag to see the wonderful fan works this lovely community shares i keep running into more and more and MORE of these! it’s our obligation as good people to stop rehashing harmful content that alienates fans of color and actually affect people irl.

inspiration for better outfits are but a mere google search away and i promise you they will be a hundred times cooler than anything made to demonize an entire nation or to appeal to horny europeans in the 20th century

[fatmashalan-blog]

The iconic Egyptian bellydancer we see here is Samia Gamal. Samia Gamal at first studied dance under Badia Masabni but later incorporated other styles of dance in belly dancing such as latin dancing and ballet. She is also the first to introduce dancing in high heels. In this GIF we see Samia Gamal as an international star performing in the english movie ali baba as a belly dancer in Morroco.

[thebellyblog13]

Image from El Reinado de las Bailarinas

Image from El Reinado de las Bailarinas

Hoda is the small square pic at the bottom left. Image from Shira.net

*if you just want to see videos, scroll to the bottom*

Okay so before we get started on Hoda, let me just tell you the back story about this post. I came across Hoda’s name a while ago and wrote it down on my list of posts to do. Yesterday, I picked her name at random and began to do some research, only to find there was nothing out there about her. This intrigued me more, so I searched through all kinds of sites – saw some things that I can’t un-see, lol, and finally came upon another blog that mentioned her name. The awesome/very informative blog is called unmundodeluz and it’s run by dancer, Giselle Habibi, who is a Mexican journalist, translator, belly dancer, and total sweetheart. The site was in spanish, but thanks to the interwebs I translated the page and my curiosity was heightened even more. Giselle wrote that Hoda was known for having clairvoyant dreams and that other dancers were superstitious and scared of her. I looked at the bottom of Giselle’s post and found that this information had come from a book entitled, “El Reinado de las Bailarinas” by Shokry Mohamed. So, I started trying to find the book. It doesn’t exist in America – obviously (*pulling out hair!*). I found out it was published in Madrid and I began searching for the title in Madrid library databases -Resultados de la búsqueda…0000. I looked for a bibliography so I could find out where Mohamed got his info – nada. Then I thought – why not just email Giselle? So that’s what I did, and literally minutes later I had a response and images of the section from the book about Hoda AND photos! I was so excited and it really reminded me of how tight knit our community is and how it and extends far beyond national borders  – so thank you, thank you, thank you Giselle for making this post possible! <3

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPACE

SO HERE’S THE DEAL: 

Hoda Shams El Din was one of the many amazing golden era dancers that performed at Badia Masabni‘s Casino Opera Club.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

She was born in Damascus Syria in 1930, of Armenian parents (have not been able to confirm this). At an unknown time Hoda moved to Cairo, where her belly dance career began. She was an active dancer from about 1945-1965 and during that time was also featured in several films.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

*The info below is a summary/translation of the stories told in Shokry Mohamed’s book, El Reinado de las Bailarinas (my friend and incredible dancer Florencia told me this book recounts life stories of the greatest belly dancers)*:

 PACESPACESPACESPACESPA

Hoda worked at a time when there were many belly dance stars. This pressure motivated her to work day and night in order to perfect her dance and rise to the challenge of being a soloist. Although she found performing to be nerve wracking at first, over time she was able to ease into the soloist life. 

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

One of the very interesting things about Hoda is that she was known for having psychic dreams. The first time this happened the dream went as follows: Hoda was performing, she was dancing nonstop. The audience were saying things in unison that she didn’t understand, then they came onto stage. In the next act she began to have a pain that took over her whole body and she realized that she was beginning to bleed uncontrollably. 

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

Hoda woke up shaken and described the dream to her mother. Her mom tried to comfort her, saying it was just a dream and there was nothing to be afraid of. Unsatisfied with this answer, she told Badia about her dream but Badia didn’t think anything of it. Neither did the other dancers at the Casino to whom Hoda had also confided in. Yet, Hoda was still convinced there was some element of truth in her dream and that at least part of  it would come to be.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

Fast forward to a later date

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

During this period the casino had a circular rotating stage. The purpose of this was to speed things up/change set design so a dancer could be performing for an audience on one side, while the other side was being prepared for the next starring dancer.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

At this time the Casino was presenting a comedy. The show required the decor to change frequently. Sometimes the stage had to turn very fast. Hoda recounted one event in particular:

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

“Everything  happened so fast that I had to jump from one side to the other while the stage was spinning. I always closed my eyes when jumping, but one day, suddenly the stage stopped spinning when I jumped, at that moment I was knocked over onto one of the tables surrounded by spectators. While I was laying on the table suffering the audience clapped thinking that what happened was part of the comedy.”

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

The curtains closed and Badia was going to explain what happened to the public but they kept applauding and asking Hoda to come out again.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

Hoda continues, “I came out to greet them with a broken ankle.  So I learned to give more importance to my

dreams because they form a part of the reality I live.”

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

crazy right??????

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

The second prophetic dream that Hoda had concerned an actor and hottie of the time Anwar Wagdy. Wagndy  wanted to hire her as a dancer and actress in one of his movies and she didn’t want to miss out on that opportunity. Through negotiation they reached a contractual agreement. On the night of the agreement she dreamed of him. He was sick in his bed surrounded by friends and everyone around was crying. She woke up distraught and in the morning called Badia to tell her the dream. As usual Badia didn’t pay it any attention. However later that same day, Hoda received news that Anwar was very sick and had to be taken to England. He passed away shortly after (wikipedia says he died in Stockholm). That dream effected Hoda for the rest of her life, it impacted her personally, artistically and professionally.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

Promoters felt they couldn’t rely on Hoda for supersitous reasons. They didn’t want to work with her, in 1948 poor Hoda only got one role in a film :( . She made a come back though, she returned to the Casino and became part of a dance group created by Pepa ez Din and Badia. She did this until Badia sold the Casino in 1950. Then Hoda dedicated herself to working at different venues in downtown Cairo, like Mena House Hotel. Later she worked as part of various theater companies, but she was always surrounded by a halo of superstition making many people afraid to collaborate with her.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

She earned a living in Cairo for many years until 1958 and then moved to Alexandria. She returned to Cairo for a number of years until the mid sixties, then she went back to Syria and after that she falls off the radar….. and the mystery continues…..

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

The information from  El Reinado de las Bailarinas was obtained from Arabic magazines and newspapers of the time. I unfortunately do not have access to these – but if anyone has more info on her, send it in!

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

*Also HUGE shout out to my belly dancing prima, Gabrielle who helped me translate the above.*

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

WHY I <3 HER: 

Aside from the fact that I’m totally fascinated by this dream thing, I think Hoda’s is dancing is beautiful. She is classic, elegant, and fluid. I love that her energy can be playful  yet very womanly and almost goddess like at the same time. I also like the way she combines smooth movements with very precise ones.

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

Here are some videos of Hoda – take a look and let me know what you think!

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

SPACESPACESPACESPACESPA

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

xoxo

N

HODA SHAMS EL DIN *if you just want to see videos, scroll to the bottom* Okay so before we get started on Hoda, let me just tell you the back story about this post.

[faithfulfitness]

The Origins of Belly Dance

Belly dance has become very popular. Almost everyone knows how a belly dancer looks and the classical movements, but have you ever wondered about how it originated?

In Arabic, oriental dance is called “Raqs al-Sharqi” and in Turkish “Oryantal Dansi”, which originated the term of oriental dance. It is recognized as one of the oldest dances in the world, especially in the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria ...). Although its precise origins are uncertain, there are documents that prove that its primary origins are in Egypt between 1200-1300 BC. It is believed that the origin of this dance dates back to the ancient fertility rites associated with both religion (Egypt) and the esoteric, used by the priestesses on the banks of the Nile River.

In the 19th century there were two types of dancers in Egypt: the ghawazee, who had returned to Cairo after their exile to Upper Egypt, ordered in 1834 by Mohammed Ali, the ruler who took power after Napoleon, and the awalim (almées in French), who were more respected because in addition to dancing, they sang and recited poetry in the homes of rich families. The awalim were highly respected and influential in the palaces; they performed in the houses of the rich accompanied by nay, oud, and kanoon, while they interacted with Zagat's (finger cymbals) and with the swords of some spectators. Sometimes their shows were complemented by wizards or snake charmers.

The ghawazee or Egyptian gypsies, danced outdoors for lower social class audiences, accompanied by nay and oud. They were characterized by preserving the spiritual and aesthetic essence of dance. The origin was Phoenician, Carthaginian. They loved to travel long distances and read the coffee cups. Also, they shared the stage with minstrels, fortune tellers, magicians and other characters from the medieval era. The dress of these dancers, wore many ornaments, bracelets, pendants, coins, bright colors and very cheerful. This is where the tradition of giving money to the dancers was born.

Belly Dance as a dance genre was released in the early 20th century in the west, thanks to the popularity gained in the Middle East and Europe of this dance, before and after the world wars. In 1926 the Lebanese Badia Masabni opened Casino Badia (also known as Casino Opera) which became very popular. It had an East-based program that included dancers, singers, musicians, comedians, and some European numbers. She began to professionalize the dance (which was performed in palaces and small places) by adapting it to the great stage of the Casino Badia.

During those times, many films were produced in Egypt and it was usual to include dance scenes. The image of the femme fatale was disseminated due to the production and dissemination of romanticized musical films, where the stars of the show were the seductive dancers who snatched the heart of the protagonist. These artists were, for a time, actresses and belly dancers.

Currently, Belly Dance is a big part of the culture in most Arab countries, and a celebration without a belly dance show is not complete.

[saraia]

Badia Masabni sourrounded by her dancers Samia Gamal and Tahia Carioca.

[metalmistress1349]

this is Tahia Carioca, a dancer from Badia Masabni's Casino Opera club, filmed during the Golden Era of Egyptian Cinema. I love to watch these early dancers! So incredible! I still can't get over how they dance in heels too! 

[uzam]

Badia Masabni

Provided by Jalilah, courtesy of El Hami Hassan. 1934, performing at the Casino Badia. The following film clip was originally an advertisement for Badia's nightclub. It was shown before the featured movie in Cairo cinemas. See if you can find Tahia Carioca in the back up dancers! Jalilah would like to thank El Hami Hassan, film professor in Cairo, for his assistance behind the research of this article on Badia, now on GildedSerpent.com

[saraia]

Badia Masabni playing sagat, 1968