At a Cairo wedding hall, Russian belly dancer Anastasia Biserova shimmied to the dance floor in a bright, high-slit skirt and an elaborately sequined bra top.
She swirled her diaphanous pink shawl and glided through the hall as a band pumped out music, while the crowd broke into rapturous applause — all captured in a video posted online.
“There is no country around the world that appreciates belly dancing like Egypt,” she said.
Photo: AFP
“Here, there is a growing trend to invite foreign belly dancers to weddings, nightclubs and other events,” she added.
Biserova moved to Cairo more than four years ago and has built a name for herself.
Belly dancers from Eastern Europe, Russia, Latin America and elsewhere have dominated the scene in the past few years in Egypt — long regarded as the birthplace of belly dancing.
However, the North African country has seen its community of homegrown dancers shrink, largely due to the profession’s increasing notoriety as the country has become more conservative over the past half-century — and to a broadening crackdown on freedoms.
The profession took a further hit as Egypt’s COVID-19 outbreak forced the temporary suspension of large weddings and the shuttering of nightclubs — although many dancers continued to enthrall audiences with online videos.
Belly dancer Maria Lurdiana Alves Tejas said it took her some time to come to terms with Egyptians’ conflicted view of her profession.
The Brazilian, known as Lurdiana, said she had performed to enthusiastic crowds at weddings and nightclubs, and had even taught at gym classes.
“But there are some who do not see me as a professional — or [who think] that I did not have a proper education and am only doing this to show my body for money,” she said. “It was very difficult and sad because I spent years learning.”
Egypt’s belly dancing scene thrived last century, when icons such as Samia Gamal and Tahya Carioca rose to fame on the silver screen.
Researchers say Egyptian society has largely seen the dance as entertainment, to be watched, but never taken up as a profession.
“This view was bolstered by popular culture, and movies which depicted belly dancers as coquettes, prostitutes or home wreckers,” said Shaza Yehia, author of a book published last year on the history of the dance.
Arabic terms for dancers — raqasat and awalem — now often bear offensive and racy connotations.
Authorities have also targeted dancers, pop divas and social media influencers who have posted videos online.
Often loosely worded charges against them have included breaching rules on “family values” or “public decency.”
Foreigners have not been spared in the crackdown. In 2018, Russian belly dancer Ekaterina Andreeva — known as Johara — was briefly arrested for donning a costume deemed too revealing, after a video of her performance circulated widely.
Yehia and other researchers have said that belly dancing in Egypt is believed to have especially flourished during the 19th century.
“Performers at the time were called awalem, or the knowledgeable, in reference to their ample knowledge in the arts of singing and dancing,” Yehia said.
Its modern-day manifestation was in part shaped by Westerners during colonial times, she added.
Some even argue that the term “belly dance,” or danse du ventre, was originally coined by the French.
“Foreign writers and painters portrayed their own fantasies about Eastern belly dancers,” Yehia said. “These views stirred imaginations in the West, which later sought to turn them into reality.”
International dance moves were incorporated into the Oriental dance, and costumes altered to appeal to popular tastes.
Now, conservatives and traditionalists view belly dancers’ gauzy skirts and glittery bra tops as too revealing, and often accuse them of being “vulgar” and “overtly sexual.”
Dancers performing to classical Arabic music have also become a rarity, instead usually preferring popular electro street music, known as mahraganat — a genre with fast beats and improvised vocals that purists view as overstepping moral boundaries.
Despite the contradictions, foreign belly dancers in Egypt say that moving to the country was the right choice.
“Foreigners have to come here to fully understand, perform and practice,” Ukrainian belly dancer Alla Kushnir said.
“Egypt is simply the land of belly dancing,” she added.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to