I am also interested in the history of this dance (and music) and its larger historical context including influences of / contact with/ perceptions by the West. Flaubert wrote about travels he took to Egypt in 1849. Sol Bloom exhibited Middle Eastern dancers at the world fair in Chicago in 1893. Badia Masabni opened her Casino in Cairo in the 1920s. Egypt was occupied by the British from 1882-1922. The Golden Era films were when--1940s-50s?
I am also thinking a lot lately about the larger dance and social context of Raks in general-- the social dance that existed before Badia Masabni and after her, that has much of the same movement vocabulary.
Cathy
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