gypsy8522

There isn't a "average person in the UAE", native people are a minority that make up approximately 15 percent of the population and the rest are non-citizens. Could it be that the article was written this way because it reflects the point of view of the **journalist** who wrote it?

I am also pretty sure there is someone else (a native speaker) who reads and checks the article before it gets published. The editor in chief has got to be a native english speaker.

[quote]She's the only dancer left in the whole of Egypt who is a famous celebrity! There are certainly other dancers, who may be famous -to other dancers that is, but if they walk down the street nobody from the non-dancing population is going to recognize them.

While I think her response is valid, I don't quite agree with the reasons she is giving. Here's what I think, and what I'm about write I have actually said ages ago, this is also a response to Tarik's comment above.

I apologize- this is going to be long.

The days of famous belly dancers like Tahia Carioca, Suheir Zaki, or even Dina are over. In my opinion no dancer is ever going to reach that kind of fame again. We are a different generation now, as the world around us has changed our ways of thinking and interests have changed as well. None of my Arabic friends (in their 20's) would be interested in wasting their weekend to go watch a two hour belly dancing show! That may have been the ultimate pastime of any young person decades ago (ie my parents generation), but tastes have changed A LOT over the 21st century. The advancement in digital technology and the boom of satelite channels over the past 9 years has given us other alternatives. My dad told me that when he was a kid he would go to the cinema just to see the artists he loves, since there was no television around that time. That is how legends such as Tahia and Samia used the cinema to reach their audiences. I am sure there were many good dancers during that time, but these were the lucky ones who made it on the silver screen and therefore became known to the rest of the Arab world. However, today we don't need that anymore. There is a TV set in every home, and during the past 8 years we have seen new channels pop all over the place, we are no longer forced to watch government generated channels either. That is why you see many belly dancers who can't sing a note making "music videos" just to promote themselves. One of them is Boosy Samir (yes, she actually used to be a belly dancer!), Lucy, Dina, Samara.. and lastly Bassema, the trashy dancer from Lebanon that was mentioned in another thread. There are many others who come out then disappear like bubbles, but names are escaping me right now. Shams, the dancer from Nile Group festival, I remember she came out with a video a few years ago.

If you look at the dancers today, in Egypt and around the world, they're all dancing to Om Kalthoum and songs from previous decades. In the past every generation of dancers had their own genre of music that represents them, it was not just a dancer movng her body to taped music infront of other fellow dancers and that's it. It was the whole artistic process, the musicians, the song writers, composers and of course when you have a great dancer to complete the line up of artists, in return you are going to get an appreciative audience from different levels of society and from all walks of life. I think what makes Suheir Zaki in many people's eyes the best dancer to ever dance to Om Kalthoum's music, it's not that she's "the best" but that was "her" generation. She has lived and danced during those times, we call it the generation of tarab, it's a point in Arabic music history that won't come back. That is why she too has become a part of that history. Honestly, I get so confused when I watch the so called belly dancers of today, and I feel that the music isn't helping much either.

In a recent TV interview with Nagua Fouad she was asked if the days of raqs sharqi will ever return, she said "No, because now there's that darn playback microphone" lol. I thought her answer was funny and soooo true. A good example would be the likes of Nancy Ajram, Ruby, Haifa etc.. they have medicore voices (except for Haifa, her singing isn't even suitable for the shower), they keep dancing around on stage and sometimes they wear costumes that Dina can't get away with. Eileen Khalaf's concert was braodcast on the Egyptian channel a few years ago, and I sworn it was a belly dancing outfit she was wearing.. the audience turnout was like 5,000 people. Ironically, no belly dancer is allowed to appear in a concert on Egyptian TV.

These happen to be one of the "alternatives" I was talking about. Until very recently we had the REAL female singers who would stand still the whole time while they enchant us with their beautiful voice, and we had the belly dancer who would entertain us with her body.. every person had a specific job and they knew not to highjack another artist's profession which they are not qualified for. Today it is a salad, you hire any of the artists I mentioned above, you get a beautiful woman that can sing, dance, wear the raunchiest costume followed by the biggest controvery (where'd you think Dina got the idea from?)... it's like a 3 in 1 deal. And these women do not accept anything less than 20,000 dollars for a private party, so obviously it is much better for them than to become a dancer, which brings us to another contemporary thing... technological changes and all this commercialization has made the entertainment industry all about making profit. Art is used as a tool, it is not the end result.

Ok, I'm tired from typing. I'll be back later.

to be continued....