Arabic Stars
The film industry in the Arab world can be compared to Holly wood in the USA with reference to lavishness. The production of videos of dance, songs and small movies is in vogue. The production of songs is choreographed with the help of jazz and ballet trained dancers. The production also involves singers and belly dancers.
The technique and graceful movement of the Egyptian belly dancers make them look very unique and different from the rest. The Egyptian belly dance is also known as oriental dance in the Arab world.
The belly dance is considered to be of the level of ballet dance or the opera dance of the western world. The music in these productions especially for the belly dancing sequence is very passionate, heartfelt and full of emotions.
Most of the music in the arab world especially Egypt is based on the creations of Oum Kalthoum, Farid Al Atreche and Abdel Halim Hafez. These artists have been considered an inevitable part of the Egyptian culture and have been praised as national heroes.
Some of the famous belly dancers who later became film stars are Samia Gamaal, Tahia Carioca and Nagua Fauod. These artists were not only known for belly dancing but also for singing , acting and dancing waltz.
Fifa Abdou and Dina are two most famous belly dancer of Egypt. The 12 most famous belly dancers of Egypt contributed so much taxes to the Egyptian state coffers in 1995 that these 12 belly dancers were considered the country’s 5th biggest source of revenue. The first four sources of revenue were the Suez Canal, tourism, petrol and cotton respectively.
The belly dancing industry has been hit adversely in the 80s and 90s just because of the wave of Islamic Fundamentalism. Slowly and steadily the traditional dance is losing foothold in its native land. Earlier in Egypt there were nearly 5000 belly dancers but the number stands at only 357 in 1999-2000. The MTV and Channel V are propagating the western music culture in such a way that the belly dancing music and the traditional Arabic music is being considered old fashioned among the youth.
The decrease in number of belly dancers is being attributed by some to the consideration of this dance as a social taboo. The dancers and performers are not allowed to go to Mecca and perform the Haj. So the number of belly dancers is decreasing.
To fill up the scarcity of belly dancers and performers the entertainment industry is looking for females from beyond the Arab nations. Suhair Zaki has even doubted the standards of dancers not hailing from the Arab world.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 9:04 am and is filed under Arabic Stars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.