Today I want to share a beautiful black-and-white clip from the Golden Era Egyptian belly dancer Zeinat Olwi (زينات علوى). Just look at her amazing hip work.
There are many clips of her on YouTube and I really love watching her, but I did not know very much about her. I found this on The CaroVan (she also has many gorgeous clips of Zeinat's performances):
“Zeinat Olwi had an unhappy childhood and left Alexandria to move to Cairo. She started as one of Badia Masabni’s background dancers eventually becoming a soloist. She then moved on to dance with singer-comedian Shekuku. She made numerous film appearances initially in speaking roles but, as she considered herself a dancer first and foremost, she reverted to dancing roles only. Her final movie appearance was in 1969 in the film ‘Sabah Al Kheir ya Zawjati al Aziza’.”
In addition, I found this gripping article about Zeinat Olwi at Shira.net. If you do any reading about belly dance at all, you soon realize that many of the dancers had difficult lives and had to stand up for this art form that we love so much!
Happy Dancing this week!
xo Alisa Greer