Samia Gamal (سامية جمال)

Hello Dancers,

Today will just a really quick post because the week completely got away from me.

This is a beautiful oriental fantasy style clip featuring the legendary Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal (سامية جمال). The kind of thing you will only see in the glamorous world of the movie musicals.

Samia Gamal performing in the 1947 Egyptian film 'Habib Al Omr' (Love of My Life حبيب العمر) which starred Farid al Atrash, Lola Sedky, Hassan Fayek and Ismail Yassin.

The caption is courtesy of TheCaroVan, whose Vimeo channel I always encourage students to check out!

My schedule of virtual belly dance classes is up on my classes page and you can always contact me if you have any questions.

I’ll be back with more next week!

Aziza - Naima Akef (نعيمة عاكف)

Hello Dancers,

I find great joy and comfort in watching old black and white movies - both American and Egyptian. I want to share this clip today because it features the song we are learning in our online belly dance class.

This is Naima Akef performing in a scene from the 1954 Egyptian movie “Aziza”. In this movie she plays dual roles as Aziza and also her younger sister. Emad Hamdi plays Hassan the policeman who has a soft spot for Aziza and also starring were Zeinat Sedki and Said Abou Bakr. Farid Shawki plays Khalil who becomes obsessed with Aziza. . Trivia: The movie was directed by Hussein Fawzi who was Naima Akef’s husband between1953-1958.

The song Aziza was originally composed by the great Egyptian composer Mohammed Adel Wahab. It is a belly dance classic here in the US as well, and almost every band you can dance with, at least in the Bay Area, can play this one so it is a good one to learn if you have dreams of performing live one day.

You will notice that the tempo of this version is faster than the version I am using in class. I feel like this is closer to how I hear it played by the bands.

I hope you enjoy it! The caption is courtesy of The Caro Van, an essential resource for any belly dance lover.

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If you are interested in my online classes, please contact me for info.

A little bit more about Naima Akef here.

Hager Hamdi (هاجر حمدى)

Here is a cute clip from a dancer I haven't featured before, Hager Hamdi (هاجر حمدى).  I found her one day when I was browsing on The CaroVan Classics page. 

The little information I found about her seems to indicate that she was an actress who also danced, rather than strictly a belly dancer.  I always enjoy the natural and relaxed style of the "actresses who dance" and this is a really fun and happy clip.

I also love that there are a lot of backup dancers, so you get to see so many different costumes.

The dancer in this clip is Hager Hamdi (1924-2008) who plays dual roles in the 1951 Egyptian film ‘El Moallem Bolbol’ (‘Bolbol, the Boss’ المعلم بلبل). She initially plays a movie star named Suhair whose sudden departure leaves the director of the film Wahid (Kamal al Shinnawi) looking for a replacement. He finds Suhair's lookalike in a teacher named Bolbol also played by Hager Hamdi. The film also starred Ismail Yassin and Riyadh al Kassabgy. The male singer in this clip is Egyptian comedian Shekuku and the female singer is Suad Mekawy. Trivia 1: Kamal al Shinnawi was Hager Hamdi’s husband at the time. Trivia 2: 'Bolbol' (also spelt Bulbul) means songbird or nightingale. Does anyone else remember the Afghani whistling genius, Bulbul, the Nightingale of Herat?

The caption above is from The CaroVan.

Classes in South San Francisco resume tonight!  Info on my Classes page, we are going to have a fun session.

And I will be performing at Tannourine Restaurant in San Mateo on Friday,  May 4th.  The details are on my Shows page.

As always, thank you for stopping by my website :)