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!

Fifi Abdou (فيفي عبده)

I stumbled across a wonderful interview with the legendary Egyptian belly dancer and actor Fifi Abdou (فيفي عبده) in Vogue Arabia and I wanted to share a few quotes here because her comments touch on how belly dancers are perceived in the Middle East.

With regards to her acting roles and the portrayal of belly dancers in film she says,

“Belly dancing is far from decadent. I used to dance, but at the same time I was taking care of a whole family, supporting myself and bringing up my daughters.”

— Fifi Abdou in Vogue Arabia

About her feelings for belly dancing the article says,

“She loves belly dancing and fiercely defends it, defying anyone who attacks her and underestimates its value. Belly dancing rewarded her with love and opened the doors of local and international fame, enabling Abdou to win the hearts of people. She, in return, danced for everyone, including presidents from all over the world. She’s even walked the red carpet at the Cannes film festival, and sat with Hollywood celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone and Elizabeth Taylor.

The 66-year-old Abdou is comfortable in her own skin and satisfied with her work as a professional belly dancing artist. She has no remorse and feels no shame, even though the profession is not always valued in the region. The long years haven’t marked her face or soul with wrinkles, but made her character more experienced and her thinking more mature.”

— Vogue Arabia

The photographer Youssef Nabil who took the photographs for the article, says this about Fifi,

“She is such a warrior, a simple and bold woman. I like her courageous way in defending belly dancing in our society, be it verbally or by means of dancing despite her age. She granted belly dancing a ‘dignity’ in the recent decades, and I share the same attitude with her because in my work, I always seek to uphold this art form that we’ve maintained in Egypt since the age of the pharaohs.”

— Youssef Nabil in Vogue Arabia

I encourage you to read the entire article if you have time, it is really worth it. They also took beautiful photographs of her in a more barefaced style which is interesting to see, though I am not sure what Vogue has against eye makeup - it seems like they always want everyone to look the same, like their version of what ‘classy’ and ‘tasteful’ is.

And I also encourage everyone to follow Fifi on Instagram - her freewheeling personality seems tailor made for social media. Lately in quarantine she has been posting videos on IGTV of her dancing from home, all made up and in costume and it is really inspirational and absolutely joyful!

I can't seem to post any of those clips here so instead I will leave you with some vintage Fifi in hot pink from 1986. I just love those seemingly effortless shimmies - she is incredible!

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Thanks as always for reading and I hope that everyone has a great week. The schedule for July and August dance and finger cymbals classes in up on my Classes page.

Safinaz and Mahmoud El Leithy - صافينازومحمود الليثى

Hi Everybody,

I have some fun clips to share today, and at the bottom of this post there are some class updates if you’d like to skip ahead.

Shaabi Movies

This post is one I have been dreaming of doing for a long time. It’s pure joy, which is something we can probably all use more of right now.

A few weeks ago I did a short post featuring a film clip from the 1970s of the Egyptian belly dancer Souheir Zaki performing with the Shaabi singer Ahmed Adeweya.

Fast forward 40-something years and Egyptian cinema and TV movies still love belly dancers and shaabi singers together. Today I want to feature one of my favourite combinations, the belly dancer Safinaz and the Egyptian singer Mahmoud El Leithy.

Safinaz /صافيناز

Safinaz (صافيناز‎) is the stage name of the dancer Sofinar - I’ve seen her listed both as Sofinar Gourian and Sofinar Grigoryan. Either way, that is an Armenian name! I have followed her career with interest in part because I am also an Armenian belly dancer, but mostly because I just love her dancing. She is one of the most popular dancers in Egypt today and has been featured in several Egyptian films.

Although technically a foreign dancer in Egypt, I think she must be so popular among Egyptians because she does have the essence of Egyptian style in her soul. Her interpretations are nuanced and beautiful when the song calls for that, and she also exudes a kind of warm, playful, even silly, joy. She doesn’t seem to take herself too seriously and she doesn’t over do it. She has brought her own personality to Egyptian belly dance rather imposing another style of dance and simply calling it belly dance.

Safinaz and Mahmoud el Leithy /صافينازومحمود الليثى

Safinaz has paired with the Egyptian singer and actor Mahmoud El Leithy (محمود الليثى) in several films. His music is in the shaabi/mahraganat style. You can seen from these clips that he also has a lighthearted sense of humor and I think they are so much fun to watch together. The songs below are what I would call the lighter side of Shaabi music. For a more complete explanation of Shaabi, I highly recommend my teacher Amina Goodyear’s Shaabi music history page.

So without any more delay, here are a bunch of fun clips with this pair from their various movies. They never fail to make me smile. PS: If you are reading this in email, you actually have to click through to the post on my website to see the videos. I am not sure why, but you do!

فيلم #امان_ياصاحبي ... ( فيلم عيد الاضحي ٢٠١٧ ) سعد الصغير - محمود الليثي - بوسى صوفينار - نرمين_ماهر - عبد لسلام بدرية طلبة شيماء_سيف علاء_مرسى عبد الباسط ح...

اغنية اذا كان قلبك كبير غناء / محمود الليثي / صوفينار فيلم عمر وسلوي بطولة / كريم محمود عبد العزيز / بوسي / سعد الصغير / محمود الليثي / علاء مرسي / يوسف عيد ...

اغنية يا واد انت يا اجنبي غناء / محمود الليثي / صوفينار فيلم عمر وسلوي بطولة / كريم محمود عبد العزيز / بوسي / سعد الصغير / محمود الليثي / علاء مرسي / يوسف عي...

اغنية " بونبوناية / فيلم عيال حريفة بطولة / محمد لطفي - بيومي فؤاد - محمود الليثي - بوسي - سعد الصغير صوفينار - سليمان عيد - حسن عبد الفتاح - حسن الخلعي - ال...

I hope you enjoyed the clips and I will end this post with a few pictures of Safinaz too.

Class Updates:

I have a few class updates:

First of all, the City of South San Francisco is making three of my virtual beginning belly dance classes available for FREE in July. You can go to this post to see the class days and times and to get information on how to register.

I am also planning a drop-in virtual finger cymbals (zils) class for later this month and also working on my August schedule, so please contact me if you would like information on upcoming classes!

Happy Dancing!

صافيناز

Armenian Belly Dancer Safinaz - Sofinar Grigorian

صافيناز‎

Armenian Belly Dancer Safinaz

Free Virtual Belly Dance Classes!

In celebration of National Parks & Recreation Month, the South San Francisco Parks and Rec is offering three of my Intro to Belly Dance classes for free!

Free Virtual Belly Dance Classes from Alisa Greer Belly Dance through the SSF Parks and Rec!

These are live classes via Zoom, and they’re perfect if you are new to belly dance or returning after not dancing for a while. I’m teaching each class as an individual capsule, so you can take one, two or all three.

There is no charge for the classes but you do need to register via the SSF Parks & Rec online catalog. Once there, click on the green ‘Free in July’ tab and then click ‘Belly Dancing- Beginners’ and follow the instructions to register.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Happy Dancing xo

Performance Video - SirensFest

Last week in virtual belly dance class we danced to the song Zay el Assal (زي العسل). It is one of my favorites and coincidentally I was cleaning out a cupboard over the weekend and found a DVD recording of a performance I did using this song in 2016 at the North Bay Belly Dance Bazaar! I thought I would share it here:

I am slowly adding more performance footage to my YouTube channel, please subscribe if you you’d like to see more.

The North Bay Belly Dance Bazaar has been renamed and is now called SirensFest. It is a wonderful, positive event that truly celebrates bellydance! I had such a great time there. The festival is scheduled to go on this year, October 3 -4, 2020, and the organizer, TerriAnne Gutierrez, is planning to build a stage outside, so I feel very hopeful about this and I will keep everyone posted as I learn more.

The song Zay el Assal is one of my favorites. It was originally sung by the Lebanese singer and actress Sabah. She is considered one of the greats. Here is a clip of her singing it complied with some gorgeous photos of her throughout her lifetime. She was a glamorous figure until the end! There are many belly dance versions of this song today.

In other news, I am working on the schedule for my Virtual Summer Belly Dance Classes. Please sign up to be notified of these and future classes as soon as the information is available. Thanks so much for your support and happy dancing.