Who?
- Thread starter Suzanne Azhaar
- Start date
D'oh! Thanks for catching that...
The controversial Armenian actress/dancer who lives and works in Egypt does go by two names, but they are "Sofinar" and "Safinaz" https://elcinema.com/en/person/2068236 https://facebook.com/SofinarPageOfficial/, and somehow while writing, I confused my text on her with the notes I had on Shahrzad, a different dancer based in Egypt who runs https://www.shahrzadstudios.com/ and WASN'T in legal trouble twice for "insulting the Egyptian flag" https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCo...ly-dancer-Sofinar-arrested-over-insultin.aspx.
Definitely my mistake, and I've corrected the earlier post. And apologies to Shahrzad for confusing her with a dancer I'm sure she prefers not to be confused with.
The controversial Armenian actress/dancer who lives and works in Egypt does go by two names, but they are "Sofinar" and "Safinaz" https://elcinema.com/en/person/2068236 https://facebook.com/SofinarPageOfficial/, and somehow while writing, I confused my text on her with the notes I had on Shahrzad, a different dancer based in Egypt who runs https://www.shahrzadstudios.com/ and WASN'T in legal trouble twice for "insulting the Egyptian flag" https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCo...ly-dancer-Sofinar-arrested-over-insultin.aspx.
Definitely my mistake, and I've corrected the earlier post. And apologies to Shahrzad for confusing her with a dancer I'm sure she prefers not to be confused with.
Greek Bonfire
Well-known member
Cinzia is a modern dancer, but I do enjoy modern at times, plus she's a very good teacher. However, I really am partial to classical and vintage style. And don't get me started on Dina.
Zorba
"The Veiled Male"
Dina, Dina, Dina, Dina, DINA, DIIIIINNNAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! 
Who was that male dancer on Bhuz who just adored Dina? Someone told him that he wasn't a "male version of Dina", blah blah...
I find that Dina can be a bit on the vulgar side in her dancing, but there's no question that she can dance.
Who was that male dancer on Bhuz who just adored Dina? Someone told him that he wasn't a "male version of Dina", blah blah...
I find that Dina can be a bit on the vulgar side in her dancing, but there's no question that she can dance.
Greek Bonfire
Well-known member
Dina, Dina, Dina, Dina, DINA, DIIIIINNNAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Who was that male dancer on Bhuz who just adored Dina? Someone told him that he wasn't a "male version of Dina", blah blah...
I find that Dina can be a bit on the vulgar side in her dancing, but there's no question that she can dance.
I wish I could remember that dance. Was it possibly DaVid? Oh she definitely can dance, but she usually deters from the Egyptian style, which style she does very well when she chooses to.
There is an EXCELLENT four-part documentary "In Our Own Words" by Yasmina of Cairo and Sara Farouk, which you can get on VImeo (pay to stream) that addresses the current scene in Cairo. It is largely interviews - all the participants were given the same questions - and includes both foreign and Egyptian dancers working there in the past say five years. Most are still working there. It ranges across some well known names to some we would not know of.
The fourth part addresses how the pandemic has affected life for performers there. In that section you also get people talking about how things have changed in terms of bookings and audience tastes. What I found fascinating was the observation that people book their dancers on the basis of their Instagram profile - they will pick the dancer who is trending the highest. Oxana talks about how someone could have had Dina as their wedding dancer but they picked some lady off Insta, who was indeed a good dancer but, as Oxana said, if you could have Dina for your wedding, get her, she's a legend.
She also tells of a wedding she performed at with a singer they nickname Abdel Halim becuase he has that nice smooth classic voice and can sing the classics well. The bride was all "DO MAFIA" and the poor singer was like - "I can't sing that music". So you have to remember that brides and grooms are quite young and the ones who have expensive weddings with top dancers also have contemporary tastes and want popular hits. And mahgranat music is really mainstream now.
Plus, Shahrzad (IIRC) did a great lecture about the current scene where she said that the upper class audiences want to dance themselves and really just want you there to get them into the groove. More middle class wedding parties are the ones where they want everything fancy. She may still have it available, or would be able to point you to who sponsored her for it so you could see if you could buy it.
So anyway I highly recommend the Yasmina/Sara documentary as it is extremely up to date. You will also find on there, that most of the Egyptian dancers including five-star ones like Aziza, say the cabaret (sleazy old sleazy cabaret) is THE place to find the REAL bellydance. They are QUITE adamant about REAL bellydance. We may need to accept that REAL bellydance in its native countries is sometimes a bit less lovely than we like to fantasise.
The fourth part addresses how the pandemic has affected life for performers there. In that section you also get people talking about how things have changed in terms of bookings and audience tastes. What I found fascinating was the observation that people book their dancers on the basis of their Instagram profile - they will pick the dancer who is trending the highest. Oxana talks about how someone could have had Dina as their wedding dancer but they picked some lady off Insta, who was indeed a good dancer but, as Oxana said, if you could have Dina for your wedding, get her, she's a legend.
She also tells of a wedding she performed at with a singer they nickname Abdel Halim becuase he has that nice smooth classic voice and can sing the classics well. The bride was all "DO MAFIA" and the poor singer was like - "I can't sing that music". So you have to remember that brides and grooms are quite young and the ones who have expensive weddings with top dancers also have contemporary tastes and want popular hits. And mahgranat music is really mainstream now.
Plus, Shahrzad (IIRC) did a great lecture about the current scene where she said that the upper class audiences want to dance themselves and really just want you there to get them into the groove. More middle class wedding parties are the ones where they want everything fancy. She may still have it available, or would be able to point you to who sponsored her for it so you could see if you could buy it.
So anyway I highly recommend the Yasmina/Sara documentary as it is extremely up to date. You will also find on there, that most of the Egyptian dancers including five-star ones like Aziza, say the cabaret (sleazy old sleazy cabaret) is THE place to find the REAL bellydance. They are QUITE adamant about REAL bellydance. We may need to accept that REAL bellydance in its native countries is sometimes a bit less lovely than we like to fantasise.
I saw Dina at the Semiramis a couple of years ago (I finally got there!) . Of note: her costumes are still racy but really quite restrained compared with some of the newer dancers' styles. Also, those babies DO NOT MOVE. I was sitting at the edge of the stage looking up her skirt at one point and I could see NOTHING. Just the leg of her shorts on one side (the other side was mesh). I would love to get my hands on one of her costumes to see the making! They look light as air, very thin lycra and incredible illusion mesh that perfectly matches her skin and looks as thin as nylons but obviously is very strong. And she does lightning quick costume changes (two assistants apparently).
She is very dynamic in the flesh, very tasteful choices of makeup and hair etc compared with a lot of others these days - she knows how to enhance her beauty the right way for her age and style.
From her insta, she dances at weddings still a lot and is acting a lot too.
She is very dynamic in the flesh, very tasteful choices of makeup and hair etc compared with a lot of others these days - she knows how to enhance her beauty the right way for her age and style.
From her insta, she dances at weddings still a lot and is acting a lot too.
I honestly think that the whole "oh no costumes are too REVEALING" thing is related not so much to skin show as it is to pushed up breasts and implants that make things look less, er, natural.
When I saw her she wore a very slinky clingy white dress that looked barely held together (it was actually immovable) and a costume with lion heads on the boobs, so she's still poking fun.
But Dina is rocking the nudey look right now. She's got a few in this style at the moment (hope people can see)
Here's your wedding dancer!
Net galore!
When I saw her she wore a very slinky clingy white dress that looked barely held together (it was actually immovable) and a costume with lion heads on the boobs, so she's still poking fun.
But Dina is rocking the nudey look right now. She's got a few in this style at the moment (hope people can see)
Here's your wedding dancer!
Net galore!
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Greek Bonfire
Well-known member
And today I saw another dancer, who should know better, performing just in bedlah. There's no mystery or allure, it's not even sensual, it's just graphic and obvious, and leaves nothing to the imagination <sigh>
Is this the lecture you are thinking of?
(It's also linked over in this thread http://bellydanceforums.net/threads/so-confused.20118/ , if anyone thinks it looks familiar from February--you know, back when I had that premonition I was going to need an alibi to prove I knew who Shahrzad was...)
In the past, it didn't feel so difficult to find clips on YouTube of substantially less prestigious dancers performing at local events around Egypt, but now, after you sift out the videos of young guys popping/locking/turfing/krumping/bonebreaking/dance battling to mahraganat, what's left can be pretty rough to watch (and often difficult to tell where any particular dancer fits into the entertainment ecosystem, to phrase it politely).
There's a whole channel of performances (frequently with live bands) here https://youtube.com/c/BellyDanceSexy/videos, but you can guess from the channel name that these dancers are not singing with their bodies the way Umm Kalthoum sang with her voice, unless she had a lot more vibrato than anyone remembers. Here are their two most recent uploads:
On the plus side, if you look through their content, it turns up a few more names of dancers working over there.
Now, let's have a palate cleanser and go back to the days when dancers dressed like princesses and moved with the utmost grace and elegance...
On second thought, maybe the modern Egyptian style isn't so much a new innovation as taking something that was considered an outlier by the foreign/student BD community and making it the mainstream.