Gilded
Serpent presents...
Farida Dance presents
Cairo Nights: 2005
The
Farha Tour at The Liverpool Olympia, with Aida Nour, Dandesh,
Yasmina of Cairo, Mohamed
Khazafy,
Sayed Amar
and
The Musicians of Fer'et el Negoum with the singer, Safaa Farid
Farida
Dance presents Cairo Nights: 2006
The
Farha Tour at Stage Two, Newcastle, with
Randa Kamel,
Yasmina of Cairo, Mohamed Khazafy, Sayed Amar
and
The Musicians of Fer'et el Negoum
with singers, Safaa Farid and HebbaDVDs
Reviewed by Catherine
Barros
Dallas, Texas September 1, 2007
I kept hearing about the above DVDs which were produced by Kay
Taylor of Farida Dance. The fact
that these shows included Aida
Nour, Randa and Dandesh performing
with a band was the reason I bought them. When I ordered
the DVDs from Kay's website, I crossed my fingers that I
would see the DVDs arrive anytime soon as they would be coming
from the United Kingdom. I was delighted to receive
them in about a week and popped one in the player within
minutes of having the package in my hands. Having Hadia as
a house guest for a workshop at the time, I had a built-in
companion for immediate commentary and exclamation over the
various aspects of the shows (and there was much to exclaim
over!).
There are so
many nuggets packed into these 3 DVDs other than the 3
dancers for which I purchased them. I keep
finding things that I really enjoy as I go back to watch
them time after time.
Although
my preference would be to see them "live" as so much of the dancer's personality
and emotions can be lost on a video recording, I wasn't disappointed
by the performances of the main dancers that I was interested
in seeing. I have experienced Aida and Randa in a "live" setting
which enhanced these performances for me. Beyond the big
3, I was treated to performances by Yasmina of
Cairo on both DVDs, which let me see what a versatile performer
she is. Not only did she perform her solo Oriental,
but she appeared in several of the "tableau" performances
with Mohamed Khazafy, Sayed Amar and Sayed
Tura. Their performances made up a large part
of both DVDs and let us see what well rounded shows both of the
Farha Tours brought to the audiences in the UK. The Oriental/Raks
Sharki/Baladi performances were augmented by Eskanderani, Saidi,
El Tannoura, Semsemiya and other folklore/tableau along with
instrumental and singer only (Safaa and Hebba)
interludes which help to keep the interest up throughout the
shows. (Note: A complete listing from DVDs is included
at the end.)
Some of my definite favorites from the DVDs:
- Dandesh and the beledi tableau with Sayed
Tura, the sagat player. This is part dance
and part comedy. If you haven't had the experience
of Sayed Tura, then you are in for a big treat. He
doesn't just play the sagats for Dandesh, he gets into the
act. They have a bit of a "Dueling sagats" going
on. When Dandesh sits on the floor, he goes down on
the floor with her. I don't want to spoil it by telling
everything, but I enjoyed their repartee immensely.
- Aida Nour -
oh, Aida! - she radiates such joy in her dancing. I am an unabashed Aida fan
so I like to watch whatever she does. She has a sereneness
about her along with that joy.
- Yasmina and
the Eskanderani Tableau (gotta love that "fish" costume)
PLUS the Ahwa Tableau (cute, sassy modern piece).
- Of course, Randa. Anything by Randa is strong/powerful.
Although the costumes can be distracting at times it is always
interesting to see what she comes up with (least favorite .
. . the pants with the wide tracks of bare skin down the legs
. . . tooooo much exposure).
- Sayed Amar along with Khazafy provide
a few folkloric pieces that round out the shows, but the two
that aren't seen too often are the Semsemiya (Khazafy dances
with spoons) and the Two Fighting Men - Traditional (Sayed
is in the life sized puppets)
Although
I do have to admit that the costumes of Dandesh and
Randa presented some of the usual "what was
she thinking to wear that?" moments, I've come to
expect seeing some interesting costumes whenever I watch
the Egyptians dance.
I
consider it part of the entertainment factor. Aida
Nour seems to prefer her simple white gallabeya for her performances
this time around.
Along with the dancers,
I enjoyed discovering things about music and musicians. Although
I have known about Safaa
Farid and his musicians from other CDs of music produced
for Yasmina, Leila and Outi,
it is always a pleasure to see the faces of the singer and musicians. I
actually recognize the accordion player, Reda Saad,
from the time I attended AWS in 2004. He is also the composer
of some of the music you will hear on those CDs. Another
standout musician for me was Sayed Tura, who
plays the sagats. He provides a bit of comic relief
along with demonstrating his great skill at the sagats. Almost
makes me want to get a much bigger pair than the ones that I
normally play.
Some things that I liked about how these DVDs were produced:
- Each performance
has a chapter title on the menu as listed on the back of
the DVD. Once you go to the piece to watch
it, the theme of the performance and/or the title of the music
is listed in transliterated Arabic plus English, all the participants
are listed (dancers, singers). This helped me to make
the list that I have included at the end of this review.
- The stage was set
high enough that there was good visuals with no obstructions. You knew the audience was
out there as you could hear them responding but they were set
back a bit from the stage. You could see this when the
segment with Sayed Tura going down into the audience to bring
up women to dance on the stage.
The
worst criticism that I can level against these DVDs is that
sometimes the lighting washes out the dancers
when they move too close to the front of the stage. Lighting
has to be one of the hardest things to control in a live performance.
Under the category
of "it’s a small world", I met
Kay in Cairo a couple of years ago while she was leading a group
of dancers on one of her tours. A dancer, from Washington
DC (Lucy), whom I know, was on Kay's tour. Now, of course, I
have to laugh at the fact that I interviewed Leila
of Cairo for Gilded Serpent (2004), and then Leila
interviewed Kay Taylor for Gilded Serpent (2007). I
didn't realize what a busy woman Kay really is with leading tours,
running a dance boutique plus organizing workshops/shows of the
magnitude that these DVDs indicate.
I love to find current videos that present some of
my favorite Egyptian dancers in a wide variety of dances
with folkloric style dances presented along with some interesting
tableaux and a great group of musicians to accompany all
the various dance activities occurring on the stage. I
think that Kay has stepped up quite well to produce dance
shows/workshops of well-known dancers for the dancers in
the UK.
I
know that it is quite expensive to produce quality DVDs that
have a small market. Hence
the note from Kay on DVD: "This DVD has been produced for
dancers and lovers of Arabic music and dance to enjoy. I
would ask people not to copy it for each other but to treat yourselves
to an original as it has been a very expensive project for me." I
think she means it as this message is placed on the DVD covers
and scrolling across the screen at the beginning.
I hope that if others
are interested in these performances that they will heed Kay's
request to buy a copy for themselves
and to support her future efforts to promote dance not just in
the UK but around the world.
Detailed
listing for the DVDs - Titles for each section with music,
dancers, singers and musicians identified: |
Cairo Nights,
Farha Tour 2005:
Disc 1: Yasmina, Mohamed Khazafy, Sayed Amar and
Sayed Tura
(Disc
1: 1 hr 10 mins; Disc 2: 1 hr 25 mins)
- Instrumental: "Alf
Leyla we Leyla" - opening of the show
- Heya
di Yasmina - Yasmina/red costume
- Ya
Helw Sabah "Good Morning Beautiful" - Yasmina -
starts with nice takseem/Safaa sings
- Tableau
Eskanderani - based on an original idea of Raqia Hassan - Mohamed
Khazafy and Sayed Amar - duelling scarves; Yasmina appears
in meleya and multicolored scarf dress with large fish
glittery hanging from front, back and sides; the guys
come back with a long piece of blue cloth which they
wrap around Yasmina, tug her about the stage with it
as she wraps and unwraps herself - the scarf is used
to represent the sea as they make it wave. Sayed
Tura (sagat players) comes out to do his comedy bit
- Instrumental: "Ma
Bit'es-eish Aleya Abadan" (You never ask after
me)
- Cocktail
of Abdel halim Hafiz songs - Yasmina and Mohamed
Khazafy - like ballroom dance partners at times,
he flits, turns and leaps around her; pink full skirted
dress with a flowing look
- El
Tannoura, traditional music cocktail - Sayed Amar -
a moment of audience participation
Disc
2: Dandesh, Mohamed Khazafy, Sayed Amar and Sayed
Tura
- "Min
Hob Fik Ya Gary (From my Love for you my neighbor)",
joined to "Taht el Shibak (Under my Window)" - Dandesh yellow
bedlah with shorts under sheer skirt/veil entrance
- "El
Helw w'el Moor (The Bitter and the Sweet)" - Dandesh
- Samra
y Samra (Dark Skinned One) - Dandesh
- Saidi
Tableau - Mohamed Khazafy w/ Sayed Amar/stick
dance - fighting; then Dandesh comes out to
dance with Khazafy - she is playing sagats -
teal dress
- El
do El Shared (The Thin Light of Dawn) - Dandesh
- Instrumental: "Asbaaney
(Hurry)"
- El
Rakasaat (The Dancer) with Baladi and Sagat Tableau
- Dandesh starts with her famous tableau of
imitating other dance stars/red dress/sheer skirt with
shorts/section where she stops the music and dances
to clapping/shimmies faster/Sayed Tura comes out with
the big sagats/plays on her stomache/face-off with
sagats sitting on the floor/he is comedian with sagats
does shimmies and dances around - they face-off doing
pelvic drops
- Aida
Nour:
- Walla
wa Leab el Howa (Here goes the game of Love)
- Aida dances in her white gallabeya w/hip
scarf
- Ansaak
da Kalam (Forget you? How could I?) - Aida -
composer: Sinbati/orig for Om Kholsoum
|
Cairo
Nights,Farha Tour 2006
(1
disc-$70 total for both shows with shipping from the UK)
- Instrumental: "Alf
Leyla we Leyla"
- Yasmina's
opening music
- Asal
wa Sukr (Honey & Sugar) composed by Beligh Hamdi
sung by Hebba; danced by Yasmina (pink
costume)
- Sou-bena
Yasta ala Corniche - Alexandrian Folklore; Singer: Hebba
(with her blue, yellow, orange striped gallabeya and
pompom scarf)
- Akdeb
Alaek (I'd be Lying to You) composed by Beligh Hamdi
sung by Safaa;
- Ahwa
Tableau - very baladi - Sayed Amar, Mohamed
Khazafy, Yasmna and Sayed Tura - Khazafy
as shisha customer; Sayed as Waiter; Yasmina comes
in as customer wearing pants, tie top and cap talking
on mobile; Khazafy tries to attract her attention
by dancing; they all start interacting; Yasmina dances
; Saafa sings Bint el Sultan as one of the songs; Sayed
Tura comes out to sing and plays sagats - he likes
to get up-close-and-personal with his sagats
- Saidi
Tableau - El Do El Shared (the Light of Dawn) composer
Yasser Abdul Rahman; danced by Mohamed Khazafy
- Ganna
el Hawa (Love came to us) - sung by Saafa; Sayed
Tura playing sagats - gets women from the audience
to dance on the stage
- Fighting
Tableau - Sayed Amar - Two Fighting Men - Traditional
- Tribute
to Farid el Atrash & Samia Gamal - Oud Player - Khazafy;
music composed by Mohamed abdel Wahab; "Elbi Multahou
(The Key to My Heart)" & "Ma Eli Oultelou
(They tod me I told him); Khazafy dances with his oud; Yasmina wears
a black wig and costume a la Samia and dances in her
style; they dance together
- El
Tannoura - Traditional music - Sayed Amar
- Semsamiya
Tableau - Khazafy; Shik Shik Marzog (Folklore
from Port Said) - spoons
- Randa:
Randa's Opening music - yellow costume
Ya Helwa Sabah (Good morning, Beautiful) - composer: Mohamed el Mowgi
Ya helwa Randa - black costume with wide legged pants (sheer
panels down the side) and large "eyes"
Ana Kul Maoul el Touba (Every time I say I won't) - composer: kamal el Towil
Tamrahenna - Hebba sings - Randa goes to change
El Helwa Da ala el Shibeka (The Beauty at the Window) composer: Mohamed
Mowgi; Randa wearing teal bedla with mini-skirt
Esel Ruhek (Ask your soul) - composer: Mohamed Mowgi; sung by Hebba - Randa's
finale
|
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