Gilded
Serpent presents...
Dina:
April 2008
Semiramis
Intercontinental Hotel, Cairo
photos
by Catherine
Barros
This
was a typical show for Dina at the
nightclub in the Semiramis Intercontinental and
very similiar to the show that I saw her do four years
ago. There are always some warmup acts: the "international" singers
and an Arabic pop/standards singer. Then Dina comes
on with a bang and dances her way through 4 costume
changes.
She has multiple singers in her show and she always
does the set with the Nubian singer. I was lucky to
have a seat at the table next to the stage so I could
take good photos. It was a late night as usual as we
didn't even go out until midnight to have dinner and
watch Dina at around 3am . . . but who was watching
the time . . . It is CAIRO!
Originally, I planned to go to Cairo for the Nile
Group Festival. When I heard that Fifi was
going to be in Dallas, my hometown, the last weekend
of the festival, I shifted
my Cairo trip to be a bit earlier. After checking around
I decided to join up with Kay Taylor's small tour group,
which is likened to an "assault" on Cairo.
. All the participants were dancers from the United
Kingdom and we had a furious 5 days of touristing,
shows, costuming, shopping and eating. I was in Cairo
for 2 weeks during which I mostly did a bunch of dance
related stuff, some tourist stuff and also visiting
with friends that live in Cairo.
Semiramis is a big hotel on the Nile (Corniche el Nil)
not far from Downtown and Garden City, across from
Zamalek. Zamalek is a district on an island surrounded
by the Nile. I did go to the Nile Group Festival where
I attended the opening gala and took 4 classes. This
photo spread is just on Dina but I may just write about
my trip with Kay soon!
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The
Semiramis Hotel.
Photo taken from across the Nile from
the Times Tower |
Kay's
group at Semiramis
Pam is the first one on the left . . . of course I
forgot the others names!
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This
is the band that started the evening playing international
hits. |
This guy came out and sang Arabic standards |
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Author
with Dina and that Tannoura guy.
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Check the "Letters to the Editor" for
other possible viewpoints!
Ready
for more?
1-10-06 The
Dina Show! Photos by Catherine Barros, Slideshow coding by
Tammy Yee
Event
sponsored by Little Egypt on May 28-30, 2005 at the Crowne Plaze
in Miami, Florida
11-21-07Farida
Dance presents Cairo Nights: 2005 and 2006 DVDs reviewed
by Catherine Barros
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 12-8-04 Mona
el Said in Dallas, Part 2 by Catherine E Barros
12-7-04 Mona el Said in Dallas, Part 1,
by Catherine E Barros
Sponsored
by Little Egypt at the Holiday Inn, Dallas Texas September 3
- 5, 2004.
It’s always nice when you find that someone, whom you’ve put up on a big pedestal,
is down to earth, just “folks” like the rest of us.
8-24-04 Dina
in LA, report
and photos by Catherine Barros
On
May 14-16 of 2004, Nora, Dee Dee & Ahmad Asad of Little Egypt
presented Dina of Cairo in a teaching workshop and show at the
Radisson Hotel at the Los Angeles Airport.
7-21-04 Leila,
An American Dancer in Cairo by Catherine Barros,
She
would walk into these huge ballrooms filled with thousands of
people with a huge stage in the middle of the room while television
cameras on cranes are taking note of everything.
9-14-05 Behind
The Nile Group Workshops in Cairo by
Zeina
How
absurd it sounds! How could we, in a small country that a lot of
people
couldn’t even locate on a world map, compete with her enormous
festival in Cairo? 9-17-07 Changes:
Egyptian Dance - Has it crossed the line? by Amina
Goodyear
Both
festivals, held in Giza were isolated and insulated from the people
and the Cairo
that I know and love.
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