by Luna
Luna
Blog Intro
Hello, I'm Luna, and I'd like to welcome you to "Kisses from Kairo,"* my blog about living and working as an American belly dancer in Cairo.
Life in Cairo isn't easy for dancers, foreigners, women, or even Egyptians. It is, however, always exciting. That’s why after living here for seven years, I've decided to share my experiences with the world. From being contracted at the Semiramis Hotel to almost being deported, not a day has gone by without something odd or magical happening. I will therefore fill these pages with bits of my history in Cairo—my experiences, successes, mistakes, and observations. Admittedly, my time here has been rather unique, so I want to stress that while everything I write is true, my experiences do not necessarily reflect the lives of other dancers.
In addition to my life as a belly dancer, I will write about developments in costuming, performances, festivals, and, of course, the dance itself. I will also make frequent references to Egyptian culture. I should note that I have a love/hate relationship with Egypt. If I make any criticisms about the country, please keep in mind that I do so with the utmost love, respect, and most of all, honesty. Egypt has become my home, so I want to avoid romanticizing and apologizing for social maladies, as most foreigners tend to do. Nothing could be more misguided, patronizing, or insulting.
I hope you find this blog informative, insightful and entertaining, and that we can make this as interactive as possible. That means I'd love to hear from you. Send me your comments, questions, complaints, suggestions, pics, doctoral dissertations, money, etc., and I will get back to you. Promise. :)~
My Videos
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Endangered Species
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
An Entirely Possible Possibility
Egyptian belly dancers are an endangered
species. On the road to extinction. That is, if there isn’t a belly dance renaissance
in Egypt sometime soon. Even Dina fears as much. For the truth is, aside from
Dina, Randa, Camelia, and more recently, Aziza, there is a conspicuous lack of good
Egyptian belly dancers on the market. This is ironic, considering that most of
us imagine Egypt to be Planet Belly Dance, and that Egypt is the home of belly
dance legends Samia Gamal, Fifi Abdo, and Soheir Zaki. There are also at least
40 million Egyptian women living here. You would think that with those numbers,
this music and dance-oriented country could produce a few more star belly dancers.
Yet the reality is that an ugly combination of economic and socio-religious
factors is robbing this country of one of its greatest artistic achievements.
I remember first moving to Cairo and being
excited about all the belly dancers I thought I would see. Expecting to
discover hundreds of naturally talented women, I visited nearly every venue
that featured belly dancing. But what I expected and what I discovered were two
different things. To my dismay, the
level of dancing here of most Egyptian belly dancers is appallingly low. To be frank, it is quite bad. With the
notable exceptions of the four superstars I previously mentioned, the majority
of Egyptian dancers leave a lot to be desired.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Flying High...
Well, more like drunk. Is there a better way
to celebrate my coming home to Brooklyn than drinking cranberry and vodka on
the flight home? But hey, it has been a good while since I’ve consumed alcohol.
It’s just not a priority when you live in Egypt, a country as dry as its
dessert sands.
I will admit, I’m a lightweight. That’s
because I rarely drink. It only took one cup of the stuff to blur my already
blurry vision and make me giggle out loud while watching Aasal Iswid. Aasal Iswid is
an Egyptian comedy which translates as ‘Black Honey.’ It satirizes the oftentimes
repugnant ways in which Egyptians treat each other by juxtaposing it with the royal
treatment they often bestow upon foreigners. The protagonist is Egyptian actor
Ahmed Hilmy, who returns to Cairo to work as a photographer after living in the
United States for twenty years. Intent on ‘going native,’ Ahmed deliberately leaves
his American passport in the States and proudly identifies as Egyptian. The
film progresses by showing all the unnecessary travails he experienced because
of this. From taxi drivers to authorities to horses(!), no one treats Ahmed the
way he expects to be treated as a native of Egypt.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Teaching in NYC Nov. 14th-16th
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
My Interview with BellyDanceFinder!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Nile-Style
with
Luna
October 31, 2011
7:00p.m.

$25 USD gets you a buffet dinner, a 2.5 hour cruise on the Nile, and a fun belly dance show to live music by Luna of Cairo.
Halloween costumes strongly encouraged.
Winner of Best Costume Contest receives a (sur)prize!
E-mail me at lunaofcairo@gmail.com for location & details & to RSVP :)
Sunday, October 2, 2011
The Frustrated Feminist
I’m a frustrated feminist. I have always
been a feminist of one kind or another, but the frustrated part is rather
recent. It has a lot to do with where I live and what I do. Luckily, I haven’t
reached the point of no return. I still shave my legs and armpits and wear makeup.
And I’m straight. Yet I find myself hating men. Well, many of them anyway. It’s not that I
hate the individuals who happen to be men. I just hate their misogyny and machismo, or whatever it is that drives
them to subjugate women.
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, I
live in an ultra-patriarchal society. This means men have the upper hand in
almost all aspects of life here. They are the leaders, the law makers, the law
keepers, and law breakers. This is true of most of the world, but it is a
little more exaggerated in places like Egypt than in the United States or
Western Europe. That is not to say that Egypt is on par with Saudi Arabia, Iran
of Afghanistan in terms of women-hating.
Nevertheless, misogyny does have its place here. And it takes various
forms. Female genital mutilation (extremely widespread); domestic violence (the
norm); sexual harassment (no comment); honor killings (much rarer but do occur
from time to time). Divorce, adultery and other personal status laws overtly
favor men. And of course, there is the oh-so-prevalent “a women’s place is in
the home” school of thought to which men and
women subscribe. Again, all of these things exist in other countries, even in our
corner of the world. It’s just that they occur with more much more frequency
and much less stigma in this slice of the world.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
The Case for Cairo
Why
you should come to Cairo. Now.
Perhaps more than most, I am known for openly criticizing Cairo. This is because I am way past the infatuation phase in my relationship with this city. I have said and continue to say that it is dirty, crowded, chaotic, draining, dysfunctional, and frustrating. But one thing I have never said about this place is that it is dangerous. If it were dangerous, I would not live here. Neither would thousands of other foreigners who live here alongside me. Okay, okay, the first week of the uprising was pretty scary. I’ll give you that. But things calmed down soon after. Sure, there is no real government right now, and there still isn’t as many police on the streets as there used to be, but I could think of much more dangerous countries that have functioning governments and plenty of police.
Despite what you hear from the media, Cairo
is safe. The problem with the media is that it broadcasts from Tahrir Square to
the near exclusion of the rest of the country. This results in a skewed version
of reality. Tahrir is not Egypt. It is a tiny sliver of Cairo that serves as a rallying point for political
agitators. Generally, what happens in Tahrir stays in Tahrir and does not
affect the country at large. In fact, half of the time, Egyptians don’t even
know what is happening there.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Baladi Beauty
Modeling a wedding dress in an Egyptian magazine. |
Let me clarify. I am NOT a bridal
model. It’s just that I am a bit more ‘well rounded than all the Eastern
European girls who saturate the modeling market in Egypt, so I get called for a
lot of shoots which require a fuller-figured woman. That means lingerie and
wedding shoots. As I refuse to model lingerie (especially in Egypt), I stick to
occasional bridal modeling. It’s kind of ironic in light of my phobia of all things
marriage, especially poofy white dresses. And boy are they poofy here. The
minute I step into one of those monstrous things, I look like I’m drowning in a
sea of white tulle and chiffon. Not to mention it is impossible to maneuver in
them. Now I know why the Egyptian brides usually look scared and pissed.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Ramadan in Cairo
Ramadan suhoor at local restaurant il-Gahsh |
It’s Ramadan, the Islamic holy month. During
this time, Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk. They avoid
all things vulgar. Well, in theory at least. That means no profanity, fighting,
lying, smoking, or engaging in other un-Islamic activities. The prohibited
activity that concerns us here is belly dancing.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Song Translation Service!
Take your dancing to the next level with my new Arabic song translation service!
Upon popular suggestion,
I’ve finally decided to offer a song translation service. Now you can have ANY Arabic song translated & transliterated into fluent, native
English for just $25 USD. I provide
accurate, precise translations, phonetic transliterations, and explanations of all
idioms, terms, and cultural references that aren’t immediately intelligible to
non-Arabic speakers. No more limited, awkward, online translations by
translators who are limited in either English or Arabic.
Understanding the
meaning of song lyrics will significantly improve the way you feel the music, and
allow your audiences to feel connected to you. Song translation is also a great
way to gain further insight into Middle Eastern culture.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The "P" Word
The
“P” Word
No, it’s not what you think. It’s another
word that starts with the letter P—one that has been pestering me for quite
some time now. The word is ‘prestige,’ or bresteej¸
as the Egyptians say. :) It means the same in Egyptian Arabic as it does in
English, except Egyptians also apply this concept to belly dancing. I’ll show
you what I mean.
A few days ago, I got a call to perform at
a restaurant in Masr Gadida after my shows on the Nile Memphis. I would dance
to CD, change my costume three times, and collect plenty of tips. I told the agent
I would do it, and arranged for my new manager, Magid, to accompany me so I
would have representation. Upon arriving at the restaurant, however, we discovered
that there was no dance floor. In fact, the entire restaurant was no bigger
than my kitchen. It was an intimate, dimly-lit, cigar-smoke-filled, Italian-style
seafood restaurant, replete with foreign wines and liquors, and the type of
Egyptians who could afford it. It wasn’t exactly a venue for belly dancing. And
because the tables were so close together, the most I could have done was weave
through the tables and do a few chest pops. To make matters worse, the customers
were mainly drunk older men. Moneyed, though.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Condomonium
Condomonium
...yes,
you read that correctly :)
That
Little Blue “Piece of Paper”
Here’s some heartfelt advice from your
resident foreign belly dancer living in Egypt. Never carry condoms on you or anywhere near you while traveling in Egypt. Never. Same goes for
tampons. Most Egyptians don’t know what
they are, and when their curiosity gets the better of them, things can get a
bit… uncomfortable.
It just so happened that while I was returning
to Cairo one night after a show in the Red Sea area, the security check-point
officers decided they would stop our car and search our bags. The three guys
who were with me—the DJ, the whirling dervish, and the driver—stepped out of
the car for the officers to frisk them. I, being the only woman, was ordered to
stay inside until the search was over. As I sat there, I could feel the car bounce
as the officers opened the trunk and rummaged through our bags. And then, one
by one, the guys climbed back into the vehicle, each with a look of embarrassed
humiliation on his face.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Celebrate the 4th of July Nile-Style!
4th of July Nile-Style! If you're American & in Cairo, come celebate the 4th of July at the Nile Memphis! $25USD buys you dinner, a wonderful cruise along the Nile, and an exciting belly dance show by American belly dancer Luna! Invitation extended to non-Americans, anti-Americans, wana-be Americans, and eveyone else :D Boat sails at 7pm sharp! Space is limited! Email me at lunaofcairo@gmail.com for boat location and to RSVP.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Birthday Blog
Today is my birthday. In fact, it’s my
third consecutive birthday in Cairo. And
yet, if you ask me where home is, I’ll probably tell you the US.
I’m not sure how many years you have to
spend in a place before you consider it home, but the truth is, Cairo is as
much my home as New York. I’ve been living and working here for almost three
years now. I’m fluent in Arabic. I have sweat rivers that rival the Nile. I
have made friends, enemies, and relationships to last a lifetime. I’ve laughed
and made others laugh, cried and made others cry, lied and made others lie. I’ve
helped people and been helped, fought and been fought, loved and been loved. I’ve
been fooled, cheated, robbed and evicted. I’ve been supported and cheered on. I’ve
had fits of laughter and fits of rage. I’ve almost been arrested, deported, and
killed on several occasions. I’ve even experienced a revolution. In short, I’ve
lived my life here, and I have a few grey hairs to show for it. If none of this
makes a place your home, I don’t know what does.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Showdown at the Semiramis Hotel
You know that hackneyed ‘everything
happens for a reason’ cliché that people like to say when misfortune knocks at
your door? Well, it’s true. At the time, I probably would have pelted anyone
who told me that there was some larger esoteric reason for being kicked out of
the Semiramis Hotel. In hindsight, however, I now understand why, in the larger
scheme of things, this was a blessing in disguise.
The circumstances of my being contracted and
de-contracted at the Semiramis were rather odd.
One typical Cairo evening, I found myself sitting in the Semiramis’
disco with a dancer friend and the two managers of the nightclub where Dina
performs every week. Embarrassingly enough, it took me a whole hour to realize that
the man sitting across from me conversing with me was the big shot manager
who hires talent at the Semiramis. In my defense, I wasn’t told who this man
was. My dancer friend simply asked me to accompany her to a party with some artists
at the Semiramis disco, and “oh I’m auditioning here tomorrow.”
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The $6.78 CondunDRUM
The $6.78 CondunDRUM
After six months of changing drummers almost as frequently
as I change my underwear, I finally found the perfect drummer to join my band.
He’s skilled, powerful, properly translates my moves, and isn’t lazy or greedy.
He’s everything I’ve been looking for in a drummer, and I couldn’t be happier.
But, as always, there’s a problem. The other members of the band don’t like him. They say he’s arrogant and
makes funny faces and gestures at them. And they want him out.
Do you see what I’m up against? Funny faces? I feel like I’m in kindergarten here.
Dealing with musicians is one of the most challenging aspects of my job. Technically, the band leader handles them for me because in Egypt, it’s not “prestigious” for a dancer to talk to her musicians (and because I have little patience for childish antics). Nevertheless, I still feel the effects of their inflated egos, childishness, and greed. And last night, it really bothered me. We were on stage, about to close the show with a drum solo, when all of a sudden, the band stopped playing. They left me hanging in front of my audience with no music to dance to. I turned around to see what the problem was, only to find them arguing with the drummer!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Finding Work in Cairo -- The Bare Naked Truth
For many belly
dancers around the world, dancing in Cairo is the dream of a lifetime. Whether
it’s the opportunity to perform every night to a live orchestra or the chance
to earn recognition in the international belly dance community, belly dancing
in Cairo brings hundreds of foreign women to Egypt each year. Some sell their
homes, life possessions, and leave loved ones behind. Most go home disappointed
and disillusioned, while others remain in Cairo for years hoping their dream
will one day come true.
Though we all fantasize about it, belly dancing in Cairo is not for everyone. It takes a certain type of woman—physically, emotionally and intellectually—to succeed here as a dancer. And it’s not always the woman who wants it. As one dancer put it, Cairo picks you. You don’t pick Cairo. From what I’ve seen, this seems to be true. With that in mind, I put together a realistic guide to finding work in Cairo that examines the attributes of those dancers most likely to succeed. Please keep in mind that the following comments are based on my personal observations over the past two and a half years.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Dancing Deportation Drama
My Run-In with the Egyptian “Belly Dance Police”
At the time it was happening, it wasn’t
funny, but now I look back on the day I almost got deported and laugh. I mean,
who would have thought that belly dancing on a Nile cruise could land you in
jail and get you kicked out of Egypt? Do
Egyptian authorities really have nothing better to do than arrest foreign belly
dancers?
It happened like this. After auditioning
on the Nile Memphis last August, the management scheduled me to perform five
nights a week (I negotiated hard to get two days off!) Sometimes I performed two
shows a night, sometimes six. It all depended on how many reservations and sails
the boat had. After doing this regularly for two months, one of the Egyptian
belly dancers who previously worked there full-time grew resentful that she was
now only dancing on my days off. But instead of coming to the boat to check out
her competition and understand why she had been replaced, she tried to
terminate my dance career. With me gone, she figured she would reclaim her
position on the boat. So she called what I like to refer to as the belly dance
police (mosannafaat in Arabic), and reported me for dancing without
working papers.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
"Les danseuses du Caire" - “The Belly Dancers of Cairo”
A few months ago, I had the privilege of being
filmed for a French documentary on belly dancing in Cairo. Three French
journalists from French TF1 channel spent an entire day shadowing me from the
minute I woke up (literally), to the minute I finished my last performance on
the Nile Memphis. Their goal was to document a typical day in the life of a
Cairo belly dancer. They also shadowed Brazilian dancer Sorayya Zayed; an
unknown Egyptian cabaret dancer; and famous costume designer Sahar Okasha.
Being shadowed was nothing but fun and
laughs from start to finish. I am
grateful to French belly dancer Maya Sarsa of Cairo for recommending me for
this project. http://www.youtube.com/user/mayasarsa
Saturday, June 4, 2011
FINALLY!
Good
News!!! Egyptian Paperwork Completed!
I woke up this afternoon to good news. The
Egyptian government approved my work papers. Well, whatever remains of the
government. This means I am now legally authorized to work as a belly dancer in
Cairo. Finally! It only took, oh, two and half years and a revolution. Actually,
I was contracted to dance at the Semiramis Hotel last year, but that ended
sooner than it started (for reasons I’ll write about in my next post). A week
after that drama, I passed an audition at the Memphis Nile Cruise. Though
intent on hiring me, the boat management lacked the requisite government license
to hire foreign (i.e. non Egyptian) dancers. The management promptly apply for
one, after which it contracted me to perform belly dance shows at their
establishment seven nights a week. Very exciting stuff, but processing the
paperwork took much longer than it should have.
This is why…
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Egyptian Uprising 2011
This is an account of how I
experienced the political turmoil of Friday, January 28th, 2011, aka
the “Friday of Wrath.” I apologize to my readers for not accompanying my
writing with any images. Though I had originally intended to photograph the
protests, I decided against it. The acts I witnessed were so unconscionable
that I felt it would be unethical to capture them and slap them all over
Facebook. The media does a good enough job of that. And they get paid for it.
I don’t.
Friday of Wrath
It
was 1 pm when I woke up from the previous night’s sleep. As I laid in bed,
my thoughts drifted to the Memphis, the Nile Cruise on which I was contracted
to dance. My musicians and I were scheduled for three sails across the
Nile starting that afternoon, totaling six 45-minute performances. I
wondered if they would happen—the country was scheduled to erupt into massive
anti-government protests, and I couldn't imagine business running as usual.
Not
knowing whether the silence of my 13th floor bedroom meant that the
demonstrations were off, I picked up my tiny Nokia phone to call my manager.
After several attempts, I couldn’t get through. I didn’t yet know it, but the
Egyptian government cut all lines of communication, including cell phones and
land phones and the Internet. It was a last-ditch attempt to prevent protestors
from mobilizing in Tahrir Square. When I finally figured this out, a pang of panic bolted through my stomach as I
thought to myself, the government controls the Internet?!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Harvard Thing...
…Warning. This is a rant.
I’m just going to say it. I went to
Harvard. Four years ago. I did a Masters program in Middle Eastern
Studies and graduated with a 3.9 average. I’ve been deeply fascinated with
the Middle East ever since experiencing the terrorist attacks of September 11th
firsthand, and decided I’d drive myself into serious debt studying everything
that went into them.
So why for the love of God am I
belly dancing in Cairo? Shouldn’t I be putting my education to use? Shouldn’t I
be making a six-figure salary working for the US government or a consulting
firm somewhere? Aren’t I wasting my life “shaking my butt” in a third world
country?
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Whore on the 4th Floor
My
Secret Life as a Belly Dancer in Cairo
This
might sound strange, but here in Cairo, I lead a secret life. I’m not a spy or having
an affair or doing anything nefarious. I’m just a belly dancer. But I make
great efforts to hide this from people. When Egyptians ask me what I’m
doing in Cairo, I tell them I’m writing a book about Egyptian art. I keep
things vague, but not untrue. I am, after all, writing a book, and its subject
is belly dancing, which is an Egyptian art. Never do I mention that I’m
a practitioner of this art, however. Doing so would unleash a series of
unfavorable consequences, not the least of which is being thought of as a
whore.
You
might be thinking, So what? Sticks and stones will hurt my bones, but words
will never hurt me. Unfortunately, this is true only to the extent that I won’t
be stoned for being a belly dancer. But I might…oh, I don’t know… get kicked
out of my apartment.
Oddly
enough, this is exactly what happened to me last year (in fact today marks the
one-year anniversary of my eviction!). My landlord kicked me out of my
apartment upon learning that I was a belly dancer.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
My Story...
More than two years ago, I traded in my life in New York City for a new one in Cairo. I had just graduated from Harvard University with a Masters degree in Middle Eastern Studies, and had won a Fulbright scholarship to write a book about belly dance in Egypt. A more secretive goal of mine, however, was to learn Egyptian belly dance. The real thing. Ever since participating in Raqia Hassan’s Ahlan wa Sahlan dance festival in 2006, I knew it could only happen in Egypt.
Though I had taken belly dance classes and became a popular performer in NYC, watching belly dance superstars Dina, Randa, Asmahan, and Sorraya perform at Raqia’s festival shattered all delusions I had regarding my ability to dance. My dance confidence thereby humbled, I realized I would have to live in Egypt if I wanted to be a fraction as talented as these women. There was simply no equivalent in the US.