Something I’ve always been curious about
was whether Cairo’s belly dance stars choreograph their shows. I remember watching Dina, Randa, Soraya and
Asmahan for the first time seven years ago, thinking there's no way such
artistic genius could be produced spontaneously. At the time, I was a
choreography junkie, and I imagined everyone else to be. I couldn't believe
that improv could look so good. Until now,
I still don’t know whether/which dancers choreograph. I’ve never asked any of them,
and I don't exactly suppose I’d get honest answers if I did
If my onstage experiences are similar to
those of other Cairo dancers, however, I think it’s safe to assume that most of
us do both choreography and improvisation--depending on where we are in our
careers. I’ll speak for myself at least. Currently, I mostly improvise. But
that wasn’t always the case. When I first started performing regularly here four
years ago, I relied heavily on
choreography. My own, of course. Back then, the thought of dancing to live
music for live Egyptians :) terrified me. I was afraid that if I improvised, I
would be boring, or “mess up,” so I choreographed every single doom and tek
until the piece was airtight. I also figured that performing choreography would
free my mind to concentrate on posture, hands, emotions, and presence, and that
if I were too busy thinking up the next step, all those other aspects of my
performance would suffer.
