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NADA Magazine, Winter 1999/2000
YASMINA: AN ENGLISH ROSE DANCES IN CAIRO
By Maggie Caffrey
Guests fluttered excitedly to their chairs as the 15 piece Oriental orchestra
crammed itself onto the back of the stage. Bride and groom were grandly seated
to one side proudly surveying the scene. Another Egyptian wedding was about to
be blessed by the joyous presence of a Raqs Sharqi dancer, something which has
continued through the generations since Pharaonic times. The musicians struck
up and Yasmina appeared resplendent in gold. Gypsy tiara on her head and cloak
afloat, she glided around the small disco dance floor before coming face to
face with her audience. Her hair fell straight to her waist; her skin was a
whiter shade of pale under the intense lights. Small dark-haired, dark-skinned
children clustered eagerly at her feet, gazing up expectantly at this icon of
womanhood.
Two dances later Yasmina was gone, only to reappear this time in a
figure-hugging purple dress. It was held together by interlacing which
spiralled around her slender form. The queen had become a vamp. Next costume
change, and there she was with a blazing candlelabra on her head and just about
the hugest smile Ive ever seen. Her mermaid-green skirt was slashed to
the thigh, the revealed leg tastefully enclosed in a fine embroidered lycra.
She toured the room pursued by a trail of children and her tubby sagat player
who enthusiastically wafted burning incense in our faces. Once again on stage
he began to play the sagat, saucily accentuating parts of her anatomy whilst
she played the coquette, delicately flicking her skirt open and closed. At one
point he listened to her stomach, nodding sagely, as she danced, before running
his tinkling finger cymbals up the contours of her leg as she performed a
one-legged shiver. He was the perfect foil for this beautifully composed
English rose wjo was playing the goddess at this Egyptian wedding in the
Meridien Hotel, Heliopolis.
Deceptively Simplistic
Yasminas style of dance is deceptively simplistic. Poised and elegant,
she parts the space around her with care, executes each step with tenderness.
Shes very soft, Raqia Hassan told me. People like her.
She gets a lot of weddings. I noted some influence from Dina tiny
subtle movements, pauses, high floating arms, drop-squats. This was combined
with complete composure and a leisurely pace reminiscent of Hanan. One movement
I loved was a soft stop using the centre of her back.
I had first met Yasmina as real-life Francesca Sullivan only the day before.
Kay and I rushed into the hotel lobby hot, sweaty and dusty after a gruelling
two hour class with Aida Nour, and then an even more gruelling battle through
Cairos lunchtime traffic. She was waiting with not strand of hair out of
place, her impeccably applied make-up emphasising her striking Jerry Hall
looks. She spoke of going riding that afternoon. I wondered if her features
would become smudged, and then, gazing at her perfectly outlined lips, I
dismissed the idea as inconceivable. Having persuaded Francesca to submit to
yet another interview (she has undergone several recently for UK national
newspapers) I arrived a few days later outside her apartment off Pyramids Road.
The dusty street was awash from a burst pipe and the building opposite was
boarded up. A lot of people are surprised I live in an area thats
not particularly salubrious she told me, but its very
convenient for me. She leases a horse nearby, and likes to ride whenever
she can. Once inside her spacious family flat, however, the dirt and hustle of
Cairo seemed very far away. Huge chandeliers adorn the spacious rooms whilst
heavily-carved gilt furniture hints at a colonial past. Colourful birds twitter
in a cage in the dining-room and the softest grey Siamese kitten Ive ever
seen turns over lazily on the bed. I felt this extraordinary Englishwoman would
always create her own world of tranquillity wherever she chose to settle.
A long winding road
Yasmina has been until very recently Englands sole representative in the
worlds capital of Oriental dance. She describes her road there as a
long and winding one. Beginning classes in 83 in London with a
belly-dance teacher, she found she had to un-learn everything when she started
studying off and on with Suraya Hilal. She had been performing already in
smaller clubs, having been taught how to put on a show by a
beautiful dancer called Sheherazade.
In 1988 she went to Italy to work as a dancer in a nightclub in Milan. It was
well-paid, but dancing to cassettes and being part of a show with a magician, a
dance troupe etc was very depressing especially as the nightclubs tended to be
quite seedy. Because I actually fell in love with Italy itself I stayed
much longer than I would have. By the time I finished, which was about a year
and a half later, I had almost decided to give up Oriental dance. Hope
returned however when Sheherezade contacted Francesca again and asked her to go
and work in Casablanca with her. I arrived in Morocco and my eyes were
opened, remembers Yasmina. Although Id worked with Egyptian
musicians in London, in Casablanca it was with a far bigger orchestra. There
were big names from Cairo coming to perform. It was just a revelation to me. I
spent one of the best six months of my life there.
The, back in London, she found the effects of the Gulf war had decimated the
night-club scene. Once again hope appeared on the horizon and she was
introduced to an agent called Toros who was based in Beirut. Most of his
dancers were Lebanese but he took a few non-Middle-eastern dancers. Francesca
ended up working for him for three years, usually in the Gulf Dubai, Abu
Dhabi and Bahrain. In the summertime it was in Syria and Jordan. Then destiny
called and, when a contract in Damascus was suddenly cancelled in 95, she
decided to take a holiday in Cairo to check out the costumes there. Until then
all her costumes has been Lebanese big chiffon skirts, heavy beads, big
pearl fringe, 2 piece without a net. In Egypt she found everything far simpler.
Everything was in stretch lycra with no fringe. Dancers like Dina would
wear a stretch-lycra dress with almost no work on it at all. Although people
think that that means when you shake your hips or do a movement nothing will
show. In fact the subtleties show better and perhaps you cant hide as
much.
Here Violetta Barb (a French manager who now runs the nightclub at the Marriott
Hotel) helped Francesca look around, even though the situation was already
getting pretty bad with less work for less money, she was able to win a
contract at the Meridien, Heliopolis. Everything fell into place.
She had the good fortune to remain there for two years.
It was at this point she found herself on the circuit of cabarets and weddings
where a dancer has no contract and is very expendable. You can be in one
day and out the next. You can make good money from tips (because in cabaret
tips are allowed in hotels there is no tipping), but on another night
you can come away with almost nothing. By the time youve paid your
orchestra, you dont take much home. Now I understood what everybody else
had been telling me about. Fortunately Francesca was able to go to work
on the Nile Maxime (a restaurant boat on the Nile) for a year, before being
asked to come back to the Meridien in June this year. She told me that the gap
in the market, created over the past five years by so many good Egyptian
dancers giving up, has worked in the favour of non-Middle-eastern performers
like herself.
Living in Cairo today
She plans to remain living and working in Cairo for the time being even though
theres relatively little work these days, and absolutely no job security.
Most of her money goes on costumes and on daily living expenses. Contrary
to what people think, cairo is not that cheap. You have to be prepared to live
without security and not know whats going to happen tomorrow let alone
next month or next year. Yet Francesca feels that coming to Egypt has
definitely enriched her dancing. She took classes with Ibrahim Akef the first
six months after she arrived, and then moved on to Raqia Hassan. But she feels
it is important to develop your individuality and to incorporate what you have
learned into your own natural style. When youre doing a performance
you dont want people in the audience pointing at you and saying Oh
look shes doing a Raqia! She also goes to watch other dancers
as much as possible. But sadly there are fewer and fewer Egyptian dancers
performing these days because of the poor return. Why risk your
reputation, why throw away a normal life if there is no financial
pay-back?
Apart from dancing Francesca has made a point of developing a well-rounded life
for herself. Its very depressing when the only landmarks of Cairo
become the dressmaker, the nightclub where you work, the dance teacher and your
home. She rides nearly every day and has developed a second career as a
journalist for an English-medium magazine called Egypts Insight. In this
capacity she has been able to meet lots of interesting people including a
Middle-eastern heart-throb and a family of snake breeders who live in the
desert.
What it takes to be a dancer
Talking to Francesca made me realize how it takes much more to be a raqs sharqi
dancer in Egypt than just having the ability to execute a range of steps
beautifully and respond well to the music. She has to be able to get the
costume maker to design and create unusual and workable costumes, to be a
make-up artist, to be able to win contracts and attract one-off bookings, to
get together a live band of around fifteen musicians and to get them to play
the music as she wants it played, to live in a different culture and not get
homesick, and above all to be resilient to the ups and downs of an insecure
profession. You must have a stable personality and keep your
equilibrium, she advises anyone fancying having a crack at becoming a
dancer in Cairo.
I asked her if she would come back to England when she stops dancing. She
answered I may stop dancing and still not come back to England. But there
are things I miss about being home. I miss being able to go down to the local
shop to buy a bottle of wine thats drinkable. Casting my mind back
to yasmina the beautiful dancer I had the privilege to see at the Meridien
Hotel wedding, Im glad Francesca has what it takes to survive life in
cairo without her English home comforts.
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