Update! The DVD of the show is now available from Farida Dance. This fabulous DVD is a two-disk set of the show at Liverpool which is longer than those seen elsewhere. I cannot recommend it highly enough - Yasmina at her stunning best and top-notch performances by Dandash and Aida Nour.
The price is just £18.99 for over 2.5 hours footage!
Visit Farida Dance to buy your copy.
(Disclaimer - I am just a satisfied customer! )
A wonderful taste of Cairo!
A review of the Farha Tour Show at Swindon by Afra al Kahira
Photos are Copyright of Jason Smalley
Wonderful is something of an understatement really! Yasmina of Cairo, Kay Taylor and for the Swindon show, Mosaic Arabic Dance Network, brought to the UK a real taste of what you can expect from a quality show in a prestigious Cairo nightclub or 5 star hotel. Not only did we have the pleasure of the highly talented Yasmina’s dancing, she was dancing to live music from her own band of talented musicians – Fer’et el Nogoum. The icing on the cake was the fact that part two would feature performances from not one, but two of Cairo’s stars - Dandesh and Aida Nour! What more could you ask for?
As we all sat in the theatre at New College in Swindon on Saturday 12th March, there was a buzz of excitement in the air as the musicians came on stage and began to tune their instruments. I was in bliss as they opened the show with a beautiful rendition of Alf Leyla Wi Leyla - one of my all time favourite songs. My hips and feet were twitching as I resisted the urge to get up dance and I was transported away by the lovely sounds. Then the band struck up with Yasmina’s opening music Heya Di Yasmina, (the first track on her new CD) and she made her entrance in a stunning red diamante bedlah. Yasmina’s style is not earthy, instead it has a refined and elegant quality that gives the impression that she is floating across the stage. This is punctuated by crisp hip snaps, accents and fabulous technique. I would sum it up as effortless charm, beautiful technique and a radiant smile that lit up the stage. Once the magenci (opening) was finished Yasmina danced to Ya Helw Sabah which was sung by band leader Safaa. Safaa has a voice like melting chocolate and Yasmina’s dancing is the icing on the top of the chocolate cake - lovely!
A musical interlude and a fun tableau by Yasmina’s folkloric dancers Mohamed Khazafy and Sayed Amar, set the scene for an excellent Eskanderani tableau. Yasmina reappeared in a curly wig and wearing a drop dead gorgeous melaya dress, which cleverly complimented, tongue in cheek, the theme of a fishing port. Bright iridescent colours and fish motifs topped off with a cheeky grin! I was so disappointed to learn from Yasmina that the dress is a complete one-off by talented designer Hala, as I would have ordered one there and then if it had been possible, and I was not the only one either! This was a comedy tableau at it’s very best - flowing from one hilarious moment to the next. The highlight being Yasmina’s comic duet with her very talented sagat player Sayed Tura - who is a talented comedian in his own right with excellent timing!
We then had another musical interlude this one spiced up by Safaa’s singing and a further comic set from Sayed Tura - boy can that guy play the sagat! Yasmina’s final set was a lyrical and romantic duet with the talented Mohamed to a cocktail of Abdul Halim Hafez songs. This was an interesting contrast to the previous set and put me in mind of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. The first half of the show was brought to a rousing finale by Sayed Amar’s Tannoura - the whirling dance. Sayed thrilled the audience with his incredible skill and had us up on our feet at the end.
I have to say that in many respects I would have felt I’d had my money’s worth if the whole show had comprised the first half - it was that good!
On returning to the auditorium for the second half we excitedly waited for Dandesh. Her dancing is earthier than Yasmina’s, but with the same crisp and flawless technique. We saw all those amazing signature movements - big strong hip accents and incredible shimmies! Not everyone was impressed by Dandesh’s choice of costume (yellow opaque mini-skirt in tight lycra with flowing chiffon from the mid thigh downwards), but for me it gave a perfect view of her hip articulations and a real clue as to where all those amazing shimmies come from. Like Yasmina, Dandesh has a real power to connect with her audience and pretty soon we were all enthralled. Whilst Dandesh went off to make a costume change, Mohamed Khazafy and Sayed Amar the folkloric dancers, performed some tahtib then Sayed left the stage to Mohamed who did a powerful Saidi number on his own.
Dandesh then reappeared in a lovely red dress. Keeping to the Saidi theme, she and Mohamed danced together for a while, then Dandesh performed on her own. At one point Dandesh came off stage and into the audience to dance in the aisles - much to everyone’s delight as we could see up close those amazing shimmies. Before she finished Dandesh had one last treat up her sleeve - her clever, comedic impersonations of famous dancers - hilarious!
Dandesh was followed by Aida Nour, who gave a masterful performance of how to make the audience eat out of your hand! It didn’t matter that she was wearing a plain white galabaya and hip scarf, as Aida didn’t need a sparkly bedlah to show us how it’s done. Soulful one moment, playful and sassy the next and so obviously enjoying every single moment. Once again there was the frisson of excitement as Aida too came and danced in the auditorium - we loved every moment. As with Dandesh we saw many of those signature movements that Aida is so fond of, including a sitting on the stairs and shimmying like mad and getting a chair out from back stage to sit, shimmy on and dance next to! In many ways it was like she was sharing a secret with us ‘ I don’t dance in Cairo, but I can still dance and I love dancing!’ However, there were one or two moments when I felt Aida’s exuberance verged on the edge of tackiness, and I know some of the audience felt that maybe we saw a little more of Aida’s knees and thighs than was perhaps seemly. Aida’s natural ebullience gave the whole thing a certain élan that enabled her to get away with it, so on the whole it worked in her favour. I did suspect that there was a large dollop of ‘hamming it up’ in a kind of tongue-in-cheek way from time to time, simply because she got carried way having so much fun!
Unfortunately, I do have one or two minor criticisms to make though. The start of the show, the interval and the finish of the show were, in my opinion, handled rather poorly. Admittedly Kay Taylor gave all the performers a great intro as they came back on stage to take a bow, no complaints there. As for the rest though. . . Why oh why didn’t a representative of MADN come onto stage at the beginning and start the evening off properly? A little announcement saying how pleased they were to be hosting the show, and a nice fulsome introduction to the evening should definitely have taken place. Instead a MADN official popped up from the audience, squeaked out a request for no mobiles, photos, etc. And that was it - no introduction at all. As she didn’t use a microphone only the people in the front few rows could really hear what she had said. People in the row behind us were annoyed because they didn’t catch what was said. Ditto for the interval, only worse because there was such a buzz of excitement after the tannoura. If anything of any consequence was said, none of us heard it! I have to say that I found all of this rather bizarre. I was the guest star at a MADN show last year and I got a far better introduction than the stellar performers at this considerably more prestigious event!
Call me old-fashioned, but to me it seemed less than generous not to acknowledge how lucky we all were to be seeing this show, and to give the performers a nice warm welcome. I won’t be popular for saying this but sadly I felt that they ‘let the side’ down just a bit. It would also have been nice if a MADN representative had come on stage at the end and personally thanked everyone involved, before sending us all on our way home.
Just as well then that it was a fabulous, fabulous show, full of hugely talented performers who more than made up for the lack-lustre performance of MADN’s officials. Perhaps they should take lessons from Kay Taylor who made an excellent job of welcoming the performers back on stage at the end to receive our rapturous applause and standing ovation, which was very well deserved indeed. When I was getting dressed the following morning I thought "ouch" only then did I realise that I had clapped so much and for so long the night before that I had bruises on some of my fingers - now that’s the sign of a good show!
Thank you very much to Kay and Yasmina (with help from NADA, MADN & Grants For All) for making this event happen. It was a wonderful opportunity for British dancers to see and appreciate a real Cairo show in all its glory!
© Afra al Kahira 2005
A version of this review appeared in Issue 49 of Taqasim Magazine