Camelia of Cairo @ Nile Maxim, 2015

Cairo shows to remember vol. 1 I decided to start sharing some gems I've recorded in Cairo over the years. Mostly because I want to honor the artists and forever remember those shows that shaped me and my views as a dancer. And also because they are a part of an era in bellydance that we might be saying goodbye too. Who knows… Whatever future holds I feel so lucky that I could witness these shows in person. Please note these are all just my personal observations and opinions. Camelia, Nile Maxim Boat, 2015 This show happened during the first edition Raqs of Course Festival organized in 2015 and looking back it was one of the most entertaining and exciting shows I've ever watched in my life. One of my favorite teachers, Egyptian superstar Camelia performed a full show at Nile Maxim Boat and one part of the show in particular had made the audience (me included) completely lose their minds. It also was one of the shows that forever changed the way I looked at the role of bellydancer as entertainer as well as my perspective on the evolution of our dance style. After the costume change she started her next set totally covered wearing a black abaya. The song was a very popular shaabi song 'Hadeed' by Reda Elbahrawy. It sounds very electronic but is still quite strongly rooted in Adaweya's old style shaabi (for example it has a mawal section). Camelia was featured as a dancer in this song's official videoclip released in 2014 and it was just without any doubt 'her song' of the season. [I even attended her workshop in which she taught this choreography earlier that year and it was one of the hardest choreos I ever tried to learn! I was so bad at it after years of 'proper classical bellydance' training that I ended up depressed for a week 🙈😂] Dance-wise she 'borrowed' movements she observed done by Egyptian youth dancing on the streets of Cairo and introduced it to her personal, very sensual and feminine style of raqs sharqi in a totally unapologetic way. The effect of this mix for me was absolutely mindblowing and so powerful. True strength, freedom, bravery and shaabi craziness was so striking in her every movement and gesture! By choosing this kind of music and movement repertoire she was telling her audience that she is strong and independent enough as an artist to dance to new shaabi music in an authentic, Egyptian, street, real folklore way (that most of the people would prefer to reserve for poor class men and boys only and many don't even consider a valid part of Egyptian culture...). Aaand in the same time she also managed to maintain her hyper feminine and sensual stage persona! To do this all being a marginalized (even more because she is a dancer) woman in a Muslim country, where class means everything was such a statement! Statement of freedom, independence, strength and love for her culture and her people. As the audience we all felt those feelings with her and watched her totally captivated and in ecstasy from the moment she opened up her black abaya like it was some symbol of oppression, through the culmination point when she came back to the stage with two knives in her hands until the triumphant end. Just wow! ❤️💪