Cairo, the 29th October, 2009

"What's with the Private Shows?!"

"I'm your private dancer,

A dancer for money,

I'll do what you want me to do..."

Piece of a Tina Turner's song ("Private Dancer")

During this short yet intense life as an Oriental Dancer -or as a Belly Dancer, as most people prefer to call it - I've been taken by many things and looked upon as a dumb blond (I am a natural blond eternally trying to darken my hair in order not to look "such a foreigner" for my egyptian audiences), as an arrogant person who thinks she's the best (nothing could be more distant from the way I see myself) and even as a prostitute by people who simply don't know me or by jealous ex-boyfriends who couldn't understand how someone they perceived as so sexy and interesting and always surrounded by men chasing her could also be honest and straight in her moral conduct. For some insecure men, tt seems you need to be ugly and boring in order to be trusted...

Being taken as a fantasy for men and as a prostitute is part of my personal Karma. I just can't help it, specially when I am in an area that is still a TABU, a misunderstood art so often connected with luxurious sexual indulgence and seduction towards men.

Even if I lived shut away into a mountain monastery, there would still be rumours of my extensive and overtly intensive sexual activities.

Oriental Dancers have always been associated with Sex and Prostitution and it doesn't matter if I am the opposite of the image most people carry about me. Very often, we see what WE WANT to see and not the REALITY that is presented to us.

The latest absurd requests! What's up with that?!

Lately, I've been receiving a LOT of "private parties" requests and I ask myself WHY is this.

My exposure at the "Nile Maxim" is greater than the one I had until now, that's for sure. A lot of recent attention was laied on me but nothing could preview what was coming.

The promise of BIG MONEY in exchange for secretive "private parties" that I decline one after the other.

Let's clear this out: I DO PRIVATE PARTIES with my orchestra and the deals are made between the client and the chief of my band. I do my dancing, as in any other normal show, and head home as in any regular night.

The problem is these recent clients are searching for "streap-tease" private shows meaning ME and THEM alone. Well, let me break the big news on this one:

I DON'T DO THESE KIND OF PARTIES. EVER.

Streap-tease and seduction towards a man are made for their girlfriends/wives/lovers/whatever or to prostitutes and I am none of them so...sorry but no deal!

Grandma's peep-shows:

1. I dance in private for my grandmother who just adores watching me move. Whatever I do, it's great to her (God bless her!). She sits on her chair with her tea cup and just watches in amazement and always with a tear exploding somewhere around her heart.

2. I dance in private for my mum when I am coreographing and want her opinion on a particular piece (she's the hardest of my critics and knows more about Oriental Dance than most "professionals" I know in the international market).

3. I also dance privately for my dear teacher and best friend Mahmoud Reda (the founder of the great "Reda Troupe", the revolutionary group that changed Egyptian Dance panorama in the world). I show him my stuff (things I am preparing for my shows) and he teaches me his new and old coreographies or simply shows me what he is coreographing at the moment, enjoying to watch me practice.

These are the only occasions when I dared to dance privately for someone and in none of them there was a sexual charge or anything connected with seduction.

What the hell goes on in these men's minds to offer me such generous amounts of money to do a "job" that they are supposed to ask from their partners. Don't these creatures have love and joy in their lives? Do they really need to confuse me with a prostitute or a streaper in order to feel some excitement in their lives?!

How sad is that?!

Again and always, I have to add...I am not a fantasy or a "private dancing kind of gal"... I have never danced for the men in my life and I would, certainly, not do it for a stranger in exchange of whatever he may offer me. Just forget about it, guys. FORGET IT!

I think it is humiliating and stupid to locate Oriental Dance in such box or me, for that matter, in such role.

Guys, for God's sake! Speak up with your women and ask them to dance for you or, even better, give away what you wish for yourself: DANCE FOR YOUR WOMEN...YOUUUUUUU.....DOOOOOOOOOOO.....IIIIIIIIITTTTTT....

I am sure the ladies in your life will appreciate the gesture and give you something in return. From their hearts. No money in exchange needed.

Hey, this is me, the eternal romantic speaking up...

I wish there were no perverts in this life or ignorance of all sorts...but here they are.

Just notice and write down the following:

NO MORE PRIVATE PARTIES PROPOSALS FOR ME. YOU'RE JUST WASTING YOUR TIME AND MINE.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.