Cairo, the 15th July, 2010

When foreigners love Arabic/Egyptian Culture more than Arabs/Egyptians themselves...


This is an ancestral and endless question: how the West appreciates the East (what can we learn from each other and share ) and what the East appreciates from the West.
The basic truth is many countries do not take their culture into their hands with full respect and love. When it comes to music and dance, the Middle East and North Africa (where Egypt is included) have contradictory views and feelings about it. They love it and they fear it, despise it, avoid assuming it as part of their cultural heritage.


As a foreigner myself (although I discovered my soul belongs everywhere!), I can see how easily we find interest in what's not familiar, the exotic, the apparently distant culture that awakens out bodies, minds, hearts and souls to a different way of LIVING.

Egyptian and arabic music/dance has this effect on many foreigners. We are mostly used to be productive machines in a consumer's society that leaves no time or a single breath for pure enjoyment and there it comes the oriental sounds, flavours, colours, feelings pushing us into a world of PLEASURE, BEAUTY and DREAM that we simply cannot resist.

Yesterday I saw a heartfelt homage to egyptian/arabic music/dance.
This homage came from a group of foreigner musicians (not professionals, so I heard, but amateurs as the word really means: LOVERS=AMATEURS) from a Californian University.
The maestro and director of the whole project has been coming to Egypt since 1984 to research, learn and reproduce egyptian music as well as reportoire from other countries in the same geographical sphere such as Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Greece,etc.

His work, so I understood, has been giving fruits after 30 years of pure dedication to egyptian/arabic music/dance and this is no small feat in itself.

This Californian group presented itself yesterday night at the Opera House in Cairo just to reminds us all that ART doesn't belong to any specific country but to the heart/soul of Humanity.
They will be performing tonight and on the 16th and 17th July and, in case you're in Cairo, you don't want to miss it!

People from all ages (women and men) and nationalities united through the love of a culture that is not their own from birth. The appreciation I don't see in egyptians and arabs (towards their own music and dance) was very obvious yesterday night and it was shown from the hands of foreigners.

Ahhh....the old talk....how come foreigners grasp the richness of the Arab World culture and people here just don't!

The group even played and danced a Saiidi (shocking thing for an Opera House's management that considers egyptian dance as a minor art).

Of course I can comment on many failures (artistic wise) but that wouldn't be fair.
I just saw people doing their best from their hearts and recognizing immense value to cultures that are not theirs to begin with. AND THAT IS BEAUTIFUL.

Only one little critic (it had to be!):
They shouldn't have allowed one of the girls to sing ENTA OMRI (Om Koulthoum).
Naaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh....don't touch Om Kolthoum, unless you are a genius of a singer.
It's known you'll never sing like Om Kolthoum or even near from her but DO NOT put yourself in front of egyptians singing Om Kolthoum when your voice is not o.k and you don't speak arabic. That, I thought, was a real put off for me and a kind of disrespect for Om Kolthoum (although I think the group was not aware of this!).


There was also a cute grandma playing the orgue and that filled me with tender joy. This kind of freedom we have achieved (mental freedom, at least) in the West is the greatest treasure of our evolutionary proccess. The fact that a 70 year old (or more!) lady took a full program of arabic music in the Opera House in her hands and got a kick out of it is, at least, INSPIRING.

The program included some of the major classics (hard stuff):
Om Kolthoum, Farid el Atrash, Saied el Darwish, Said Mekawi, Fairouz, Faiza Ahmed and etc, etc.
Long program with some dancing (Lebanon, Iran, Greece, Turkey, Egypt with a mean Saiidi that I REALLY LOVED).

The show was closed - brilliantly- with a Saiidi launched by the maestro himself playing the rebaba. VERY, VERY GOOD!!!

So here's the recommendation:
OPERA HOUSE, the 15th,16th,17th July - Arabic Folclore Group by the University of California.

Check with your own eyes how ART is UNIVERSAL and belongs to everyone and everywhere.
WE ARE ALL ONE (how many times do I have to repeat this?)