Cairo, the 25th January, 2011

Egyptian wedding delights (more of it)!

Oh, sometimes you just have to let go of your own standards and expectations and rise to the occasion by letting it be what it's meant to be.

The egyptian wedding industry was always odd to me and the more I know of it, the less I understand it.

First of all, it all comes down to "having the right contacts" and knowing/paying people under the table to sell your product (Yourself, in this case, or your SHOW). As I never had anyone (no managers/pimps/rich husbands,etc) to do that marketing business for me, all the gigs I get come directly from costumers who have seen me perform or heard about me in a very positive way so they take the risk and hire me for their wedding.

Second, the typical wedding shows end up being a really f....up party where the dancer's job is to make everyone dance and yell with joy, not so much to show her talent and ART.

I really struggle with this aspect of the work as I consider myself an artist and cannot understand why would someone pay ME to do a job that any funny, good humoured, jumpy egyptian dancer could do much more easily and cheaper.

I DO get the point: you are at a wedding so people want to celebrate and do wild things coming from happiness. It's only natural that no one wants to quietly sit at their tables, chew some wedding cake and look attentively to the ARTIST on stage but it's still hard for me to get into the system of being hired as an ARTIST and ending up being a Jumpy-Funny-Entertainer whose function is to make everyone else dance, yell and threw jokes at the bride and groom.

It wasn't at all surprising then when I performed at a wedding last night and all I could do (for an whole hour) was to push people away from my orchestra and my own "bedleh" which some of them were trying to grab (egyptians can be quite crazy and TOUCHY after a few drinks).

Everybody was enjoying it.

Well, everybody EXCEPT me. I didn't think it was funny AT ALL. As well as my musicians who get very protective and upset in these circumnstances.

I just slipped away from the stage from under someone's arms and disappeared into oblivion.

Supposing no one even noticed I was gone...I might have as well been just a piece of dust on the stage because no one seemed to care I disappeared. All they saw was jumping, grabbing, yelling and going crazy over the music. They were really enjoying themselves which is great for a wedding party.

The problem is I WAS NOT ENJOYING IT.

Well, not everybody has fun at the same party...;) And some weddings are a real JOY to be a part of (as a working DANCER) and some are just episodes of accidental landing on a rave party you were not invited to.:(

Welcome to Egypt and the REAL life of an Oriental Dancer (sorry, folks! I like to tell it as IT IS, opposed to most dancer's accounts of glamorous, pink lives in Cairo that they never - actually - had!).

Yes, there are incredible things about this whole adventure but, most of the times, it's all about perseverance, hard work, discipline, brains and stamina to deal with a LOT of shit and the faith of a Saint worshipper to keep on DOING your best when everything around you is rocky, full of obstacles and shut doors).

Going with the flow...struggling against the tide will only get you drowned from exhaustion.

:)Keeping FAITH HIGH!