Cairo, the 5th January, 2011

Why I love Mahmoud Reda so damn much...

I've mentioned my all time dear friend, teacher, Gene Kelly addiction partner, one of the men which has most inspired me in many ways: the Master Mahmoud Reda (known to all dancers and general public in Egypt as well).
I could go on with a thousand reasons why I love, respect and admire Mahmoud's incredible work and legacy in Egyptian Folclore but that's already over stated all over my blog and pretty much everywhere.

Now...why I love my dear friend so much? That's a pretty personal question that I have the pleasure to be able to answer in a very simple way.

Just a couple of days ago I was with Mahmoud, commenting how a well-known "star maker" empresario wanted to manage my career in Egypt and demanded that I would change my name ("too foreigner" for egyptian taste, he said) to an arabic name like all the famous dancers have done. He even mentioned the real names of several famous dancers and artistic names HE came up with for them.

I told him that I really didn't feel like changing my name because, well, that's who I am and a lot of people all around the world already know me by my original name.
He insisted: "You choose change your name. Pick up an arabic name and do it FAST!"

When I told this episode to Mahmoud, his only comment was the following:
"-Don't change your lovely real name.
Change the empresario."

ENOUGH SAID.
I offered Mahmoud with my big smile and thought to myself how much and WHY I adore him!
There is no match to Mahmoud, that's for sure.:)