No need to ask me WHY I LOVE EGYPT...!!!...

"It was just one of those things, one of those crazy flings..." said Cole Porter in a famous song.

I m no Cole Porter so I doubt I can say it better.

Just wonder WHY so many people ask me WHY I live and work as a Dancer in Egypt and WHY I love all this chaos of Cairo.

Yesterday I was reminded of the many complex

reasons that justify this LOVE (as if LOVE was a matter of "justification"!).

Watched, once more, the Sufi show at the "El Khoury Palace" in the Hussein (beautiful way of celebrating Islam through music and dance, although restricted to MEN) and participated in a spontaneous "zaar" session in the heart of a Cairo neighbourhood that I BET no tourist has ever seen. This is what I call the psychologist of the people, specially women, because that s the place where they can release feelings, rage, exhaustion, sadness, all the "demons" inside of themselves through music and dance.

The dialect, rythms and lyrics are specific to the "zaar", they are no common songs. Neighbours come from all the neighbourhood (many of them in their pajamas and night gowns) to play, sing and dance in order to expell what does not need to remain inside them. Supersticions apart, this is a lovely way to LIBERATE oneself...THROUGH MUSIC AND DANCE...where - oh where? - did I ever listened to this?

The diversity and contrasts of this country, this crazy city are MESMERIZING, MIND BLOWING, HEART EXPANDING, SOUL touching...

No need to ask me why I LOVE EGYPT. I just do, as long as it fascinates me as it still does until today. As long as it TEACHES me about ART and HUMANS as this great school still does with me. As long as God wants because only God can make a LOVE be born or disappear into thin air, transforming itself into memory and smooth smiles on the angels´s faces...