Finally after FULL two days, it’s finally my performance
debut on the Nile cruise.
Friday has been a typical demonstration day in Cairo since Jan 2011. The demonstration on the Friday before my scheduled performance got so out of control, the boat had to cancel Luna’s performance. So the
plan for me to visit and talk to the band was also cancelled.
I guess there was no better definition than "improvisation" to
describe my performance that night.
To dance to a live band is really a tricky thing, especially
as a western dancer, you rarely get any opportunity to practice with an
oriental live band. The tabala (the
Arabic drum) can break or make you!
 |
| BonBon dancing to Nile Group Live Band 2011 |
By chance, I had a wonderful Photojournalist from Spain,
Maysun, who was writing about dancers in Cairo, decided to follow me that night.
She started taking pictures of me while I was getting ready. I truly felt like a super star….while I was
sitting on my little plastic chair
putting my make up on. ;)
I was worried about the possible demonstration, so I forced
my whole support team to leave early to make sure we wouldn’t be late. At the end, we arrived a whole 1.5 hours
prior to the show?! The staff didn’t even
know what to do with me…. It was really against Egyptian nature.
Before starting the show, the staff came to communicate how
the show will go on. We talked to the
band, had “some” idea regarding the music.
There was a photographer. He
would take me around the audiences during my 1st set to take pictures with them. I
just needed to follow his lead.
While I was waiting for the boat to sail, there entered an
Egyptian wedding party! I was so excited. Even though, it was a bit unconventional in the western world to take your wedding
to a public place with strangers around. But for them, it’s a fancy setting on
the Nile.
Side not: In Cairo, there are
many wedding parties happening nightly over the bridge on Nile River.
 |
| Kasr El Nile Bridge in Cairo. Photo by Joseph Hill Joseph Hill |
So for this family, this is a pretty fancy
option, paying $25 to $35 a person to have a nice buffet on the Nile. Most of the families wouldn’t be able to
afford that.
As we were getting a mixed audiences (some foreigners and
some Egyptians) on the boat, the photographer came to tell me; during the photo
shoots don’t go close to the Egyptians table.
Sometimes they can get really
upset and be aggressive with the dancer…. He further explained, some of them may come
to see belly dancing, but they are also fully aware this is a sin (to see half
naked dancers), so they don’t want to leave any evidence. Plus in most Middle Eastern societies, belly
dancing is a low class occupation. If you were from a good class family, you would get enough education not
to dispose your body to earn a living.
The irony: there was also a group of Filipino
tourists.
Opening with the fan veil and a two-piece
costume, I thought fan veil is fitting to my Asian descent. Haha After the taking photos around, the people
from the Egyptian wedding party started getting up. First the bride and groom, then all the women…
they just walked out! Apparently they were upset with a belly dancer's presence??? No one explained to them its a Nile cruise with belly dancing show before they came on the boat??!
On the other hand, the Filipino group never stopped giving
me smiles and support. At the end, they even came to
the table asked me where I was from and "according to them", the BEST Asian
dancer they have ever seen. <3
I also had two little Egyptian kids were dazzled by my
shinning galabeya.
The little girl just kept getting
closer and closer until the other little boy got knocked over by me.
Ops!
Anyways, I couldn’t ask for a more interesting night!!
Watch for the video clip of my performance that night:
Thanks LUNA!!!
MISSION COMPLETED. :)
I know it's just hail.
