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| Yasmina, sometimes known as 'The English Rose of Cairo', has over
twenty-five years of experience in the field of Egyptian oriental dance as a
performer, teacher and choreographer. Originally from the UK she spent many
years travelling and dancing her way around the Middle East before settling in
Cairo in 1995. Here she performed for many years with her orchestra, becoming
one of the city's best-loved dancers. Cairo is still Yasmina's home, where she
hosts dancers and dance groups from around the world and provides services
ranging from accommodation, choreography, training and coaching in oriental
dance, to publicity photography and music production. |
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Tel: +2012-7465185
Email: yasmina@yasminaofcairo.com
Web Site: www.yasminaofcairo.com
You can reach us on Facebook !
Facebook contact: Yasmina Cairo |
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Articles by Yasmina |
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The following are a selection from hundreds of
articles written and often photographed by Yasmina (under her original name,
Francesca Sullivan), on cultural and social issues in Egypt. Many are dance or
music related, including celebrity interviews with dancers, actors and singers.
To obtain complete copies of any of these articles, or to commission an
interview or feature, please contact Yasmina directly.
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LUCY
INTERVIEW (INSIGHT MAGAZINE)
A maid shows me into Lucys penthouse apartment in a fashionable area of
Mohandiseen. Stepping into the living room with its blood red walls and
comfortably stuffed sofas, my eye is caught by what I take to be an enormous
gilt-edged mirror running the whole length of the wall when suddenly I realize
that its not a mirror at all; the room is just twice the size I originally
thought. Its an environment utterly fitting for a diva and Lucy is just that.
With fifteen movies, five TV serials and four albums behind her shes gamely
keeping up with every aspect of contemporary performance culture and can
currently be seen strutting her stuff in a new music video. Within minutes Lucy
bounces in. She looks fit and energized in a scarlet designer tracksuit, and
her complexion glows with health. Lucy defies those whod like to paint her as a
fading star: shes still very much in the limelight. Whats more, shes managed to
keep herself well away from all the usual smutty gossip too often surrounding
belly-dancers, even while continuing to perform regularly at her husbands Haram
Street cabaret, the Parisiana. Queen of her own personal stage with a highly
entertaining performance that incorporates Lucy the singer as well as the
rakasa known to millions, she offers up a show that successfully mixes
traditional with modern elements. One minute shes performing baladi in an
antique Assuiti dress, the next shes showing every curve in a pink lycra cat
suit (which was incidentally alluded to in the press for being too sexy. These
days the average person in the street would be hard pressed to name a dancer
still performing on stage. Lucy remains the first name to come to most peoples
lips |
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FIFI ABDOU
INTERVIEW (INSIGHT MAGAZINE)
I know Im at the right address, because when I mention her name down in the
street the doormen nod solemnly, and wave me into a parking space. All the way
up in the lift, I find myself re-living the first time I saw her, and the times
after that. She was impossible to forget.
In a land of delicious contradictions, she seemed at the time the most
flagrantly contradictory of all. Can I really be in Egypt? I remember
wondering, as she lit up the stage with a presence so commanding, but at the
same time so outrageous, people around me were blushing. Squeezed into a skin
tight, florescent orange dress, matching shoes encrusted with sequins, she
acted out her notorious ma-alimma routine, seating herself before each table in
turn while prancing male dancers dressed as café waiters administered
her the famous shisha. Adjusting her cleavage conspicuously while winking at
the audience, she inhaled the tobacco and exhaled it slowly through each
nostril, shifting and undulating provocatively on her chair. Behind her the
stirring energy of a forty-five piece orchestra rose and fell at the drop of
her little finger, or the minutest lift of her chin.
Afterwards, shoeless and in yet another shimmering stretch number, she danced
with a heady combination of pure abandonment and utter control. The whole room
was mesmerized.
Its this that Im remembering as a Filipino maid shows me graciously into Fifi
Abdous apartment. To one side, a vast salon the size of a large hotel foyer is
cast in gloom. To the other Im led down a corridor to a small lounge with
comfortable settees and a TV set. Giant portraits of Fifi loom from every
available wall-space, her perfectly made-up face caught in a flattering
expression of mild surprise. Then she walks in, and I fail to recognize her
entirely. Instead of the self-proclaimed Queen of the Nile, the
larger-than-life siren Im expecting, Im greeted by a scrubbed-faced,
ordinary-looking woman dressed entirely in black higab. Im terribly
disappointed, but Fifi gives me a look of amusement even a fleeting hint of
triumph as though to remind me theres more than one way to make a memorable
entrance.
Of course she knows what Im thinking. I never wear make-up off-stage. It ruins
the complexion, she says. |
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So that takes care of that.
Interview with Dina (Insight Magazine)
Dina sits in her sisters boutique in a fashionable street in Mohandiseen,
drinking Nescafe and giving the odd piece of friendly advice to customers
walking in to buy clothes. In the kind of comfortable, sporty gear shes always
favoured off-stage she looks relaxed, calm and happy. No sign of the hegab some
rumour-mongers have insisted shes wearing but that of course was simply because
shed returned from Saudia Arabia on her first Haj. People will not find me
changed, she remarks, hinting at an immanent return to the public stage, and if
todays appearance is anything to go by, shes quite right. But those whove
always admired her spirit will be pleased to know that that too hasnt changed.
Careful but open, both serious and playful, she seems the same Dina that her
fans have known and loved. |
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ORIENTAL
DANCE INTERVIEWS (INSIGHT MAGAZINE)
The stage lights up, the orchestra is in full swing, and into the spotlight
glides, or twirls, or even walks it doesnt really matter as long as she grabs
your attention the dancer. Symbol of the exotic orient to many a foreign
tourist, and the legacy of a tradition handed down through generations,
exponents of the art of oriental dance (belly-dance to some) represent a
paradox within the Islamic society they inhabit. The dancer is a powerful
manifestation of female sensuality, and often, additionally, works outside the
normal constraints placed on a womans independence. Glamorous presentation is
as much an important part of her performance as technique. She provides
employment to several industries, from the musicians that make up her
orchestra, to the tailoring shops that design and embroider her costumes. To
some it may seem an easy way to earn a living, but nothing could be further
from the truth. Four dancers, from the world famous to the unknown, but each
with many years of experience behind them, tell Insight what it has taken them
to get where they are, and what keeps them there.. |
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