Popular Dance and Music in Modern Egypt

This book is an exploration into the history, aesthetics, social reality, regulation, and transformation of dance and dance music in Egypt. It covers Oriental dance, known as belly dance or danse du ventre, regional or group-specific dances and rituals, sha‘bi (lower-class urban music and dance style), mulid (drawing on Sufi tradition and saints’ day festivals) and mahraganat (youth-created, primarily electronic music with lively rhythms and biting lyrics). The chapters discuss genres and sub-genres and their evolution, the demeanor of dancers, trends old and new, and social and political criticism that use the imagery of dance or a dancer. Also considered are the globalization of Egyptian dance, the replication or fantasies of raqs sharqi outside of Egypt, as well as the dance as a hobby, competitive dance form, and focus of international dance festivals.

Sherifa Zuhur is a research scholar, performer, author and contributing editor of 18 previous books. She held academic appointments at MIT, University of California, Berkeley, the American University in Cairo, and the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Sherifa Zuhur
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 284
Bibliographic Info: 41 photos, glossary, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2022
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8199-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4311-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Introduction and Notes on Music and Transliteration 1
One. The ‘Awalim’s Path to the Sala 11
Two. From the Sala to the Silver Screen and Beyond 32
Three. Ya Dall‘a, Ya Dall‘a: Demeanor and Flirtation 63
Four. Mulid: Reinvigorating Spiritual and Popular Legitimacy in Egyptian Music and Dance 85
Five. From Sha‘bi Music and Culture to Mahragan Dance Music 103
Six. Al-Raqs al-Sha‘bi wa al-Musiqa Sha‘biyya: Egypt’s Regional Particularist Dances and Music in Transition 125
Seven. Bad, Bad Baladi: Sama ­al-Masry and Dance as Sarcasm 147
Eight. Globalization of Egyptian Dance 166
Glossary 195
Chapter Notes 227
Bibliography 251
Index 265

• “Closes a multitude of holes in our understanding, eliminates the need to rely on colonialist wish-story…important, well-written chronicle”—Carolina Varga Dinicu a.k.a. “MOROCCO,” dancer/choreographer

• “Finally! I begged Sherifa to write a book on the dance and music of Egypt—especially contemporary after the Golden Era. And she did. What a service to our dance and music community. Thank you!”—Amina Goodyear, dancer, teacher, musician, producer

• “An in-depth history of the transformation of Egyptian music and dance from the 19th to the 21st century… [and a] significant contribution to research on dance in Egypt.”—Barbara Sellers-Young, senior scholar and Professor Emerita, York University