Ah.. SAMIA GAMAL – My first love of Golden Era Belly Dance..

Who is Samia Gamal?

Samia Gamal  is a famous dancer and actress from the Golden Era of Dance in Egypt.

SAMIA GAMAL – also called ‘the Butterfly of Belly Dance’ and ‘the National Dancer of Egypt’ – was born in 1924 as Zaynab Ibrahim Mahfuz in the small Egyptian town of Wana. Her family moved just months later to Cairo and settled near the Khan El-Khalili bazaar.

It was there that Samia Gamal met Badia Masabni, the founder of modern Oriental dance. Badia offered Samia an invitation to join her dance company, which Samia accepted. Badia Masabni gave her the stage name Samia Gamal, and she began her dance career.

At first, she studied under Badia and Badia’s star dancer at the time, Tahiya Karioka. However she soon became a respected soloist and brought forth her own style.

Samia Gamal incorporated techniques from ballet and Latin dance into her solo performances. She was also the first to perform with high-heeled shoes on stage. She starred in dozens of Egyptian films next to the famous Farid Al Attrach.

Together they could be thought of as the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the Middle East.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Scroll on below for more Samia Geekery… and tons of videos 🙂 

OK, Let’s see her DANCE!

This was one of the first clips of her I’ve ever seen (she plays ‘Morgiane’ here in ‘Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves’ in 1954 with Fernandel)

(If the video doesn’t play, try tapping here)

About Samia Gamal:

• About Samia Gamal (by worldbellydance.com)
• Spotlight on Samia Gamal (Sequins and Shimmies)
• Samia Gamal (by belly-dance.org)
• Samia Gamal (by serpentine.org)

For the Time Travel/Online Class Lovers:

Samia Gamal happens to be the original (but not the only!) muse for my online ‘Time Traveling with the Stars‘ Dancer’s BOOST Program ☺️

Each BOOST Season is an 8-Week series where we focus on the moves and attitude of my fav stars of that era 💫😎✨

Our Themes for #BOOST2024 are:

⭐️ Season 1: Favs of the 40ies/50ies (winter)
⭐️ Season 2: Stars of the 60ies/70ies (spring 🤓)
⭐️ Season 3: Legends of the 80ies/90ies (summer)
⭐️ Season 4: Heroes of today (fall)

How does it work?

You can join the BOOST classes LIVE or at your own pace with recordings (full library is available to you via my Online BOOSTie Membership)

Each of our 32 BOOST weeks we have two 30 minute Live ZOOM/FB classes (Body/Mind and Dance) that complement each other, focusing on a different dancer/move every week.

You can sign up to become a BOOSTie Member here.

The weekly BOOST schedule looks like this:
💫 Tue 12:30-13:00 CET(Berlin Time) – Body/Mind
💫 Fri 12:30-13:00 CET(Berlin Time) – Dance

BONUS GEEKERY

Interviews, Movies and Documentaries:

•  Interview with Samia Gamal (translation from Shira.net)
• Samia Gamal Movies (youtube playlist)
• Documentary on Samia Gamal (youtube video)

More videos to enjoy!

Tip: Find more videos of Samia Gamal (and other famous Golden Era dancers!) in my ‘old’ dance blog here.

BONUS BONUS Geekery:

Join me online!

• Follow me on Instagram
• Join my Khalida Online FB Group
• Subscribe to my Youtube Channel
• Study with me (aka become a BOOSTie Member!)

PS: You can find more of my blog posts about dancers here.

PSPS: More about my online BOOST Program

What are the classes about?

Body/mind is for TRAINING (strength, flexibility, relaxation, weights, taichi/qigong inspired moves.. anything that helps you ‘get’ the moves of the week more easily)

Dance is for ENJOYING (getting to know ‘our’ star-of-the-week’s moves/style by watching short clips, and then DANCING together with their signature moves)

Is BOOST for you?

I hope so 🤓 BOOST is a program designed for dancers of all levels who want to get inspired and feel better.

It combines conditioning workouts and relaxation with inspiration and motivation, so it can meet you no matter where you are at right now.

As a BOOSTie Member, you’ll get the possibility to interact live, get feedback/ask me questions via email (and join our BOOSTie FB community) if you like.

BOOST is created to support dancers who:

🤍 have not been able to train for a while
🤍 are not able to train ‘in person’
🤍 are seeking a way to keep dancing and moving next to regular training (and/or life 😅)

Join us HERE (it’s not too late!)

xx K.

We are nearly 50 lovely BOOSTie Members already, from 11 different countries!

I look forward to welcoming you as a BOOSTie Member.

Much much love!

xx K.