Making friends and influencing people (10.27.07)

Eman Zaki & Raqia Hassan's doorsNile from Gezira Island

Cairo Tower Sylvana, Moustafa, Geri at Egypt Museum
El Abd Bakery

Zizo and his merchandise
My favorites
The technique lession with Raqia Hassan actually happened this morning although not without a funny story to go with it. I arrived at her house a little early, sat down in one of her living room chairs, and watched some of the activity of the house as it played out in front of me. Saturday is apparently cleaning day, and Raqia and her claning person shuffled up and down the hallway with loads of laundry and etc. in their hands. I was eventually brought into the home "studio" and we began our lesson.
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It was very good to get this one on one instruction. Raqia has a clear eye and a very specific idea of the "right" way to do oriental dance and she gave me several techniques I had to drill before we moved on.

• The moves we covered were:



• Hip sways walking F & B (alternating palms U & D)


• Hip pops walking F & B (alternating palms)


• Hip circle stepping R & L (I need to work on balance for en pointe dancing)
  
• 1/2 hip circle (R only, L only) while walking sideways


• Walking forward with alternating 1/2 hip circle


• Walking forward w 1/2 circle and accented trailing hip


• Figure 8 up with straight legs, same with 2 hip drop accents.

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The amusing/frustrating part of the experience was that she would come in, show me a move, and then disappear to answer the doorbell, play with her granddaughter, or fold laundry. I would be left trying to figure out if I was doing it right or not and I certainly don't want to keep drilling the "wrong" technique. I was ready for my hour to be up and forked over the 400 LE before fleeing the premises.
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However, right before I left I asked her about Soraya, a dancer that I keep hearing people mention, and was told that she was dancing at the Cairo Sheraton this weekend. I decided to start walking back to the downtown area over the Nile and lo and behold stumbled upon the Cario Sheraton. I went in to try to get information and a reservation for a Soraya show and ended up picking up a new friend as I was sent to three different desks before finding someone to ask about price and times. Moustapha Ali is the name of my new friend and he isa 50-something banker originally from Alexandria but now living in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He has been in Cairo for over a month working on opening a new branch of his department (delinquent loans or something) and I think he was thrilled at the idea of meeting someone not related to his work. We made arrangements to go see the show on Sunday night (why not) and then he ended up walking with me over the bridge to the downtown area as we chatted about his kids and the differences between Egypt and UAE.
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I invited him to join me at the Egypt Museum where I was going to meet Geri Olson, the Minnesotan from Let Me Inn, to share the cost of the cost of a guide. In the end we were treated to the guide by Moustapha and enjoyed a very informative 2-hour tour of the highlights of the Egypt Museum by Georgois. I think Moustapha would have happily come along to anything that I had planned, as he said he hasn't taken time to be a tourist anywhere in the world, but I think going out tomorrow night will suffice. We took a cab back to the hostel, I grabbed some internet time, and then took a nap until 7:00 when I was to be picked up by Mohamed to see the Sufi whirling dervishes at the Al Ghouria complex (see Tanoura entry).
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We had ice cream on Talaat Harb after the show, and I wasn't over my sugar need when he dropped me off so I decided to try my hand at the famous El Abd Confectionary. There wasn't nearly enough sugar in any of the cookies, so clearly I am going to have to go for straight chocolate this afternoon.
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When I got back to the hostel I stayed up far to late looking at all the sparkly things that Zizo was packing up to send to his wholesalers in Europe, and I managed to get a pair of gold dancer slippers out of him in addition to the silver ones he already gave me. He is a very funny guy, but I think that everything that comes out of his mouth is said in a half-joking manner so I never know when he is being serious and when he is full of s***. It has been fun to banter with him over the past week, though!