Nadia Gamal: The Legend
Reviewed by Anala Rabari
This program is an hour and is probably another production converted from VHS to DVD because of this the picture quality isn't as sharp as I would prefer in places.
I've heard of Nadia Gamal, but this is the first time I've got to see her and let me tell you guys this woman can work a room! For me the first routine which was cabaret was very interesting because I got to see how Egyptians use the veil. I have read about and heard about how their veil work is different than American so I was glad to finally see it. Her shimmies are captivating and her face is so expressive. During the fast paced energetic numbers you can almost feel her joy through the TV screen and during the slow melodic music you can see her expressing the longing of the music in her body and face. I was also blown away by her spins.
The second piece was a folkloric number complete with zills and face veil. She has great interaction with her orchestra led by drummer Setrak Sarkissian. She then switches to cane which really seems to get some audience members excited. My guess is that they knew what was coming. I was very impressed by her skill and control with the cane. I'm not sure I have every seen a dancer twirl a cane with such power and speed for so long only to stop on a dime and switch to a soft flowing movement with it. The party really begins again when she leads a small procession of musician into the audience to dance and dances with what seems like nearly every audience member.
I mean seriously this is a sight to see. They were dancing on and off tables and chairs. Gamal would sit down and become the audience to some of the audience dancers. A lot of the female audience members would just hop up and start doing their moves while most of the men just imitated Gamal or did simple hand-waving. I think section is a great part of the DVD for Westerns to really see how belly dancing is viewed in the Middle East. Everyone in that room became involved in that performance they were all dancing with her and no one looked like they felt uncomfortable that the dancer suddenly wasn't on stage any more. Compare that with American performances that I've seen where a dancer can hardly get an audience member to join her. American women always respond with that shake of the head. You know the one I mean, that one that says "I couldn't possible get up and move my body that way in front of all these people." And American men seem to either be too embarrassed or to grabby.
After all this excitement she goes into a great drum solo routine that turns into a little dance to the theme from Bonanza (I'm not making this up folks) and then another traditional routine. For the last routine she is joined by a mixed gender troupe of dancers. The costumes are beautiful and the dance is fun to see what kind of choreography is used in the Middle East for a mixed group. Again the dance ends by breaking down into a large dance party when the dancers pull audience members up on stage.
There is some annoying camerawork with negative overlays that make it hard to actually watch Gamal at times. And as with all Hollywood Music Center productions you have the annoying website crawler at the bottom. However, I still feel this is a great program to watch so you can see how belly dancing is done in Egypt by one of the great dancers and so you can see how audiences really view this dance form and how it is not just an artform for Egyptians but a way of life as evident by how many audience members join in the dance.