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READ NAIMA'S BIOGRAPHY ONLINE
Before watching this video, I'd never seen any of the "Stars of Egypt" dancing, although I'd heard and read plenty about them. I knew the clips were from old black white moves from the 40's and 50's and that the quality could sometimes be poor, so to be honest I didn't know quite what to expect. However, I was delighted with Naima Akef part 1 right from the first clip as I quickly realised that it didn't matter at all that the clips were in black and white, as it was possible to replicate the costumes in virtually any colour one can imagine. Plus the sound and picture quality was actually much better than I'd imagined. I liked the way the video started with a short biography giving some interesting insight into Naima's life, this for me gave the clips meaning and brought the video clips to life.
What I enjoyed most overall about this video was the superb range of styles of dance and music, which were all beautifully executed, and the stunning costumes and special effects. The clips themselves all contained fantastic dancing and I was totally mesmerised for the whole length of the video; Naima had superb musical interpretation, wonderful technique and the way she played sagat was amazing.
The video also has an added bonus of teaser-trailers for the rest of the "Stars of Egypt" series at the end of the video, and details and music clips from Hossam Ramzy's CD's.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, and it's an essential addition for everyone's collection both as a useful dance education tool, a reference tool for costumes and brilliant entertainment.
Running time 70 minutes.
Available from Ramzy Music International. http://www.hossamramzy.com
Clip no. 1
Naima Akef dances down a staircase into a bar which is full of people to the song "Aziza" by Mohammed Abdul Wahab - a wonderful piece of music that is still incredibly popular amongst today's dancers. In the clip it is played beautifully by the accordian, nai and tabla player. Naima wears a stunning bedlah with matching armband, with the front part of the skirt heavily sequinned to match the hip belt, and the back of the skirt is plain. The top is of an unusual design - it has the beaded loops popular during this period, and the same sequin striped two tone pattern to match the skirt and the hip belt, but has only one shoulder strap. Naima enters with a matching veil, which she uses to accent some of her dance, but then is discarded fairly quickly. I particularly enjoyed her very precise knee/hip drops - not easily done in heels as we see Naima doing here, as any dancer knows. She turns round and suddenly (surprise!) is now wearing sagat, which she plays for the rest of the dance. In terms of interpretation, well, just listen to the music and watch Naima's hips follow the beat! This clip doesn't have any serious picture or sound break-up, and I liked the fact that we see her dance to the entire song.
Clip no. 2
This clip starts with Naima having fun with the audience in the bar. She asks them a series of questions which are punctuated by loud "Laa!"'s (No!) from the audience. Naima is wearing a beautiful close-fitting full-length dress that seems to be made from dark lace. She dons a fez and grabs a simple hip-scarf, which she ties around her hips before picking up a walking cane from one of the seated men. She performs a stick dance to baladi music. Her hip drops and beautifully controlled Egyptian walk are met by loud appreciative shouts of "aiwa!" ("Yes!" - colloquial Arabic) from the audience who are thoroughly enjoying every second of the performance - she has them enthusiastically clapping along and one of the men can't help himself but rise to his feet and dance along for a while. She finishes her dance with a spin and a great end pose cheekily tilting the fez forwards and resting on the walking stick. This clip has no serious picture or sound break-up.
Clip no. 3
In this clip Naima descends the stairs to the bar which is full of people playing sagat wearing a stunning and very unusual baladi dress and hipbelt. The dress is mostly made from a shiny metallic like fabric but the sides and the long bell-shaped sleeves are see through and are decorated with rows and rows of sequins in a diagonal pattern (similar to fishnet) She is wearing low-heeled sandals. A male singer and six-piece orchestra who perform a beautiful song accompany her. The orchestra is comprised of nai, tabla, req, qanun, keyboards and violin. Later in the clip she is joined by six chorus dancers all wearing different and very pretty two piece costumes. My favourite part of this clip is Naima's taqasim's to the keyboard - her hips make figure 8 patterns and circles exactly mirroring every note of the music. I also really enjoyed the way she did her single hip-pushes, looking over each shoulder in turn and pushing her hips in the opposite direction. After the dance, she returns up the stairs with well-deserved rapturous applause following her footsteps. This clip has no serious picture or sound break-up.
Clip no. 4
Naima descends the stairs on to the theatre stage (decorated as the deck of a ship) playing sagat and dancing with a veil at the same time for an on stage audience of passengers, sailors and the captain. She wears an interesting costume - a bedlah covered and decorated with coins and a darker coloured sleeveless bolero with a very pretty skirt that is made up of lots of thin strips of the shiny fabric, ribbon style. She does an exquisite set of hip drops, 90 degrees one way, then another set backwards, which fits absolutely beautifully with the music. She drops the veil and carries on dancing with sagat while one of the ships workmen sing to her. There is a very cute scene with special effects as we see Naima dance past the sailors and the captain - I won't spoil it for you, but you'll be surprised when you see who the captain is! Naima and the captain wink at each other. The captain and sailors can't resist joining in and dancing round Naima. This lovely clip ends with the theatre audience applauding and Naima taking her bows. This clip has no picture or sound break-up.
Clip no. 5
This clip is set in a theatre - the way the stage is set up is very interesting - it is in fact three stages that are stacked one on top of each other. The top and bottom stages both have four dancers, who are all wearing different styles of bedlahs. On the middle stage, two dancers enter from each side and join the male singer. They are dressed in the most exquisitely designed bedlah with matching gauntlets which are heavily decorated with jewels that catch the light beautifully and rows and rows of looped beading. The skirts are made of chiffon with a centre split and are decorated all over with sequins; just beautiful. The camera focuses on Naima on the right-hand side, moves to the singer in the middle, and then moves to show that Naima is also on the left-hand side! A young girl watching in the theatre audience is enjoying the performance so much that she can't help herself joining in with the dancing. There is a great special effect where we see the two Naima's cross at the same time in front and behind the singer. Naima does some wonderful combinations of moves in this clip, including hip snaps while doing a backwards horizontal figure 8 and a sharp hip lift combined with a camel which left me thinking "wow! How did she do that!" The clip ends with well-deserved applause from the theatre audience. There is only one tiny section where the picture and sound breaks up, but if you blink, you'll miss it.
Clip no. 6
This clip is set at a private party - there are lots of people dressed in their party clothes looking on. Naima is wearing a very pretty off-the-shoulder party dress - it is pale coloured and is decorated with darker coloured roses, with a hip scarf rolled up small and tied round her hips. She takes the accordion player's fez off his head and puts it on her own, and then also takes his walking stick off him and begins dancing with it. The accordion player carries on playing and dances along- he is really enjoying himself! Although this is only a short clip, it is useful as we see Naima moving beautifully to the music while doing a variety of moves with the stick, including an interesting move combination with Naima flicking the stick from left to right while turning. This clip does have some picture and sound break-up, but nothing too serious.
Clip no. 7
In this clip, we see Naima wearing an amazing costume; dancing slippers, harem pants made with gorgeous shiny fabric, and a heavily sequinned two piece set which flashes continually in the light. She wears a veil attached to her head and gauntlets. The set is wonderfully decorated - at the back there is a mountainside with a staircase winding down to the stage. A giant sits on top right hand corner of the mountainside playing a flute. Naima dances down through the arches on the mountainside to join the chorus dancers on the main stage. They are all wearing matching costumes - dark coloured harem pants and crop tops accented with sequins. The music is wonderfully atmospheric and the dance is beautifully choreographed and executed by all the dancers who all move together in formation beautifully. The style of dancing is very elegant, graceful and with some ballet like moves. If you want to see what oriental dance or cabaret is all about, then you need to watch this clip! The style is clearly defined here with Naima's dancing perfectly echoing the music. Her tiny, tiny hip drops are just wonderful.
There is a very nice special effect as we see Naima step on to the giant's hand and dance there for a while as he looks on smiling. She rejoins the chorus dancers on the main stage. The giant jumps down off the mountainside and joins them; there's a couple of really cool shots of him standing with the dancers in miniature and then Naima dancing by his feet. He jumps back up to his place on the mountainside and dances there. After the theatre audience are seen applauding, we see part of the end credits and another interesting special effect - a head and shoulders shot of Naima doing wonderful wrist circles and hand waves while applauding hands are superimposed around her. Everything about this clip - the music, the costumes, the set and special effects screams "Hollywood!" but it has been superbly executed and danced. Beautiful!
Clip no. 8
This clip begins with a shot of Naima's bare feet - we see her spinning in a sea of balloons. The clip is set on stage in a restaurant. Naima is dancing in a beautiful pale coloured satin sleeveless dress with matching wrist cuff and a very pretty, tall tiara. The dress has been cleverly designed to look as if it is a bedlah; the midriff cover matches her circle skirt which sends the balloons flying everywhere as she dances, creating a great visual effect. She dances a while with sagat - the music is a wonderful classical style piece with some lovely rhythm and style changes. I particularly liked her very, very precise hip snaps and graceful arms and spins in this wonderful clip, which ends with Naima receiving rapturous applause. Good sound and picture quality.
Clip no. 9
This clip is set at the circus - it looks like a fairground. A small group of live musicians are playing traditional instruments such as nai and tabla and are accompanied by a female singer. Naima appears dancing beautifully barefoot for the crowd with sagat in a very pretty sleeveless baladi dress with a patterned hemline, and a contrasting hip scarf. Two men in particular are watching her - one is a circus worker, and the other a young man in the crowd. This is a particularly lovely clip in which everything has been together so well - the music has a wonderful melody and Naima interprets it perfectly. I particularly liked her graceful grapevine walk and the way she skilfully plays sagat. The circus worker sees the young man in the crowd eyeing Naima up and goes over to him and watches him a threatening manner. Naima deals with this in the most wonderful way; she goes over and elbows the circus worker out of the way and this is all incorporated into the choreography in perfect time with the music. This clip has wonderful atmosphere and is full of brilliant music, singing and dancing. The dance ends and Naima goes off with a tambourine to collect tips from the crowd. Good sound and picture quality
Clip no. 10
This clip is set at the circus - it looks like a fairground. A small group of live musicians are playing traditional instruments such as nai and tabla. The music is wonderful and this song is still very popular with dancers today. Naima is dancing barefoot and playing sagat with a small crowd looking on. Her costume is very pretty - she is wearing a bedlah heavily decorated with coins, a bolero jacket and a matching heavily sequinned skirt with a contrasting underskirt. Two men, one from the circus and one in the crowd both watch her intensely. Naima interprets the music beautifully in this clip - and you can really see the music mirrored in her dancing. I particularly liked the way you can see every note of the violin which is played exquisitely here, reflected in her hip figure of 8's and her tiny camels mirroring the shorter notes. She also plays the sagat moving her arms and hands wonderfully accenting the music. She ends the dance with a couple of lovely spins and the crowd gives their rapturous applause. Just wonderful! Good sound and picture quality.
Clip no. 11
This clip seems to be set at a private outside party - lots of people are there dressed up in their party clothes. The young man who has been watching her from the crowd at the circus is there. Naima is wearing a very beautiful pale coloured strapless mermaid style dress and matching heeled shoes. She ties a scarf round her hips, and begins dancing to the music, flowing gracefully with figures of 8's and soft arms with wonderful feminine poise and perfect musical interpretation. A man (seen in the last clip - one of the circus workers) enters the scene, pushing another male tahtib (stick) dancer out of the way. He obviously means business and is mad as hell. He is dressed in a galabaya and carries a stick. Naima sees him and stops in her tracks looking petrified and begins to back away. They begin a duet together; he dances with the stick (tahtib) and Naima dances around him. When she spins away from him, he pulls her back with the crook of his stick. Naima carries on dancing with him looking extremely apprehensive while he stares at her intensely. The music ends and as soon as the dance is finished Naima unties the scarf and runs out. The duet has been wonderfully choreographed; the emotion of the piece really is reflected in the acting and dancing all in perfect unison with the music. This makes this amazing clip one of my favourites (I watch this one over and over again). Good sound and picture quality.
Clip no. 12
This clip looks like it is set in a circus ring. Naima comes out first dancing in perfect unison with the music into the ring. I really liked the way she did her hip swerves in this part. She is wearing a very pretty baladi dress and hipscarf made from assuit (fabric embellished with patterns of tiny pieces of silver), closely followed by a large group of musicians playing saaidi style music and chorus dancers who are all dressed in baladi dresses and hip scarves. The circus ring is now packed full of people and Naima begins singing the title track "Lahalibo". One man is dancing around everyone while performing an amazing balancing stunt with a stick. This is a wonderful clip with a couple of really cute sections: one where Naima suddenly pops up dancing from under the camera in front of the crowd and another with a great special effect: a very recognisable young man in the audience gets up out of his seat, and joins Naima in the ring. He has a stick and begins dancing with Naima then begins singing while she dances around him. The whole crowd is thoroughly enjoying the performance and there are men and children dancing along in the audience. The music ends and everyone leaves the ring with applause ringing in their ears and Naima blows kisses to the crowd in appreciation. Good sound and picture quality.
Clip no. 13
This clip starts with a really great special effect - Naima is dancing within a glass ball that is placed on a table - doing some very graceful hand and arm waves. The shot changes and now we see Naima dancing in the foreground with a wonderful background set - there are chorus dancers in the background (you should be able to recognise all of them!) all dancing within their own archway. They are all wearing an very pretty dark chiffon skirt edged with sequins and matching chiffon crop top which has an unusual flounced shoulder detail and sequinned cups. Naima in the foreground is wearing light coloured harem pants decorated all over with dark coloured sequins (check out the amazing hip detail!) and a sleeveless embroidered and sequinned crop top, she is also wearing a pair of dark coloured elbow-length sequinned gloves. There is a male singer singing the words "Alf Layla Wa Layla" (A Thousand and One Nights"). The way the special effects have been mean we get two amazing dances in one as the camera cleverly pans round to show both the chorus dancers and Naima in the foreground. I particularly liked the way she came from her backbends with hand waves in this clip. This is a visually stunning clip with beautiful music that ends with a shot of the crystal ball now dark and empty after the dance. Good sound and picture quality.
Clip no. 14
The clip starts with Naima appearing on a brightly-lit (the fluorescent lights are all figures of musicians) joined in the background by several female accordion players all wearing fez's sitting on stage seating which is cleverly decorated with musical notes. A man pops up wearing a galabaya and a fez and sings "Hobak Ala Feyn" as Naima dances around him. The music in this clip is wonderful, very lively with a great melody. In this clip Naima is wearing a stunning two piece costume set with matching gauntlets and high-heeled shoes. The top is heavily decorated with dark sequins and some lighter coloured accent sequins, and has a wonderful style of fringing which is made from diamond shaped netting decorated with bugle beads. The matching skirt is also made from the same netting and looks wonderful on stage as you can see all the bugles catching the light. My favourite section of this clip is the accordion taqasim - here Naima's figures of 8's and shimmies perfectly mirror the music and just are a delight to watch. The music and dance ends, the curtains close with rapturous applause from the audience and the clip finishes with Naima taking her bows. This clip does have some slight picture break-up at the start of the clip, but it's not serious.
Clip no. 15
This is a nice clip - the scene is set in a theatre - there's a backdrop with steps leading down onto the main stage. Naima is at the top of the steps with a black veil (melaya?) wrapped around herself. Positioned all the way down the steps are men in galabeya's and chorus dancers also wrapped in black veils. Naima dances her way down the stairs and as she reaches the bottom, the chorus dancers discard their veils and descend to join her on the stage where a male singer is waiting. Naima opens up her veil - she is wearing a very baladi dress trimmed very prettily with pailette sequins and very cute fluffy slip on sandals. She dances briefly for a while with the black veil then discards it and carries on dancing with sagat. The chorus dancers are all wearing two piece costumes all in wonderful different styles and designs. Naima is also wearing anklets with bells attached that she cleverly uses to accent her dancing, which is very effortless and natural in this clip. Good sound and picture quality.
Clip no. 16
This is a wonderful clip - it seems to be set on stage - the backdrop and the scenery is of a Bedouin camp. There are painted tents in the background, and a camp fire in the foreground, and Naima is dancing around a male singer in the centre of seated people - everyone is dressed in Bedouin clothing, and one side there are men playing douf's. Naima is wearing a close-fitting sleeveless dress beautifully made from shiny fabric with high side-splits. This is teamed with a very pretty headdress and a very unusual belt - it seems to be tied at the front and has a stunning coin detail at the centre-front in the shape of a kirdan (a dowry necklace). There is a man in a Western suit looking on who doesn't seem to be at all amused and seems ready to leap up at any moment! In this clip I loved Naima's perfect tiny undulations performed in perfect unison with the music and her interpretation of the music which is, as always, excellent. The clip ends with Naima dancing her way out of the camp circle. Good sound and picture quality.
Clip no. 17
The clip starts with a bride and groom dancing their way up onto a raised dais to sit on two chairs that have been beautifully decorated with flowers. The music in this clip is wonderful. A row of musicians playing doufs enter and line up at the back; Naima is then joined from each side by around twenty chorus dancers all wearing a fantastic range of differently styled bedlahs. Naima is wearing a pale coloured skirt and a matching veil draped butterfly style across her throat - her bedlah has a very pretty and unusual patterned detail and a halter neck strap. In this section I loved her elegant hip drops. The music then changes a bit and we see Naima now in a different costume which is absolutely gorgeous - the bedlah seems to have been made from black chiffon but is decorated all over with patterns of sequins giving it an effect almost like lace. The musicians again come in and line up at the back of the stage with their doufs - the chorus dancers come up and form a circle around Naima while she dances with absolutely beautiful musical interpretation in the centre.
The music changes again, and now we see Naima wearing yet another stunning bedlah - this one is light-coloured has an unusual t-shaped halter neck strap and beaded loops and fringing and is decorated wonderfully with jewels. She is also wearing a veil that is attached to her hair. She looks sensational in this section. The chorus girls dance past each side of her giving a good close-up of all those wonderful bedlah styles. She uses the veil to accent her dancing and I particularly liked the way she uses it to accent her shoulder shimmies. The clip ends with the bride and groom standing up and looking lovingly at each other. This is a wonderful clip to end the first part with. Good sound and picture quality.
