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A Tribute to Souhair Zaki

My current bellydance project is creating a Tribute to Souhair Zaki piece. Of all the dancers from past generations, she has always been my favorite, from the first time I saw her. The standard description for Souhair is "sweet". When I was in Egypt, some of the people I met did not admire bellydancers, but no one could say a bad word about Souhair Zaki. She really does come across that way, like a girl next door, like she would be a really nice person if you did talk to her. She doesn't appear to be strong or threatening, nor does she seem weak. It's somewhat amazing how much personality each dancer has, what comes across when they dance. When Souhair dances, you see that she is in enraptured by the music. She also had a tremendous figure, a distinctive style both in movement and appearance, and the music she chose to dance to is some of the best in the world.

I chose the song Leylet Hob, because she is famous for dancing to it and there were several videos where I could study how she related to that music. Poor timing, of course, for Youtube to take down all but one of the Souhair Zaki videos where she dances to Leylet Hob. One has been made private, the cute one with Souhair in a pink beledi dress. Another has been removed for terms of service violations.

The easiest part is the costume. I was born with long dark hair and generous hips. I can easily wear a simple bedlah with a chiffon skirt and matching body stocking. It will be a daring move for me to expose so much of my legs. Nevertheless, this is the EASY part. The hard part is the dance itself.

I am facing several challenges:

The first is artistic. How much do I include of myself? The version of the song I chose is 6 minutes long. There are plenty of Souhair movements that I can do. I can imitate the way she uses her hands and arms, softly flipping and twirling them, making arm paths. I can imitate her most frequently used movements – hip downs, figure 8s. I can perform one of her signatures, using the circle skirt as a veil and holding it as I twirl. I can also avoid movements that she never does, movements that became popular in modern Cairo style. I could, after all, just copy her entire dance although I think that would be less of a challenge and not cool at all. At some point, I need to bring in my own improvisation, and maybe even do a few of my own signature moves. It is still, after all, me dancing. I haven't seen a lot of tribute dances, but I know that when I read a book that is a retelling of an old tale, I am expecting a retelling, an update, something that both harkens back to the old but also offers something of the new.

The second is the realization that, to be a tribute to Souhair, you must not just emulate the gross movements (I call them this because they are the large physical movements, not the fine details) – the aforementioned figure 8s and downward hips. You have to get the essence, the way that she angles her head, smiles, the way that the hands and arms are held. She is very distinctive. Without attention to these details, one could repeat her dance exactly and not evoke Souhair at all. But with the proper details, no one could miss it. Generally if I choreograph at all, I leave the details up to my personal style and improvisation. In this case, I need to leave the gross movements up to improvisation with a loose idea of what fits – but I have to internalize the fine details until they are almost instinctual.

Finally, it is a personal dance challenge, slowing down and savoring a single movement. Like many modern dancers, I tend to dance in a series of combinations and rarely repeat the same movement for more than a measure or two. Souhair tends to repeat a movement, with variations. If you are a really good dancer, you can repeat a movement again and again. This requires excellent technical execution skills, to make something simple look divine. How do you keep the audience engaged without a lot of flash? That's really the challenge that all those who would emulate Egyptian style will face. One of the keys, of course, is engaging all those internal and core muscles at the root of our dance, to give the smallest of movements more oomph and strength. Also, one must develop confidence and charisma to present those movements. If the brain is thinking "Am I boring people?", it is broadcast through the face and body.