ISSN 2230-357X (Online)
ISSN 1177-2808 (Print)
MEDANZ News Middle Eastern Dance Association of New Zealand August/September, 2012
Mahmoud Reda: a true master By Zumarrad (Brigid Kelly), Christchurch Here in New Zealand it’s rare to get access to the masters that have inspired and developed our dance form at the deepest level. So I will treasure the workshops I took with Mahmoud Reda at the final International Bellydance Conference of Canada in Toronto this year. Reda, along with Ghawazee dancer Khairiyya Mazin, was to be the featured teacher when I went in 2010, but both were prevented from flying to Canada by a volcanic ash cloud out of Iceland that disrupted air traffic for weeks. This time, there was no flight problem – just a visa one. Someone in the Egyptian embassy decided to hold the visas for Khairiyya and Tito Seif to ransom, and both of these teachers were unable to board their flights for Canada. There was no such problem with Reda though, so the IBCC became a bit of a Reda-fest. Many of the other participants were more upset by the loss of Khairiyya, who has never taught outside Egypt and is now unlikely to, than anything else, as Tito teaches in the US often and Mahmoud Reda also tours a phenomenal amount given his age. I was most disappointed to miss out on Tito, who is my favourite oriental dancer in the world. Nonetheless, I was thrilled that I would get the chance to be taught by The Mahmoud Reda. There’s lots of information about Reda and his troupe out there, but to recap: Mahmoud Reda, along with his elder brother Ali and sister-inlaw Farida Fahmy, pretty much invented Egyptian folkloric dance – that is, folk-inspired dances made sophisticated for theatre. Mahmoud was a gymnast rather than a dancer (he represented Egypt at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952), but when he was given a chance to join a touring Argentinian folkloric troupe he took it, gaining some ballet training along the way. On his return to Egypt he decided to try creating a similar concept for Egypt, and the rest is history. ...Cont’d on Pages 3 & 6
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The Missing Book
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