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 El Leil was a cabaret show about the Golden Age of Egyptian Music, Song and Dance featuring The Pasha Band and The Aswan Dancers. It was presented May 3, 2014. Below is the show El Leil. We hope to show you how the music and dance was influenced by other cultures while paying respect to the beauty and roots of Egyptian dance. El Leil is a tribute to the Golden Era of Egyptian Dance and Music, a time f from the days of King Farouk and before the 1952 revolution.

It is hard to try to imagine the glory of days long gone. The cinema tried to portray some of those glory days with movies such as Sharia Al Hob starring Abdel Halim Hafez and Nagwa Fouad and Khalli Balek min Zouzou starring Soad Hosni. But it was really the earlier Egyptian black and white movies that documented the Golden Age with lavish musicals featuring artists such as Mohamad Abdel Wahab, Farid el Atrache and Karem Mahmoud. Those artists, singers and composers wrote music for those movies and for the dancers who starred in the movies such as Taheyya Carioca, Samia Gamal and Naima Akef.

Not coincidentally this Golden Age was also during the period of King Farouk’s rule which was from 1936-1952. During this time of cultural and artistic expression and freedom, King Farouk reserved front row tables at every cabaret and club in town. He enjoyed his entertainment and demanded that there would always be an empty table ready and waiting for him.

Among the club owners who respected his wishes was the foremost club owner Badia Masabni. She was a Syrian/Lebanese woman who was an actress, musician, dancer, mentor and visionary who had emigrated to Cairo in the early 1900’s. Badia had been married to a great actor and comedian, Nagib al Rihany, who helped her to create musical and dance revues. Badia had a vision and a great business sense. She opened clubs and trained dancers, singers and musicians and her clubs flourished with the rich and elite Egyptians and Europeans who called Cairo home. She knew how to merge the two cultures and how to make her clubs seem exclusive to not just Egyptian royalty and the upper classes, but also to the colonialist cosmopolitan and beautiful people.- European military officers and business people.

Having lived in South America in her formative years, she was interested in creating and fusing different cultural elements. She trained her artists to embrace other cultures and genres . She modified the traditional folk dances to become suitable on stage as Oriental dance theatrical pieces with choreographies, veils, floor patterns, new costuming and included some western dance training. She encouraged her musicians, who were used to performing as a small ensemble to borrow from the West - both in grandiose size and musical traditions.

In other words, Badia changed the dance and music by westernizing it and fusing the cultures. But she always maintained and insisted that the Eastern flavors remain dominant. While Egypt was always a melting pot of cultures, embracing new ideas - some in the form of fusing western and in particular Latin in its music, it has always maintained a definite Egyptian quality.

And now I present El Leil.

If you enjoyed this show, you might enjoy reading a couple of articles Badia Masabn (Romance of the Rumba Years) and Badia Masabni 2 (Badia Masabni and Me). They can be found with the articles.