Adventures in Egypt:
Searching for Ibrahim A'kief
By Zarifa Sa'id

 

This is a story that I've wanted to write for some time. I had long wanted to find Ibrahim A'kief because I had read that most of the top dancers had studied with him. Also, I saw him on a film made by Magdah Saleh (an Egyptian ballerina and dance researcher) in which he was dancing with a woman while teaching her Raqs Sharqi. My first visit to Egypt in 1981 was taken up with the usual tourist sightseeing and by being overcome with supreme culture shock. The second visit in 1988 was cut short by my mother's heart attack. This time in 1990, I vowed I would try to find him.

I had gone to Egypt with another dancer from the Washington, DC area, Xina Hamdi. We spent this trip doing what we wanted shopping, visiting night clubs and eventually taking dance and drum classes. We met Serena in the hotel and she took us under her wing to show us how she gets around Cairo and where she shopped and went "clubbing". I still remember her graciousness. One night, however, we went off on our own and visited the Kasr El Nile supper club. After suffering through a fairly poor "warm up dancer", a magic show, a good singer and band who performed Arabic disco songs, we finally saw a wonderful dancer. Her name was Nadia Fuod. During the show she asked us each to dance with her, as is the custom. I think that if you are two women alone in a Cairo supper club, they must assume you are either prostitutes or American dancers. Since we were ignoring the men, they decided we were dancers. After the show, we met her in the manager's office to express our appreciation and to ask for lessons. She, looking every bit the 1950's movie star with fur stole and all, was very bemused. She indicated that she did not teach, but that she knew someone we should take classes with Ibrahim A'kief! I couldn't believe our good fortune. She took our hotel number and said he would contact us.

Nothing happened. We returned to the Kasr El Nil the next night because it was Sunday and we didn't know where else to go. Also we wanted to see Nadia Fuod again. She asked us whether Ibrahim had called us. We assumed it meant that she hadn't told him or that he hadn't wanted to teach us. We went about our business for two more days. Suddenly, as we were preparing to go out in the evening the hotel desk called and said that Ibrahim A'kief was in the lobby waiting for us. We went downstairs and met this man with a gold tooth who grinned at us across the lobby table. It occurred to us that we wouldn't know him from Adam, although we should have realized that everyone is Cairo knows him, and our hotel's staff certainly knew who he was. He asked us for a sum of money to teach us several hours, including a choreography. We said that we were at the end of our trip and didn't have much money left even though we were sure he was worth that much. He agreed to do it for less. Possibly, the fact that we spoke some Arabic helped. He didn't speak much English. He said he would return for us at noon and show us how to get to the "school" after which we could find our own way.

Sure enough, the next day, exactly at noon he appeared and led us through the back streets of Cairo near the Hotel Victoria. Our destination was a run-down building (they were all run down in those days) which housed film and music production facilities. The top floor (about 7th) had an open area where we held the classes. It was open air no air conditioning! We had to supply the tape recorder; he brought the tape. We had serious doubts about whether we were being "taken" until we saw him move. At that point we knew we had the right person. Over the next week with several meetings and classes of two hours each, we were impressed with both his professionalism and his knowledge of teaching methods. He was always on time (we weren't so punctual!). He taught us technique and a choreography to a new rendition of Aziza.

After one of the sessions, I decided to interview him. We generally had Arabic coffee afterwards and so we talked. Ibrahim came from a circus family. He and his cousin Naima A'kief performed with their family, all of whom were acrobats. Both he and Naima loved to dance. (Naima became one of the top dancers in Cairo.) They took classes in all kinds of dance everywhere the circus traveled. The family looked down on their dancing, wanting them to be acrobats. Nevertheless, he had a school in Cairo for years and had the first folkloric troupe at the Cairo Hilton. He also worked with Samia Gamal at that time (1940's). For fifty years he taught performers and teachers in Egypt.

I asked him about the Islamic fundamentalist influence on dance in Egypt. He answered that the Islamic influence is mitigated by that part of Egypt that is modern. He thinks that Egypt is about 50% modern. Even though the orthodox influence is trying to swing opinion, he believed Egypt will continue forward into the modern world. He said that although it has been difficult to study dance in the past, with each generation it becomes easier. People now recognize dance as art and accept it more. For example, he said, girls are named after dancers. Also, dancers make big money for performing.

All in all, he was optimistic at that time about the future of dance in Egypt. He thought that music and dance are embedded in Egyptian daily life and therefore it will continue to be an important part of entertainment. It would be interesting to interview him today, now that some of the popular dancers have retired to see what he thinks about the future of Raqs Sharqi in Egypt. Possibly like Egypt, the dance is eternal.

 

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