Rain and Dance

This morning while going to my belly dance workshop, I had a feeling of déjà vu. For a moment, I thought I was back on the roads of Bombay – the rain hitting my car’s windshield was reminiscent of the Bombay rains. I was traveling from Mohandissen to Maadi; strangely once I crossed Mohandissen into Zamalek, I encountered a perfect day –the sun out on a cold wintry morning. Had I just hallucinated of the rains? But no..wait, the rains soon caught up with me at Maadi….. I never knew it could rain so much in Cairo, it makes traveling such a chore. I know, coming from Bombay, I should not be complaining; there it rains for four months and it could be 4 days of continuous torrential rains!

My driver was incredulous when he heard this-“how can it rain so much? Cairo would be submerged!” But then Cairo is not equipped for such weather-where are the drains? Half an hour of rain leads to water logging and brings the traffic to a standstill. You can see these “water-pump vans” on the roads trying valiantly to drain off the water….but they are not effective and you can only pray for a sunny day to dry up the roads. People who have been residents here for a number of years say that they have not seen such rains in a long time-is it global warming at play? Dubai and Sharjah have been flooded this year...again the lack of drainage system has wrecked havoc with the city. The changing world weather will require re-thinking on the way we plan our cities-Will the “desert countries” have to invest in a drainage system and the tropical countries in desalination plants?

Onto my belly dance class-I am still getting stuck on the “camel” movement-am still the “vomiting camel”. This time the class was more fun-there were six of us and we had all levels-right from a lady attending for the first time to a semi-professional one. The teacher (Lorna Gow-she is a great teacher and I think anyone who wants to learn belly dancing must attend her workshops) is an extremely fun person and I liked it best when she made us pair up and then dance solo for the partner. Dancing solo for an audience of 7 would have been intimidating! You, kind of “freeze” thinking what movement to do next. But the key to making progress is, I think, to keep going and that’s exactly what I intend to do!

Belly Dancing in Cairo

I wanted this to be my first entry on this blog, which is essentially a soft diary of my time in Egypt…I had always written long descriptions of my activities to friends and this time around, I thought I would share it with a larger number of people and hence this blog.

Last week, I attended a belly dancing workshop and it was like living a dream. Of course, I had heard about “belly dancing” and always associated it with something straight out of “Arabian nights”. The first time I ever saw a belly dance performance was in Jordan, at a resort by the Dead Sea. I remember being so mesmerized by the way the dancer was moving that I trailed her, filming the entire performance. I tried some of the moves in the privacy of my hotel room but they looked no where as flattering on me as they did on her. And now, living in Cairo, I was dying to give it a shot. After all, Egypt is the “mecca” of belly dancing and if I left this place without trying the moves, it would be unpardonable in my books.

It was a wonderful experience and something that I am going to cherish for some time-in fact the aches and pains in various parts of my body will make sure that I don’t forget the day in a hurry. Trying to move my hips in a circle parallel to the floor, without moving any other part of the body was to put it mildly “challenging”. Instinctively, I would move my shoulders and stomach muscles too. In fact, my training in Kathak-an Indian classical dance form and Indian folk dancing, made it even more difficult because I would do the movements in the “kathak” way. The basic techniques used in belly dance require that you make circular motions isolated in one part of the body-it could be the hips or the shoulders. The highlight of the class, was definitely the “shimmy”- a movement which is as delightful as it sounds. Then we were onto rolling of the belly muscles. It should go this way-push out your belly -first the top part of the belly and then the lower, then pull in the belly-again first the top part and then the lower. However, my belly muscles rebelled. Despite my best efforts (and that of the teacher’s, I might add), they moved in just the opposite way, making me appear like a “vomiting camel”.

The music was simply mindblowing-you simply wont be able to resist matching your steps to the beat. The teacher was really good –a Scotswoman. An Indian learning to belly dance from a Scotswoman in Cairo, Egypt is simply one aspect of globalisation.

Have bought myself a scarf with bells on it to tie around my hips the next time I go for a belly dance workshop-will make me feel a character straight out of arabian nightsJ).! Watch this space for more on belly dancing.