Amal Safati’s family did not approve of her lifelong dream of being a dancer. But once her father saw her perform with the Beheira Folk Dance Group, he understood that his daughter was not going to become a belly dancer, rather a folk dancer with the 49-year-old Beheira troupe that had performed in several international festivals.
Amal Safati’s family did not approve of her lifelong dream of being a dancer. But once her father saw her perform with the Beheira Folk Dance Group, he understood that his daughter was not going to become a belly dancer, rather a folk dancer with the 49-year-old Beheira troupe that had performed in several international festivals.
That was 15 years ago, when the group still had proper funding and recognition. Today, Safati says, she and the other dancers have to practically beg for their L.E. 40,000 (US $5,700) annual salary from the governorate. That has badly impacted the group, which does not have a proper rehearsal space, not to mention society’s negative view toward female dancers. “Many Egyptians do not know the difference between a folk and belly dancer,” Safati says. Even her husband objected, but when he attended the group’s performances, he loved folk dance and agreed that Safati could continue.
Third oldest folk dance group
Although now plagued with financial problems, Beheira Folk Dance Group is the third oldest of its kind, only after Rida Group and the National Folk Dance Group. The troupe was formed in 1964 when Beheira’s first governor Wajih Abazah decided to found an official folk dance company. The group members were gathered from the governorate’s different vocational training centers and two folk artists, namely Hassan Khalil and the late Kamal Naem, were tasked with training them.
The repetoire Safati says, attempts to express the diversity of the Egyptian people and its various environments, wearing costumes, accessories and dances that characterized each community.
The group is famous for its musical tableaux, including Jadaan of Beheira, Fishermen, Rashidi Rice, The Skirt, Farmers’ Wedding, Water Carriers, Sea Daughters, One Week after Birth, Cotton, Grapes and Daljnat Bedouins’ Weddings. The group participated in many international festivals and won the first prize in Limassol International Folk Arts Festival in 1971.
Administrative and financial problems
Things however changed after the revolution in 2011, due to a lack of appreciation and financial incentives for the group members. The Ministry of Culture has allocated each group member only L.E. 10 ( for each rehearsal and also for each performance with a total of L.E. 120 a month, explaining that the annual subsidiary they used to get from the governorate has not been paid regularly since the revolution, which has negatively impacted the group’s activity.
“The governorate allocated an annual subsidiary of L.E 40,000 (US $ to be spent on the group’s activities but the group has not been receiving this amount on a regular basis since the revolution,” said Ahmad Abdunnasser, the group manager. In addition, the group suffers irregular rehearsals due to a lack of a proper rehearsal location. “The current rehearsal place, which is the Directorate of Culture’s exhibition hall, is totally inappropriate for rehearsals. There is also a lack of female members due to society’s negative view because they are always associated with belly dancing, which makes parents not agree that their daughters join the group, especially since Beheira is a rural governorate. This forces the group to hire female dancers from the nearby Alexandria Governorate,” said Sayed Fathi, the group’s main trainer.
Insecurity and governmental stubbornness
The country’s insecurity has led many group members to escape from the flat allocated by the governorate in an informal settlement area in Damanhur.
“After the revolution outbreak, the female dancers refused to go to the flat as the area was dangerous and lacked security, which forces us to evacuate it. We moved to the Directorate of Culture exhibition hall which is no more than 40 square meters and not equipped for rehearsals. That made us divide a day’s rehearsal into many sessions. We applied many times to rehearse at Mubarak Complex Theater, but our applications were rejected and the Theatre administration required us to pay L.E. 3,000 for each rehearsal,” Safati explained.
The group members, she says, suffer from governmental negligence. They are forced to buy their costumes with the finances allocated by the governorate and even these are not paid regularly. That has negatively reflected on the group’s appearance and symbolic significance.
