The Secrets of Egypt Dance, Life and Beyond
Now, this week’s book, was not originally on my to read list this year, because I’ve read it before. And while generally you buy books because you intend to read them more than once, with 1800 books and growing, I’m mostly trying to focus on books I haven’t read yet. But then, some snotty little cancelati decided to create a belly dance black list. Blows my mind, we went, in a single generation, from Lenny Bruce, who was blacklisted for his comedy, to blacklisting dancers for wrong think. Anyway, this brings me to this week’s Book of the Week, The Secrets of Egypt Dance, Life and Beyond by Joana Saahirah, which was originally posted on YouTube on June 7, 2021, or you can watch it on Rumble or listen to it on PodBean.
See, Joana Saahirah is ON the belly dance blacklist, the latest by-product of cancel culture here in the United States, where this revivification of nazi-ism has turned blacklisting people in to a virtue. Only, when they put Joana on the blacklist, they forgot to give her a copy of the script, you know, the one that says her role, on finding herself canceled, is to apologize to the cancelers for daring to have a thought, roll onto her back, and let them stomp all over her face for all time. So, when she found out she was being canceled, instead of following the script the cancelati-s have written, she came up swinging, god love her. And has completely rejected all attempts to hand her the approved script. Instead, she has flipped the script, and invited everyone in the dance community to an open forum discussion on racism and cultural appropriation, I will include a link to that discussion below.
Now, this may surprise no-one, but the cancelati have no interest in attending this open forum, but she’s trying, because that is who Joana is, she builds bridges and just wants to lift everyone up and see the world dancing. I know, because I studied with her for 18 months. She is the soul of kindness. Everyone who is rejecting the bridges she is trying to build, does so to their detriment. Everyone should have a Joana in their corner cheering them on. So, with that in mind, let’s jump in to this.
The Secrets of Egypt, Dance, Life and Beyond is Joana Saahirah’s story, of how she came to be one of the top dancers in Cairo in the early 2000’s. Joana paints a very vivid picture of how tough the struggle was, describing in heart breaking detail how she put together her orchestra, only to have them betray her for her singer, built another orchestra, the struggle to get a contract without resorting to prostitution. And she tells her story through a series of secrets, each chapter being a secret that she learned while dancing in Egypt.
This story is amazing. Joana’s voice is so strong throughout, which would be expected from an autobiography, but when she experiences the lows of life, dancing through an abusive relationship that almost killed her, your heart breaks with hers. And when she experiences the triumph of that first contract, you fly with her. And throughout, you know she is faithfully telling the story of modern Egypt, how women are still just possessions, time moves at a more leisurely pace, there’s really no such thing as a schedule. She reports how, even today, dancers, Rakassah, are looked down on as prostitutes and sub-class citizens. But she LIVED her life. She studied with Mahmoud Reda, she studied with Soheir Zaky, she sought out the Egyptian greats and learned all she could, not just from them, but from everyday people she interacted with. I think that was the biggest secret of all, you can learn from everything. You can find music anywhere, if you open your ears, and listen with your heart.
I truly love Joana’s story. It is the story of putting everything out there and clawing your way up. And make no mistake, she started from the absolute bottom, being that she is not from a wealthy family, she bought her own ticket to Egypt, and worked her ASS off until she was top tier and recognized, even among other dancers in Cairo, as a professional to be reckoned with. And the message she sends is that with hard work and effort, a bit of luck and undeniable talent, you can achieve what you work towards. But it will not be a rainbow path to happiness from the word go. There will be slumps, there will be problems. How you handle them is going to help determine your level of success. Do you quit? Or do you claw your way past the setback? Do you blame others for your failure? Or do you work to find a solution? I was about 30 pages in when I realized this book reminded me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Really! It’s an autobiography, but it’s also a philosophy book. How do you react when life kicks you down? If you’re Joana Saahirah, you lift yourself back up, and take everyone with you.
This book, it makes you think. She tells her whole life story and bares her soul for you, and her life has not been easy. She is so sweet, that you think surely her life has been a bed of roses. And it just reinforces that, as the saying goes, you can’t tell a book by its cover.
