Nagwa Fouad

Egypt's BellyDancing
Legend


Nagwa's Early Start


 In 1958 , a frail 15 year-old girl who dreamt of dancing on stage, ran away from her Alexandria home and arrived in Cairo,
penniless and afraid. She quickly found a job as a telephone receptionist at the Orabi
Agency for the stars of the Egyptian Cinema and supported her step-mom who had followed her to Cairo.

But it was the dance that had bedazzled Nagwa from an early age. "I was very impressed by Na'ema Akef," says Fouad in her two-story Maspero apartment. "She moved like magic".
Akef, Tahiya Karioka and Samia Gamal personified the belly dance tradition in the Middle East
of the 40s and 50s. Each created her own niche in the history of the dance, executing a presence
that even today is unmatched.

It was Orabi who first spotted her dancing while on the job and told her that she should be up on stage. He persuaded Nagwa to rent a costume for 50 piastres from Ne'mat Mokhtar and got her a few stints at the Sahara City Tent, which was frequented by tourists. A few months later she was
already dancing at the Auberge Nightclub run by Mohamed Abd el Nabie. But her early start was to be marred by her arrest for dancing professionally at an illegal age - Nagwa was not yet 16!
"They arrested me and the adab police (vice squad) detained me until we convinced them to change my age," Fouad laughs.
After her release, Nagwa went on to perform at the Abdeen Casino where she met Ahmad Fouad Hassan, a producer of stage shows. He convinced her to perform live at the Adwa El Madina ,
the most prestigious music and dance show during that era.
She married Hassan and divorece him 6 years later.
Egypt's living legend had been born!


Nagwa and the Moon


Nagwa's fame skyrocketed in 1976, when composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab wrote an entire musical piece exclusively for her belly dancing. Titled Qamar Arba'tashar, literally meaning Moon of the 14th, the composition served as a transition for Nagwa from traditional oriental dance to more of a choreographed stage performance
"It was like a dramatic dance where I was able to combine
Tahiya Karioka's style with Na'ema's acrobatic style," she says.

Qamar was the peak for Nagwa and she admits it has been hard to maintain that superior showmanship. But success did carry a burden: Nagwa found now time to raise children - she was always on the road or choreographing a new show every three months.