World-famous Egyptian raqs sharqi dancer Randa Kamel on the importance of belly dancing to live music, feeling the music, and why oriental dance developed in Egypt.

Alicia: Randa Kamel has been blowing my mind for some time now. She is based in Cairo, and I love her strength. I love seeing her dance barefoot. I have sprained my ankle too many times to wear high heels, so seeing a master dancer perform barefoot really moves me! And she dances with such passion. Randa moved to Cairo as a teenager, where she danced with the Reda Troupe for years. She traveled the world with the Reda Troupe, learning folkloric styles. After that she started her solo career as an oriental dancer and has performed and taught all over the world. Randa is hosting a festival in Egypt starting June 25 2022, and it looks incredible. Check out Raqsofcourseofficial.com for more info on that. There are a TON of teachers, a competition where finalists get to dance with Randa’s orchestra, it sounds like a dream come true, and an event to add to your vision board. Whew!

This episode of A Little Lighter is going to be different from every episode that came before it. Why?

Because I will not be the one asking the questions. A long-term colleague and friend of Randa Kamel, the amazing dancer in Egypt right now in Cairo, her friend named Sara Farouk conducted this interview with Randa in Arabic. Sara is also a seasoned performer based in Cairo.

Sarah gave me her blessing to turn these interviews with Randa into a podcast, and I think what Rhonda says here is profound and moving. And I hope you will too. And oh my goodness. It’s so exciting to have somebody who’s performing in Egypt right now sharing their perspective! And sharing this dance that comes from their motherland and one of the motherlands of this dance that we love so very much.

The video interview series is titled “A Conversation with Randa at RK Academy and Studio”. And this is filmed in Cairo, Egypt. You can watch those videos on Facebook here: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

Randa Kamel on Instagram

Why do you think Oriental dance developed in Egypt?

Look habibti, oriental dance is feeling. It grows from our feelings during improvisational dancing and on the stage. When we feel something, we live it and our feelings show it, and the dancing develops.

The technique is enhanced.

https://youtu.be/tAv8qDncyiE

Dance with this quality and feeling can only come from here, from Egypt.

Oriental dance is not technique. Feeling is first. Feelings from the music, the audience, the rhythm, and feeling the words.

Some people use the songs without the lyrics and by doing this, they think they make performing easier. That’s not true. Everybody knows all the lyrics of the songs and their meaning. If you take the words away, it doesn’t mean that I don’t know them. As an audience member you are forced to add the missing words yourself.

So of course the dance developed here because Egypt is the land of Oriental dance. It’s language, it’s music, and it’s rhythms.

With all of this, you will continue to evolve as a dancer. And of course you will flourish in Egypt.

https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/belly-dance-history-up-to-the-1900s/

How important is it to follow a strict choreography?

To begin with, when we dance we don’t choreograph. By we, I mean the renowned Oriental dancers. For example, I have never danced a choreography. I always respond to the feelings of the moment. I rely on the audience and how they feel and respond to their feelings, the situation I’m in and how the venue wants me to dance.

All of this dictates what kind of dance I will perform on the stage. No choreographies. We only started using choreographies when we started teaching in the West.

We never learned choreographies. The only people who did this were groups like Reda and El Kaomeyya. They had to learn choreographies, but Oriental dancers don’t have this.

https://youtu.be/BULCMMkMsUU

How important are the music and the words of the songs?

The music is everything. The music makes me move.

The music is in my blood. It’s what makes me laugh and therefore makes other people happy. Music is everything. It’s an international language. Many people will say that a song is happy or sad. If they let themselves feel it for a minute, you will know how it makes you feel.

Everything an Oriental dance comes from your feelings and the music. That’s why we all dance a different way from each other. We all feel and hear the music differently. And in this way, the feeling is translated into movement. Nobody’s the same. They all have their own talents, their work ethic, their power level.

Everything is music. Music is my feelings and my body translates the music, rhythm and words.

https://bellydancebodyandsoul.com/carmine-guida/

We dance to the music to reach the words, to feel the words, everything is inseparable. In Oriental dance nobody should just follow the music or the melody. Nobody should just follow the rhythm or only the words.

A top quality Oriental dancer is one who can follow all of these elements together and say it all.

I am the tongue that expresses the music. People see my body as an instrument of translation, the voice of every member of my orchestra.

Everything they play and sing is incorporated in the movement of my body and the expressions on my face. I am the translator because it is me that’s talking and singing.

Being a dancer here is a big issue. It’s very hard work. How are you going to achieve all of this at once? It’s not easy. Some people think it’s technique-based, but absolutely not. No.

You need to get the feeling.

To understand the audience. Know the technique well. Feel good. Express the words to the people, and make them see you in the right way.

This is very hard work and it takes a very long time. It requires a lot of practice to become a top quality artist. The people who are prepared to put in this effort are the people who love and respect the dance.

If someone is using just their looks, they have to know that Oriental dance has nothing to do with just being pretty. There are a lot of top quality dancers that are not in this category.

It’s not just being pretty or having a good body. It’s about art. It’s about talent.

We’re born with that talent, and we let it grow. We make people happy because it is honest and not fake.

What makes Egyptian dance different from any other dance style?

During my travels, I’ve seen a lot of dance and it’s always been connected with choreography or couples doing a choreography or something similar.

Oriental dance is not like this. It has depth, and it comes from inside me. And I project these feelings. If I feel hurt inside, then my body shows this because I choose the song that I want to dance to and I share my feelings.

I express my feelings and express the feelings of a woman.

That I am female, a human being and an artist.

Because I’m free.

I feel that when I’m dancing Oriental dance, that I am free. Nobody’s in control of me. And I am able to express my inner feelings. I’m happy.

What makes me the happiest is when I see the audience feeling the same emotion while they’re watching me dance. This pushes me to do more and more.

Are there rules in Oriental dance?

There are a lot of people who say that Oriental dance has no rules, but there are a lot. Who knows these rules? That’s the core of the problem.

As I say to all the dancers that if you don’t come to Egypt, know what the dance means in Egypt and understand that it is in the blood of Egyptians, then what you witness will be something else.

It’s going to be a mechanical display of technique, rhythms, and hair. It’s not going to be the Oriental dance which has developed over 7,000 years and was based on feelings.

Why are the musicians so important?

Oriental dance changes from minute to minute and in every venue.

If I’m talking about the venues, there are cabarets, large theaters, festivals, restaurants, places for weddings and engagements, and everywhere requires different dancing. Oriental dance has many forms. I have to know how to dance in each venue, and what I should wear.

This is very important. About the musicians. They add the power. They make me express my feelings with more power and make me perform in a way that is suitable for the venue and for the people who are watching. For instance, if I do a show that has an Umm Kulthum in it for a wedding, and there are a lot of young people in the crowd, I will not perform that song for them. I have to do something else. What is that something else? Whatever comes out of my mind.

I can only do this if I have musicians.

The musicians are the dance and the dancer. Without musicians, there would be no Oriental dance. All of my dreams come true.

The opposite is when you dance to a CD. I dance to a lot of recorded music abroad, but I feel like I’m in a prison as an artist because if I don’t exactly follow the music, I won’t look good.

But live all the musicians compete to...