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The
rock video company MGMM who had produced the most famous
videos of the time, were hired to produce the film. Duran
Duran-Wild Boys, Whitney Houston -How Will I Know,
and Tina Turner -Private Dancer, were examples of their
work. The crew would consist of eleven key people from London
and the rest would be hired on location. A one week location
shoot in Cairo, with all the equipment brought in with the crew,
was a fantastic success. The first day of shooting was at Dr.
Rageb's Pharoanic Village for all of the
ancient Egyptian scenes. The second day was at the Ismail
Pasha Palace at the Marriot Hotel for
the dance sequence. The Pyramids provided the background for
the sword dance and the final third day of filming. Back in London,
viewing the rushes, it was evident there wasn't enough footage
to complete the film, so another day of shooting interior scenes
was organized. Asmahan got permission to use the Omar Khhaym
Night Club, which had a lovely classical arabic
decor. Asmahan directed these set-ups as well as produced and
acted in them, these shots provided the necessary interior and
special effects. The film was edited in one of the most sophisticated
studios, and the result was a twenty minute short of striking
originality, using romantic images of the Middle East, like a
dancers memory of the history of the ancient dancers that preceded
her.
The
famous Egyptian movie star, Nabila Ebeid had seen photographs
of Asmahan in her costumes at the studio of Bastet, and
contacted her to design the dancing costumes for her new film,
Al Raqassa wal Siyassi, (The Dancer and the Diplomat).
While she was in Egypt for this project, she signed a contract
for the Ramses Hilton Hotel. She would go to Madame
Raqia Hassan to develope the show. This would include hiring
an orchestra, rehearsals, choice of music, choreography, and
sequence of program. This would be a production show with two
singers and four costume changes. As always the tableau would
be the sword dance with saidi drums and mismar . The music for
this show was an original composition by Mustafa Hamido.
The atmosphere in Cairo was wonderful, the audience was full
of celebrities, society people, other artists, and Arab tourists
from the Gulf. Asmahan trained with Ibrahim Akef to ad
another dimension, a more open and balletic influence to her
dancing.This was a very successful season with everything looking
great for another contract, and then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
With a real sense of crisis and the war starting in three days
she left Egypt. The Gulf War had begun and the Middle East was
being consumed by forces which would destroy the quality of the
entertainment business.
Back in London there was a serious world recession due to sky
rocketing oil prices and political instability in the Middle
East. These were very difficult times for the the professional
performers as the venues for artists were disappearing. She danced
at a Persian club called Saaghi. The Middle East
was in political, cultural, economic, and spiritual crisis. Even
in Egypt, the situation was declining, the most famous dancers
were only working weekends with only six five-star hotel shows
left, where there used to be twelve hotel shows working seven
nights a week.
After two years Asmahan signed once again with the Ramses
Hilton Hotel for the summer season. She designed
and made all the costumes and produced the show. The orchestra
was fantastic with two singers, a Khalegy show, and folklore
sword show with coin costume and ethnic saidi musicians. The
dancing scene had continued to deteriorate and so had the quality
of the guests. The deep love and passion for the art of dance
was not evident as it had been before. The rise of muslim fundamentalism
and intimidation of artists and night clubs and pressure to stop
guests from attending shows was taking effect. The flood of cheap
Russian dancers was bringing the dance scene down, and also foreign
dancers were all undercutting each other producing low quality
shows with small orchestras. The reputation of the dance was
being ruined with the public. In the face of all these factors
Asmahan returned to London.
Asmahan is now teaching Egyptian Dance at Pineapple
Studios. She is dancing at private parties, weddings, hen
parties, Middle Eastern resturants, and hotel venues. Also she
is developing a musical extravaganza using the subjects closest
to her heart: the beauty and magic of the music, dancing and
art of the Middle East.
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