The two faces of being famous

I will share a story with You that happened some about a month ago, that is still haunting me and probably will haunt me for the rest of my Egypt life.

I will start by asking myself, am I famous (meaning, my face and my dancing is known by many people)? Im not an international superstar like Madonna or Shakira. Im well known in European oriental dance circles and as for Estonia, my home sweet home, in the dance community Im well-known and respected because of my international career and in our oriental dance world, I think without exaggeration, I am famous.

The "Shaaby Queen"
I never felt I need fame in my life, rather Im hungry for growing as an artist and sharing, sharing, sharing...Many dancers from different countries call me the queen of Shaaby. Im flattered by this cool nickname, but I also know I have done lots of research in and outside Egypt to get to the roots and soul of this groovy dance style and find my own personal style. In Europe my shaaby-videos have been seen and shared by tens of thousands of dancers and dance fans and I think it's an achievement by itself, but an incident in Cairo Opera a month ago reminded me that this online fame might have a dangerous and changing affect in my Egypt life.

Oriental dancer in secret
Last day in opera season and we were dancing all the new choreographies for the upcoming performance into the manager's video, to save it for the next season when we return and most probably have forgotten all the steps. I was dancing a very difficult physical duet with lifts and jumps with my boyfriend. There was a visitor in the glass, a guy sitting in the corner and observing the class. Later I was introduced to him, he was a dancer from the Mahmoud Reda dance company looking for a girl contemporary dancer to partner him in his upcoming Andalusian performance.
The next day I came to Opera and heard the following story from my boyfriend who returned from the manager's office. The choreographer had recommended me as one of the best and most reliable company dancers to this guy. He told the choreographer, he was surprised to see me in this company, because he knew I WAS AN ORIENTAL DANCER!!!
My boyfriend quickly saved me and said I danced one month of oriental in Sharm el Sheikh and ran a successful studio in Estonia (without any specifications;). So in the end I was not chosen because the guy actually needs an egyptian face.
I later found out this performance was actually the Ahlan Wa Sahlan festival opening. A prestigious place to perform as an oriental artist, but to my disappointment, not a good place to be seen as the Opera dancer.

THEN CAME THE FAME-SHOCK! I met the same guy in the Opera hallway and we spoke for a short while. He told me he knew me by videos he and his fellow dancers had been watching from Youtube. Can You quess my most popular video? Yes, You are right, its Sigara Bunni:

He didn't remember the name of this song, but he remembered THE LEG SHIMMY (see video at 4.28). He demonstrated it to me in the freaking Opera hallway!!! Imagine my emotions bursting inside me! Meeting a Reda company guy, fighting for my image as a "occasional oriental dancer", discovering the Reda guys were watching my shaaby videos and last but not least having HIM show me my leg-shimmy in the middle of Cairo Opera.
If I was in Europe at some random festival, I would thank him for a compliment and acknowledgment and get into a friendly and fun conversation about shaaby and the new shaaby songs and ask him what's his opinion on our style's for dancing shaaby. But in the Opera, talking to him in my contemporary dancer role, I acted like I didn't care, almost didn't remember this choreography or leg shimmy. I didn't want to impress him any bit more by my knowledge or ideas about the subject, because maybe he will go home and share the video on his wall and we have many friends in common and then the dancers one by one start realizing my connection to oriental dance.

So what if the people knew...!?
For the ones not so familiar with my dance career and wondering why am I hiding the oriental part of it, I will explain shortly. Egyptians like to put dance styles into boxes, the good and the bad boxes. Ballet and modern are in the good box. Oriental dance in the bad box. Folkloric, hip-hop, latin somewhere in between. That's why for my own reputation its' better not to mix these different sides of me, the contemporary and oriental. My passion for both of these arts will not be understood by most of the dancers that I work with, because oriental dance is considered very low-prestige and this would lower my authority and respect in their eyes. Public pressure and opinion is unfortunately something even a confident multi-skilled artist has to consider when living and working in Egypt, especially when working in a high-class place like opera house.