Found the footage on Jamila very interesting! Thank you. I Remember when my mother was dancing and I started-and Jamila was on the West Coast, etc.-belly dance had so much more technique and complexities of movements. Now there is just too much harsh bumping and isolating-like entire act is one too long drum solo-and the footwork is lacking or non-existant. They tend to call this the "Modern Egyptian" style,but actually is somewhat misleading, as even the Egyptian movie stars in classic cinema had more traditional floor patterns, footwork. Depended on the situation in the script. (Remember that the scene where Naima Akef is dancing outside with two long braids in Tamra Henna, I think, this is really essentially what we were doing in Greektown, NYC. We were "folk dancers.")

Also, today's dancers think that you did not see Zil playing in Egyptian movies it meant Arabic people don't play them. This is so wrong!
Moviemakers didn't always use because you had to go back and "synch" the tracks. All of our movies in the old days-our tap dancers had to repeat their performance in a recording studio so the sound of their taps could be synched. Same with Zil. Sometimes they just didn't fool with it for that reason.

So many in business now just a bunch of dummies-not all-but a lot! Stubborn and insulting to the great ladies who used to know history of dance.

Thanks for sharing this about Salimpour. I've tried to impress upon people now that the complexities and knowledge of the music and dance origin has been completely snuffed out and re-written by too many "cliques."

Time for a "revolution." A back to the "basics."

It was also great to see the gal in the striped harem pants in this vintage footage. Stripes are so "Old World Oriental." God, I loved seeing that!