Funtastic Belly dance Cabarets and Nightclubs in Cairo, Egypt

Last night we had a crazy, fun, chaotic, smoky, tiring night at Moulin Rouge cabaret on Alex Desert Road in Cairo, Egypt.  One of the best times you can have in Cairo. 

It was Mamdouh Salama’s birthday and Kay Taylor from the UK had brought a group of belly dancers on a dance tour.  If you come to Cairo you must experience this nightlife in a cabaret.  It’s one of the most interesting and fascinating things about Cairo you will encounter.

We arrived at about 1:45am and met the group there.  The place was pretty empty.  It starts to get really crowded around 3am.  You can see kids sitting with their families and men and women sitting at tables together, but mostly big groups of men at tables, smoking shisha and whatever else they desire to smoke, drinking and eating from big tin foil animals shaped like swans, with finger food like fresh fruit and cheeses and nuts.  Last night was particularly interesting as we saw an Iraqi man with his wife full dressed in full niqab (only eyes showing) sitting with their son who was about 7 years old.  The man was smoking hooka and he had a stack of cash on the end of the table.  It looked to be about 1 or 2 thousand USD.  The man at the next table had an even bigger stack of cash, maybe around 3-4 thousand USD.  At one point, instead of showering the belly dancer or singer with money, as is customary, the man just started throwing the stacks one by one on the stage until he depleted his whole stack.  It was insane!

The money in these nightclubs flow like you have never seen!  At any given time there can be hundreds or thousands of dollars on the floor (Egyptian dollars which are thrown in 5LE increments equal to about .90 USD) not quite a dollar but almost.  Last night there was so much money they had to stuff it in garbage bags and carry it off the stage.  Usually there is a big wooden box and all the “money boys” who pick up the cash, stack it and give it to the guy who is presiding over the box.

The belly dancers in these nightclubs are not usually very good.  The good dancers in Cairo work at 5 star hotels and tourist boats where tips aren’t allowed.  It is considered haram (bad) to shower the belly dancer with money in more prestigious venues.  As an American belly dancer I am used to being showered with money, it’s part of the belly dance culture in America, but not in Cairo.  I have to say I really don’t understand why, since this is how the audience shows appreciation for you in most places around the world.

Getting back to the belly dancers, most dancers in these places aren’t trained artists.  Often times you will find dancers who barely even dance.  They enter the stage, walk around and shake the audience’s hand and shimmy around the stage for 45 minutes with a singer and leave.  These dancers don’t do costume changes either.  These girls work in 2-5 places a night with the same costume, 7 nights a week, no day off.  I’ve talked to some of the more famous cabaret dancers who said that their only time off was during Ramadan (the Muslim Holy month) where dancing is forbidden in all places in Egypt.  A nice break for the dancers because working 7 nights a week is hard work. They start at about 12am and finish from 5-6am every night.

Consequently I rarely go to these clubs with the expectation that I will see good dancing.  Mostly you go for the live music and people watching.  Last night was an exception.

The first belly dancers who performed were 3 girls who did exactly as I expected.  About 2:30 a dancer named Raghd came to the stage.  I was pleasantly surprised with her.  She must be new to the scene as I had never seen her dancer.  Her show started good as she was performing her opening number.  I thought she had a fantastic shimmy and she was beautiful.  She wore a Mamdouh Salama costume with flowers ( one of his current fascination’s).  The rest of the dance numbers she just played with the audience which is typical.  I would have liked to see her perform more but I guess when you do 4 shows a night you don’t perform full out all the time.

Aziza who we intended to see, came to stage about 4:30am.  She is another belly dancer who really dances with her heart and soul and is a fantastic artist.  Kaye and her group were exhausted waiting for her to arrive and left before she started.  I almost left too, as she was scheduled to show up at 4am but luckily her band started to arrive about 4:20 so we stayed.  She wore an orange, sexy Sahar costume with lace up sides and big stones on the bra and around the hips.  The first thing I noticed about her was the she changed her hair color.  It is a light brown/blond and she used to have black hair.  This totally changed her look and now she looks a bit like a bigger version of Soraya.  Her dancing is fantastic, and unlike almost all cabaret dancers, she really puts on a show.  In this particular cabaret, it’s really difficult to put on a good show because often times the audience wants to get on the stage and dance.  Previously when Aziza danced at El Leil or Semiramis or Parisianna (Lucy’s old club) it was more of a show atmosphere.  I was disappointed at the girls who came up to the stage.  One young girl in particular was dancing very suggestively and had a super short polka dot skirt on.  Earlier in the evening she was a distraction just because of how she was dancing as she would periodically shimmy full force and turn her head down to the back and look at her butt as if to say “see how sexy my backside is”.  Later when she came on stage she as Aziza was dancing, she had rolled her skirt down her hips and it seemed as if she had a black bodysuit on.  In actuality, she had pulled her tank down and rolled it under her underwear, exposing flesh on her hips, and when she turned around all of her pink heart cotton underwear were exposed (like the Dina underwear costume).  It was absolutely ridiculous.  I have seen crazy things in these nightclubs but never anything like that.  I was so embarrassed for her I could hardly watch.  (I took some pics, see pics  lool

Anyways, Aziza did dance with the audience but also the the best show she could with all of the distractions.  She has amazing shimmies, tucks, and turns.  When she turns, she whips her head around as she does a series of really fast turns, which is impressive and makes me go “ouch” every time I watch.  She’s also a fantastic performer and warm with the audience.   One of her 3 singers was a blind woman who wore black glasses on stage and sang Om Kolthum’s “Alf Leyla Wa Leyla”, the audience loved her and it was fantastic.

I arrived home at 6am exhausted and my lungs full of smoke (these places are completely smoky), but I was happy that I stayed and saw Aziza dance.   Enjoy the pics and vids.