Customer Reviews

"A Trade like Any Other": Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt

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This is a fabulous and unique book which should be read by all scholars of the Middle East. Because entertainment has been so central to the identity of Egyptians this is an essential read. The author provides fascinating insights on the construction of gender in Egypt, the public/private realm, the complex web of morals and the role of dance and music in political development. This is worth twice it weight.

This highly documented, academic book is essential to anyone wishing to better understand how the native Egyptian Muslim audience views women, particularly but not exclusively, women who sing and/or "belly dance". It provides an excellent history of female entertainers in Egypt throughout history - following the Ghawazee, wedding and festival performers, and the rise of nightclub culture. After providing that history - which I feel is very important for all Oriental dancers to understand - this book undertakes the challenge of trying to understand how performers are viewed by themselves, their families and neighbors, and the community at large. By looking at these women with an "experience near" insider's eye, rather that an outsider's eye which may misunderstand or romanticize the situation, this book lays out plainly the challenges for the average female entertainer. She focuses mostly on the "common" dancers and singers -those who dance and sing at weddings and festivals, not as much on the nightclub or TV/movie/ radio stars, although they are mentioned.
This book is not focused only on the entertainment part of these women's lives, however, but on their family lives and how they enter and exit the business, and in this capacity it serves as an excellent window into the lives of Muslim women in Egypt. What is expected of an Egyptian woman, how feminine and masculine are defined and why, what is respectable or not, and why and how these women work in this framework in their daily lives. Is it the Muslim view of women, or of entertainers in general, or of female entertainers that is responsible for the challenges these women face? This book answers these questions, and in the process gives greater insight into Egyptian Muslim culture from the inside out. It isn't a light read, but it is very educational and may even challenge women of all cultures to look at their own cultures, morals, and values regarding women differently.

I enjoyed this book very much. The author was very clear about her research and the conclusions she reached. It really helps explain the cultural setting of belly dance in Egypt better than any other book I've read, and it's fascinating reading as well due to the little details she tells us about dancers living in Egypt. A must-read book for those interested in Egyptian belly dance!

Too many books about Oriental/belly/Middle Eastern dance lean toward fantasy rather than scholarship. Van Nieuwkerk's book explores the seemingly paradoxical love-hate relationship many people have toward Egyptian belly dancing and dancers and details the history of the dance over the past few centuries.

As the other reviews have said this is an academic piece of research, so the style may not be to everyone' taste but I loved it and couldn't put it down. The author is clear about her goals, how the research was conducted and which areas she doesn't examine in detail (such as modern theatre and tv). It gives a very clear picture of who a bellydancer in egypt is as a person, and how things have evolved to the way they are over the last couple of hundred years or so. I would have loved more history, and more details about how actual movements and costumes have changed, but I can understand that accurate information from hundred' of years ago is difficult to come by...i did find some of the quotes from religeous scholars of times past(and times now actually) particularly enlightening! (I suggest you keep germaine greer at the ready to recover...but of course to understand where we are, we must understand what has come before. And maybe how much hasn't changed?...oh the views of men!) I would also love to read similar accounts about dancing/performing from other areas of the middle east, india and around the world, I suspect they have much in common.

I don't think I would leisure read this book. It has a lot of great information in it, but it's written like a college thesis. Some of the research is pretty weak and has a small sampling of people. That said, there are few books on the market that cover the topics that "A Trade Like Any Other" does. Any one that is truely looking for information on the lives and work conditions of singers and dancers throughout the last couple hundred years in Egypt should read this book.