Nagwa Fouad

In 1958 , 15 year Nagwa ran away from her Alexandria home to Cairo. She found a job as a telephone receptionist at the Orabi Agency for the stars of the Egyptian Cinema. She supported herself and step-mom who had followed her to Cairo.

Nagwa had been entranced by the dancers of the 40's and 50's. To Nagwa Na'ema Akef " moved like magic". Na'ema, Tahiya Karioka and Samia Gamal personified the belly dance tradition in the Middle East. They had left and indelible impression on the young girls mind. Nagwa's dream was to dance.

When Orabi spotted her dancing while on the job and told her that she should be up on stage. He persuaded Nagwa to rent a costume for 50 piastres from Ne'mat Mokhtar. He helped her get a few shows at the Sahara City Tent, which was frequented by tourists. A few months later she was already dancing at the Auberge Nightclub run by Mohamed Abd el Nabie. Her early start was to be marred by her arrest for dancing professionally at an illegal age - Nagwa was not yet 16! "They arrested me and the adab police (vice squad) detained me until we convinced them to change my age," Fouad laughs.

After her release, Nagwa went on to perform at the Abdeen Casino where she met Ahmad Fouad Hassan, a producer of stage shows. He convinced her to perform live at the Adwa El Madina , the most prestigious music and dance show during that era.

Nagwa married Ahmed Fouad Hassan, the late musician and conductor. He gave Nagwa Fouad her "first big break", giving her a chance to appear in the popular 1960s stage show Adwaa Al-Madina (City Lights), which had featured such superstars as Shadia, Abdel-Halim Hafez, Fayza Ahmed, and Sabah. She married Hassan and divorced him 6 years later.

Nagwa's fame skyrocketed in 1976, when composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab wrote an entire musical piece exclusively for her belly dancing. Titled Qamar Arba'tashar, literally meaning Moon of the 14th, the composition served as a transition for Nagwa from traditional oriental dance to more of a choreographed stage performance "It was like a dramatic dance where I was able to combine Tahiya Karioka's style with Na'ema's acrobatic style," she says.

-gobellydance.com