CAIRO’S NIGHT CLUBS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1929, Page 6

CAIRO’S NIGHT CLUBS

EVERYTHING WELL ORDERED. ILIT IDOLS OF NOCTURNAL HAUNTS. If the visitor to Cairo expects to bo able to see daring spectacles and lurid “dance du ventre” in*the native quarters of tlie town, he will be disappointed and would probably have had more success near home. There was a time when it was different, but British influence and a strong King have changed all that. But lie may get entertainment and much amusement if he asks a dragoman, or Bedouin guide, to conduct him after dinner to a native dance hall. There will probably he a lot of bargaining with the dragoman to begin with. “Well, sir, give me money to reserve a seat in a first-class place—l will bring tarbouche and make gentleman look like Egyptian.” These little tricks to extract extra baksheesh can be easily overcome with a firm front. A dragoman, in fact, is not essential <for the visit, but advisable simply as a guide, for the policemen do not speak English. A FIRST-CLASS PLACE. The hall resembles an informal tneatre. It is a large room, with chairs arranged at random, but facing a raised stage at one end. There are tables everywhere, on which is served Turkish coffee, with the inevitable glass of cold water. There will be perhaps two other Europeans in a room containing a hundred wearers of the tarbouche, the Egyptian fez. Tlie whole place is clean and well ordered, and looks at first glance like a big coffee room, reserved, of course, for men only. Nobody is in evening dress; except for tlie attendants, European day clothes are worn, for as the dragoman has hinted, it is a first-class place. The performance has no beginning and apparently no end. On the stage are seated throughout half a dozen Oriental-looking folk in lounge suits, and while three perform on what looks like a zytlier, a tambourine, and a violin, the remainder emit queer noises through their permanently - open mouths. The music is played on a range of some seven notes. The tune, if it may lie so called, is short and endlessly repeated, and the time is that of a one-step. "The vocal support is in unison and follows the tune which, though so contracted, appears to be written in no particular key. At a distance, a very great distance, it may sound momentarily like a cathedral solo chant. This is suggested by the nasal intonation and the monotony, but it is useless to attempt to compare it with European music, for it is Egyptian and that does not even imply that there is a tom-tom in the band. ± WELVE-SiONE BE DUTY.

After an interval the dancer appears, She is sure to be of a powerful build, and is covered with masses of gilt chain, and on-her head wears a huge tiara of the same material. Flesh bulges above her metallic stomacher and over the top of her Turkish trousers. The fatter the better, so far as Egyptian taste is concerned, and the popular idol at the moment, though below the average, weighs at least twelve stone. Her dance is remarkably informal. Wli'fle she walks slowly up and down the stage, she is scrutinising the carpeted floor to see if there are any nails or tears that will annoy her later on. Having continued these gentle perambulations for some time, she will stand perfectly stationary. facing the audience, and shake her well-developed front for some three minutes. This is a popular turn, and, together with punctuating the music hv clicking her fingers, constitutes the foundation of the performance. She may vary it by balancing a candelabra on her head, or by performing the sliimmv turn on her knees. THERE’S NOT DfUCH IN IT.

That is all. Nor must the eager tourist look for anything more vigorous or exciting. If lie finds it dull and the dancer not in accordance with his notions of feminine grace, he will lie entertained by the faces of the audience, and, especially by such as have been convulsed with joy by a sly smile in their direction from the dark and henvy-featurn! beauty.

It may not be up to expectations, but it is worth a visit, and infinitely preferable to a walk through the loss savoury street in the locality which is interesting only to those whose curiosity can overcome their revulsion at the sight-of dirt and sordidness.