Partying at the Pyramisa

Last night was the closing party for the Nile group festival.

There was a singer on 1st (seemingly good- but again I turned up late cos i had to go straight from work so missed her!).

The 1st dancer that was on was Ashmahan. a 2hour show again!!!! She entered in a huge silver aladins lamp and the theme of all the colours for her and her boys was red and white. pretty striking. Her 'genie' outfit was haram pants in shiny gold material- with a waist strap that made it look like a thong coming over the top of them (in fact her final costume of the night had the same theme) It suited her body shape really well- but I can't get past my british reserve and think its cool to show (even intentially like that) your underwear (even though it wasn't - it was part of the costume) anyway, does that make sense? Sexy , but not so classy. Her show included a zar dance, a tannoura, the westling man ( one man in a costume that looks like 2 short men westling) and her dancers so did their 'funky' dance numbers (sarcasm) and of course in her words- 'the crazy boys' who are indeed crazy and jumped about the stage like carzy doing the newest of shabbi street dancing which is a bit of a mix of the and jive and hip hop and bellydance all rolled into one. A fun filled show but to be really honest there was only one bit (other than her drum solo which is always good) where I really got into her dance . She did an om kalthoum number to the rababa- it was lovely. the only time the audience actually settled down to really watch her too. More of that next time please Amahan!!!!!

Liza dance next. Beautiful in Lilac she floated about- styles directly opposite from asmahan who is very fiesty. her khaleegi was lovely as always and she worn that bedla made from assuit that she worn in april again. I WANT that costume!!! Her dance has less power and punch than it normally does for me- but I have a feeling I was a bit danced out by the time last night came around! so maybe it was me!

Fatima was the final act of the night. she looked lovely- as usual. and did an oriental set, a saaid number and alexandrian too- but to be honest there wasn't much difference in the styles of any of them. she looked likehe wanted to be somewhere else rather than on the stage. I have seen her dance with more conviction before. Disappointing performance from the only Egyptian on stage.

Khalid Mahmood danced on friday night. I had gone along to catch some of the competition (which was seemingly won by an american girl but I unfortunatly missed her) and as usual it was a very varied show of skills and style and natioanlities. I really felt for the girl who's costume forced her to do a builders impression fhroughout most of her dance (a lot of bum cleavage on show!) she however handled it very well and got the loudest aplause out of anyone I saw. There was a girl in red who impressed me- very pretty , cute and punchy and sweet at the same time on stage... not sure if she got a place in results - but she deserved to in my opinion! wish I could remember names- or at least countries for you!!! There were 5 korean girls doing a routine that was fun- very bellydance superstars. very precise- as you would expect. different.

Khalid danced about midnight- which was very unfortunate since I had to leave after only the 1st dance to take my friends to the airport.... but his entrance dance wil not be forgotten. 4 beautfiul boy in shiny blue strech outfits doing maybe the best pre-dancer scene setting dance of the week, and then khalid coming in in a matching white and silver outfit (reminding me of Elvis somehow). As each dancer left the stage he stretched out his arms longingly after them.... seemed a bit strange. They had a nice bit with the 4 boys holding a large blue chiffon sheet between them woth khalid in the middle and them they would bring the sheet really low down and khalid would be down on his knees- hard to describe- but very effective. I wish I could have stayed to see how the rest of his show developed but it just wasn;t possible. A very Las Vegas start , minus the scantily clad dancing girls!

Fun.