Saturday, November 05, 2011

Bellydance TV

Tonights plans didn't quite work out as hoped for. We attempted to go to a cabaret downtown, but they were all shut because it is a dry night in Cairo, ie no alcohol can be served anywhere. They do this at many of the religious festivals, and the 'big' Eid is this weekend.

Since we couldn''t go into the cabaret we sat outside in a 'ahwa' (coffeshop) and had a cup of tea and a sheesha.

The TV was on the whole time with a fabulous TV channel I didn't know existed playing. It's called 'Al Tet' which means 'the best' in Egyptian slang and they play non-stop bellydance videos. Since it is pronounced al tit- you can imagine all the jokes we have been making tonight!!!

Most of the footage has been filmed abroad, in Russia and USA by the looks of it, but also some clips from the ahlan we sahlan dance festival in Cairo. It really does look like someone sits on youtube downloading any footage which is of good enough quality and sticks it straight onto the TV channel. I can only imagine how these dancers would feel knowing Egyptians were sitting at home watching them dance on the TV! There is some very high quality dancing to be found.

They just finished showing Sonya's drum solo from the Bellydance superstars show and now its Shahla from London! This is better than youtube! no more sitting waiting until clips download fully.

I have now programmed it onto my TV as channel no.1. For a girl who never switches her TV on at all normally... I suspect i am going to be rather glued to it from now on!

3 comments:

Elspeth said...

Lol, so you were sitting in Cairo watching Shahla on telly?? or rather, on all tit? How weird is that?? Love it! Speth xx

OrientalIndianRose said...

A bellydance TV channel?
Heaven!
YouTube is where I get so many ideas from.
Never heard of Shahla- must check her out.

Feel a bit isolated as a dancer at the mo as this is Brighton and they are all into Pharaonic stuff rather than Modern Cairo style which is more what I am into. Also I'm more into dancing to live music. Would love my own band/orchestra - who woudn't?
I do as much dancing to live stuff as I can - last week e it was even improvising to a jazz

tggg said...

heyy im fm ethiopia n i love belly dancing bt couldnt find al tet( weak signal) im looking for other channels with belly dance on nilesat, any suggestions....