A wedding, a henna (bachelorette party), a birthday party, a bedroom, or even during lunch breaks in abandoned middle-school classrooms: these are all places where the infamous sound of Shik Shak Shok rings as girls and women of all ages dance freely, unabashedly. “[Shik Shak Shok was] my five minutes of fame. When I was young at weddings, my mom would make me stand in the middle and perform,” answers Mai Ayman, 31, when asked about her memory of the song and its significance. “[It] brings out my alter ego, dancing is my prime source of happiness and I wish to be a belly dancer in some other universe, this song wakes her [alter ego] up.” There is no solid explanation as to why this particular song inspires freedom or a sense of liberation. It is almost innate, instinctive, to move along to the song’s accordion riffs, whether one is truly capable of belly dancing or not. Those who do not dance, sing along, belting the lyrics “ta’ala nor’os balady” (‘let’s belly dance’). Nonetheless, it would be remiss not to dive into the narratives behind this Middle Eastern classic. Egyptian…
