#oriental
With a heart for dance and a soul for art, Badia Masabani pioneered modern belly dance in Egypt. In the throes of 1920s Cairo, the dancehalls and stages saw Masabani, the actress, singer, and dancer known as the ‘godmother’ of oriental dance.Masabani was born in Syria in 1894, but moved to cosmopolitan Cairo in the first years of the 1900s. The buzzing capital opened its arms to Masabani, enabling her to act, sing, dance, and hone several instruments. In 1926,…
