Belly Dance Legends
Tahiya Karioka
Developing as a Belly Dancer does not just come from taking classes, performing, choosing beautiful costumes, it also involves researching aspects such as the variety of styles and key figures.
This post was inspired from one of my teacher training assignments where I was asked to research and spotlight many of the dancers of the Golden Age of Belly Dance. I have chosen to write a post about the famous Tahiya Karioka, as this month will sadly be the 14th anniversary since she passed, however she will never be forgotten in the Belly Dance world.
Tahiya Karioka
Tahiya was born Badawiya Mohammed Kareem Al Nirani in Ismaileya, Egypt in 1919. During her teenage years she ran away to Cairo due to her overbearing brothers and stayed with an old neighbour, Souad from Ismaileya who owned a nightclub. She started attending the Ivanova dance school but was never allowed to dance at Souad’s nighclub. After she was introduced to Badia Masabny, Tahiya started working at Badia's club Casino Opera as part of a group. Due to her quirkiness and talent, Tahiya quickly earned a solo spot, where she was given the name Tahiya Mohammed.
She excelled at a Brazillian dance called the Karioka and so she was given the name Tahiya Carioca. She landed a role in her first film Libet Al-Set (Woman’s play) in 1946 and her most famous film was Shabab Imra’a (A Women’s Youth) in 1956. She had an interesting life, marrying 14 times to actors, directors and also an American. She was also an activist for a post revolution return to constitutional democracy in Egypt and was placed in prison for 3 months when she voiced her support for it. Tahiya Carioca sadly died in 1999 of a heart attack. Source: http://www.serpentine.org/yasmin/TahiaCarioka.htm
She will be remembered as the Queen of Oriental dance and one of the most successful dancers of the Golden Era, starring in over 200 films, theatre productions and soap operas and one of her highlights was dancing at King Farouk’s wedding. She was also one of the first Oriental dancers to incorporate Latin footwork and beats into her choreographies and was described by Oum Kaulsoum as ‘an artist who can sing with her body’.
Please note that I found much of the research to be based on a mixture of facts and opinions, therefore various sources online or in books sometimes contradict each other. The main sources that I used are also mentioned I hope you enjoyed it.
Sureya
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