How I fell in love with Om Kolthoum (a very personal story by Joana Saahirah)
Let me tell you a secret: I didn´t start loving Om Kolthoum. In fact, for years, I didn´t get what all the fuss was about.
My first contact with Egyptian music happened through Hossam Ramzy, pop and shaabi music I found in the markets during my first study trips to Egypt, the easy on western ears kind of stuff.
Om Kolthoum was an icon, an untouchable name that popped on my horizon as a mandatory field of study, a must-know-but-I-don´t-know-why reference. She was to me what broccoli is for children - something I knew I had to eat because it was good for my health but also something I avoided because it tasted sour.
Yes, sour.
I didn´t get her music, voice, style. She was a bad tasting pill I forced myself to take because, well, I knew - instinctively - I couldn´t become an Oriental Dancer without her.
She was the Initiation I wasn´t ready to go through. There were dues to pay before I could meet her, face to face.
Om Kolthoum, the school, the ritual of passage, the awakening.
-Not yet. - My soul would whisper.
My ears weren´t ready. My heart wasn´t ready. I wasn´t ready.
The shift happened when I moved to Egypt, to launch my career, and started studying Arabic Singing as a way to learn the local dialect. Normal folks go to Arabic Language schools; impatient crazy artists, like me, go to an Arabic Singing School to learn the language.
My teacher was a young Egyptian man, a proper nerd with heavy glasses and pimples on his face; a connoisseur and a lover of Om Kolthoum (as every Egyptian I´ve ever met is).
-Shall we start with Om Kolthoum? - He asked.
-Did I mention the only Arabic words I know are "salam ua leekum" and "habibi"? - I answered, shocked at his proposal.
-Still...as the saying goes "if you want to reach the moon, you gotta shoot for the stars". Right?
I couldn´t argue with that. Plus, I don´t resist a good challenge.
That´s how the story started. Syllable by syllable, word by word, note by note.
-We´ll begin with "Alf Leyla we Leyla". How does that sound? - He announced, pretending he was asking.
The "robbabekya" man passed by our window, selling his antiquities; the cars kept honking, as they always do in Cairo; the sounds of people, donkeys, and life in all its colors invaded our classroom. Yet, her voice rose above the noise, removing any other sound, bringing us - me and my teacher - where it all starts and ends: our hearts.
"Ya habibi...ya habibi...el leil we el samah..." the first words of "Alf Leyla we Leyla" left the old tape recorder, sitting on a dusty shelf of the classroom, then my mouth. They were love spells, not mere words.
My teacher was incredibly patient. He repeated the words, again and again, s-l-o-w-l-y, as a parent does to a child who´s beginning to learn how to speak.
I´d been raised speaking Portuguese and Spanish; I also spoke French and English; I was used to foreign lands and talking foreign idioms but this was different - I felt I was being invited into the soul of Egypt, into the golden gate of the country, "Misr, Om el Dunya" ("Egypt, Mother of the World/Life"). Each new word from Om Kolthoum brought me closer to the core. Of Egypt, of Dance, of myself.
- Am I going crazy? - I thought to myself.
I was just coming back home.
Our classes began slowly, at first; I was being taught how to pronounce, sing, and feel the lyrics of no less than Om Kolthoum, the singer who took Egyptian Music, Poetry, and Soul expression to its maximum height.
-Give me the feeling of the words, ya Joana! - My teacher would demand, half-naif, half-tyrant.
-How can I give you the feeling of the words if I can hardly pronounce them? - I´d complain.
I wrote the transliteration of every word on a piece of paper. Once I left the class, I´d sing certain phrases to shop owners and other strangers who crossed my path. They were delighted - a foreign girl, blond with blue eyes, trying to sing Om Kolthoum.
People were kind, as patient as my teacher. They´d sit with me and correct me, repeat the words with me, sing them with me, explain their meaning in a language composed of Arabic, broken English, and Human. Egyptians are amazing that way, they know how to communicate beyond barriers.
The first weeks passed. I was forbidden to perform, solo, in Egypt. That was the law of the time and I said ok, we´ll meet later. I took Om Kolthoum´s words with me to Lebanon, where I signed my first solo Oriental Dancer contract.
In the mornings, I´d sit in a coffee shop, in downtown Beirute, near my apartment, surrounded by buildings destroyed by the war, and I´d listen and listen and listen. And listen, some more.
The Art of Listening, too, has become a love affair.
-We´ll show you Fairouz! - The Lebanese would tell me, trying to save me from my Egyptian obsession.
Fairouz is their national singer, just like Om Kolthoum is Egypt´s national singer. But Fairouz isn´t Om Kolthoum - she could never be; nobody ever was or will be.
The more I listened, understood, and sang Om Kolthoum, the more I wanted to dance to her music.
Slowly, I introduced her repertoire in my shows. First, in Lebanon; then, in Egypt, when I was finally allowed to have my own show.
-Madam, you get Om Kolthoum... - My accordionist would tell me, proud as a father -...because you stop and you live the music.
The sour taste was replaced by the sweetest taste. I´ve never experienced anything like it.
On my rare days off work, I´d sit at "baladi akhwat" (Egyptian coffee shops), side by side with old men wearing "gallabeyas"; I´d ask for a cup of oversweetened tea, a shisha, and space. The radio would bring her voice to each of our tables, each of our lives.
Tears would roll down my eyes, then from the eyes of a grandfather sitting next to me, remembering a lost love, a passion, a secret hope, a fulfilled desire, a forbidden dream. Whispering in unison, we sang her lyrics. Me and those men. We were (are) one despite appearances.
What can I say? She got under my skin. From malady to remedy.
At home, I´d watch her live concerts on the television. I´d sit by the mirror, doing my make-up before the shows of the night, listening to her, breathing heavily, knowing I´d never be alone. Whenever I had time, I´d study her performances, observing her gestures, the way she launched a phrase, then paused; how she breathed and interpreted a song; her soul. I did it, not because I wanted to become a singer but because I wanted to become an Oriental Dancer.
She was my biggest teacher. Still is.
I rehearsed her songs, performed them with my orchestra, and returned to them for personal reasons, whenever I needed a reminder of what being alive felt like.
Many years have passed; my dominium of the Arabic improved exponentially; I´ve danced most of Om Kolthoum´s repertoire - with my musicians in Egypt, with other orchestras around the world -; her words have illustrated the most painful and the happiest moments of my life, so far, and my love for her music keeps growing.
Whenever I approach an Om Kolthoum´s song, I know it´ll kick my butt. It´ll challenge, surprise, and push me beyond my limits; it´ll take me back to the essence of Egypt and its dance.
Every time I listen to one of her songs, I do so with the reverence most of us offer God. Whenever I need to remember what Egyptian Dance is at its core, or how being human feels like, I go back to her music. Whenever my heart´s broken, I run to her music and it brings the broken pieces back together.
Whenever I teach Om Kolthoum, I teach the art of living. Fully, with an open soul, and the heart of a child who never loses faith in love.
Are you ready to fall in love?
Welcome to "How to Dance Om Kolthoum - Level 1" Online Course available at Joana Saahirah´s Online Dance School, an Introduction to the Art of Love, Musicality, and Tarab.
~ Follow the link for more information about the course: Click HERE for more information
~ What you'll get when you subscribe to the Course:
1. Access to Joana ´s in-depth knowledge of Om Kolthoum and the corresponding Dance Style, a result of her extensive, personal and professional, experience accumulated in Egypt and around the World
2. Access to 5 Live Dance Classes where you´ll learn a full choreography with one of the most iconic Om Kolthoum´s songs
3. Access to 5 Modules where you´ll find, aside from the 5 live dance classes, pre-recorded classes on Love, Musicality, and Tarab, and Bonus Materials (music, articles, images, videos)
4. Access to a dance community focused on learning, sharing, and empowering each other
We´re launching this Course with a PROMOTIONAL QUARANTINE PRICE that´ll never be repeated.
Until the 10th of June, the PROMO PRICE is only $79 for the entire course & bonuses; after that, the course will be available for its regular price - $145 - and it´ll remain that way forever.
Click HERE for more information about the course
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Love,
Joana Saahirah
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