Enduring allure of Egyptian belly dance

The Ahlan Wa Sahlan festival has been a big hit this year

Hundreds of women of all nationalities sway their hips and twirl in time to the beat of a drum in a hotel ballroom by the pyramids in Cairo.

Belly dancing is said to have been practised in Egypt since Pharaonic times and now it has caught on around the globe.

It is well-established in Europe and the US and has recently spread to Asia. This year dozens of dancers travelled from China for the Ahlan Wa Sahlan belly dancing festival.

“Because this is the land of dance, women have to come!” declares Raqia Hassan, the festival organiser.

“When she comes she can meet famous dancers and musicians. She can see the pyramids. Anyone who comes to Egypt one time, she cannot stop coming back.”

Safa Bakr’s shop attracts women from all over the world

Raqia, who has taught many belly dancing celebrities, leads her large class through the basic moves of the dance putting together a routine.

“It’s fun and you can do this at any age,” says Ewa Horsfield from London. “You can express your own personality. It’s an individual dance. You just listen and respond to the music.”

Many speak of the fitness benefits of belly dancing.

“In China all ladies like for their health,” says Angel from Shanghai.

“This kind of dance began here. Here teachers [are] very, very good so all Chinese ladies want to come.”

Contradictions

Belly dancing is big business in Egypt thanks to the global market.

Designer, Safaa Yasser Bakr, runs a belly dancing costume shop in the historic Khan el-Khalili bazaar.

She helps a Brazilian woman try on a sky-blue sequinned bra and a matching skirt with a split up one side.

“In one show big stars change costume many times,” she tells her. “You need maybe five different pieces.”

Nowadays Safaa sells most of her alluring outfits to foreigners.

Safa sells her wares in Khan el-Khalili – Cairo’s Islamic heart

“I see people coming from France, Italy, United States, Argentina, Spain, Japan,” she says.

But in Egypt at large, many experts fear the dance is losing its appeal.

Society has become more religious and conservative over the past generation and belly dancing is not considered a respectable profession.

“I don’t like belly dancing. I don’t like to see a woman half-naked dancing and moving her body like that,” says one man on the street in central Cairo.

“It has a kind of sexual movement. That’s why I don’t like to watch it,” adds his friend.

An older passer-by remembers the famous dancers of the 1960s with affection but says he would not let his wife or daughters dance in public today.

“I liked the old belly dancer because you could not see a lot of her body,” he remarks. “They were very respectable – not like the new ones now.”

Enduring art

Dance historian, Mo Geddawi, accepts belly dancing is facing a challenging time in Egypt but says this must be seen in perspective.

“Forget about different governments and religion,” he says. “When Christianity and then Islam came the dance was taboo, but people continued to dance.”

“Sometimes in public it is less but the dance never died.”

For now though international devotees help to ensure the dance goes on.

Diana Esposito from New York came to Cairo on a scholarship to study the social and economic reasons for its decline but has become an accomplished belly dancer herself.

“The first time I saw it I thought the movements were so sensual,” she says. “I decided to try something new and it became an addiction.”

“I don’t see the dance being done properly anywhere else in the world. That’s why everyone flocks here – this is the capital of belly dance.”

One dead at Slovak music festival

The festival was called off after the accident

One person has died after a giant tent collapsed on a crowd of concert goers at Slovakia’s biggest music festival, reports say.

Another 40 were injured – 15 seriously – when a gust of wind lifted and then brought down the tent during a rain storm in the western town of Trencin.

Organisers cancelled the Pohoda festival, which was attended by more than 30,000 music fans.

One report said the accident victim was a young boy.

Mario Gesvantner, a spokesman for the organisers, said weather forecasts had not warned of severe storms.

Concert cancelled as boy stabbed

Alexander O’Neal had flown in from the US for the Southwark Park concert

A teenage boy has been stabbed in the leg at a festival in London leading to the cancellation of a set by US soul singer Alexander O’Neal.

The day-long event at Southwark Park in Bermondsey was stopped on police advice shortly after 2000 BST just as O’Neal was due on stage.

The boy, who also suffered facial injuries when he was hit with a bottle, was taken to hospital for treatment.

Several thousand people attended the event as part of Bermondsey Carnival.

Dozens of police were quickly on the scene and a number of young people were interviewed.

O’Neal had flown in from the US to attend the free event.

The our correspondent  said there was booing from some sections of the crowd when the decision was announced.

The boy’s condition is not thought to be life-threatening.

Man dies at Serbia music festival

A man from London has died after falling from a fortress wall at a music festival in Serbia.

Anthony Fisk, 22, fell from Petrovaradin fortress in Novi Sad during the annual Exit music festival on Friday.

He died in hospital on Saturday, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.

Acts including Lily Allen, the Arctic Monkeys, Manic Street Preachers, Moby, Korn and Madness are performing at the festival, located north of Belgrade.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We can confirm the death of a British national in Serbia following a fall at a music festival and we are providing consular assistance to the family.”

Up to to 190,000 people are expected to attend the four-day festival, which is due to end on Sunday.

The Exit festival began in 2000 as a spontaneous student uprising against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

Organisers hoped it would persuade music fans to vote to find an “exit out of 10 years of madness”.

Glastonbury will honour Jackson

Bands playing at Glastonbury Festival this weekend are set to pay tribute to the King of Pop – Michael Jackson – who has died at the age of 50.

Festival organiser Emily Eavis, writing on the social networking site Twitter, called Jackson a “truly great artist”.

She added: “There will be tributes all over the site, all weekend”.

Gabriella Cilmi will sing a tribute to Jackson on the Pyramid Stage, where she will perform a cover version of his hit song Billie Jean on Friday.

Dave McCabe, singer with The Zutons, told the News more cover versions are inevitable: “Hopefully, ‘cos he’s got good songs and it’s always a winner.”

A Glastonbury spokesman said there was nothing formal planned to mark Jackson’s death, but said: “A lot of the performers will be talking about it during their sets”.

Many festival-goers learned of the news late last night as DJs scattered around the festival site began playing Jackson tracks.

One fan said: “They started playing loads of his music and we thought, ‘Oh, that’s really strange’ and then someone said, ‘Michael Jackson’s dead’ and we were like, ‘No way’.”

Another reveller added: “Everyone thought it was a joke at first – then people started watching the news and saw it was true.”

“Knocked sideways”

BBC Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley is at the festival site and noted a muted mood at Worthy farm on Friday morning.

She said US artists performing later today, such as the Black Eyed Peas and N*E*R*D, would be “knocked sideways” by the news of Jackson’s death.

She added: “Everybody will be celebrating the music of Michael Jackson. You can guarantee tonight there will be loads and loads of Jacko coming out of sound systems here.”

Tommy Bowen, keyboard player for the band White Lies, who play the Other Stage on Friday, said most of the bands playing the festival “can’t help but be touched by what’s happened”.

He added: “He’s such an influential artist, I think many of the people here have been brought up on Michael Jackson.

“His music crosses musical boundaries, it’s a big shock.”

Artists including Lily Allen, Lady GaGa and Neil Young will all play at the festival later.

Laureate bemoans ‘thankless’ job

Motion writes verse for significant Royal occasions

Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has said that the job of writing verse for the Royal Family is “thankless” and gave him a case of writer’s block.

Motion told the Ealing Arts Festival in London that the Queen “never gives me an opinion on my work for her”.

“I won’t be including any of that work in my future collections,” he said, adding he “did what I had to do”.

Motion has had the job of writing verse on Royal occasions since 1999, and will hold the post until next year.

‘Hiding to nothing’

His assignments have included composing a poem to mark the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s diamond wedding anniversary and a modern verse for Prince William’s 21st birthday.

The 55-year-old said the job has been “very, very damaging to my work”.

Afterwards the Queen stopped me and said ‘thank you’, but I have no idea if she really liked it Andrew Motion

“I dried up completely about five years ago and can’t write anything except to commission.”

But he added: “I thought all the poetry had gone, but I feel some of it is still there and may yet return.”

Speaking about the occasion of the Queen’s 60th wedding anniversary when his poem was read by Dame Judi Dench in Westminster Abbey, Motion said: “Afterwards the Queen stopped me and said ‘thank you’, but I have no idea if she really liked it.”

“Writing for the Royals was a hiding to nothing,” he added.

Motion initially said his appointment would give him a platform to promote poetry.

He succeeded the late Ted Hughes to the position, which was introduced in 1668. Previous appointees stayed in the role until their death.

Hugging benefits fractious chimps

The consoling arm of a good friend

If you have just had a big falling out with a colleague, there is nothing better than the comforting and consoling arm of a good friend.

Chimps, it seems, feel the same way, according to a study at Chester Zoo.

The research is said to provide the first evidence that consolation in primates, such as hugging and stroking, can reduce stress levels after a fight.

The behavior could indicate some level of empathy, Dr Orlaith Fraser told the British Association Science Festival.

“We can’t actually say what’s going on in a chimpanzee’s mind; we can only deduce from their behavior what’s going on,” the Liverpool John Moores University researcher said.

“Because this behavior is actually reducing stress levels and it’s being offered by a valuable partner, it seems likely that this is an expression of empathy.”

A bit of sympathy

Dr Fraser and colleagues spent 18 months observing 22 adult chimps at Chester Zoo.

They watched closely what happened immediately after the animals had a scrap – perhaps a fight over food, a mate or simply where to sit.

In about 50% of cases, the victim in the fight would be consoled by another member of the group. The soothing was always done by a valuable – or best – friend, a chimp with whom the victim would routinely play or share food.

Feeling better after a kiss

The consolation usually took the form of a kiss or embrace, a grooming session or even play.

The scientists could see that this activity had the effect of reducing stress levels, indicated by the return to the animals’ normal activities of self-scratching and self-grooming.

“Sympathetic concern” has also been observed in gorillas, bonobos, dogs and even rooks – but it is the calming effect that it had on the Chester Zoo chimps which is said to be a new observation.

“If these chimpanzees are actually motivated by empathy to console victims of aggression, they must first of all be able to recognize that the victim is distressed and then they must know what to do in order to act appropriately to respond to this distress,” said Dr Fraser.

“This is something often thought to be a unique trait to humans, so understanding the link between consolation and stress reduction in chimpanzees is an important step towards understanding whether or not chimpanzees are capable of this level of empathy.”

The results of the Chester Zoo study were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gallagher hurt after stage attack

Oasis star Noel Gallagher was admitted to hospital after being pushed over during the band’s set at the V Festival in Toronto, Canada on Sunday.

According to the band’s website, the star “fell heavily onto his monitor speakers”. He may have fractured his rib and sustained ligament damage.

The 40-year-old was playing guitar during a performance of Morning Glory when a stage invader pushed him over.

Oasis have hinted that a gig on Tuesday may be canceled as a result.

Fans have been asked to keep checking the band’s website for updates on the show, which is due to take place in London, Ontario.

Gallagher’s attacker was hauled to the ground by security guards. The guitarist’s younger brother Liam, who was singing, had to be restrained from retaliating.

The incident was captured on video by a fan in the audience and posted on the YouTube website.

Oasis left the stage immediately after the attack, but the show resumed a few minutes later.

Gallagher’s assailant was detained in police custody and will be charged with assault, according to the statement on Oasis’ website.

The festival gig came as the band prepare to complete their North American tour, which ends in New York on Friday.

Gallagher has yet to comment on the incident on the blog which he has been updating throughout the tour.

‘Climate crisis’ needs brain gain

The UK alone has invested more than half-a-billion pounds in the LHC

The most brilliant minds should be directed to solving Earth’s greatest challenges, such as climate change, says Sir David King.

The former UK chief scientist will use his presidential address at the BA Science Festival to call for a gear-change among innovative thinkers.

He will suggest that less time and money is spent on endeavors such as space exploration and particle physics.

He says population growth and poverty in Africa also demand attention.

“The challenges of the 21st Century are qualitatively different from anything that we’ve had to face up to before,” he told reporters before the opening of the festival, which is being held this year in Liverpool.

“This requires a re-think of priorities in science and technology and a redrawing of our society’s inner attitudes towards science and technology.”

Huge expense

Sir David’s remarks will be controversial because they are being made just as the UK is about to celebrate its participation in the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest physics experiment.

The Collider, built at the Cern laboratory under the Swiss-French border, is starting full operations this Wednesday.

It will seek to understand the building blocks of matter, and, in particular, try to find a mechanism that can explain why matter has mass.

This international venture is extremely expensive, however. The UK alone has contributed more than £500m to the LHC – the largest sum of money to date invested by a UK government in a single scientific project.

Sir David said it was time such funding – and the brains it supports – were pushed to answering more pressing concerns.

“It’s all very well to demonstrate that we can land a craft on Mars, it’s all very well to discover whether or not there is a Higgs boson (a potential mass mechanism); but I would just suggest that we need to pull people towards perhaps the bigger challenges where the outcome for our civilization is really crucial.”

Big ideas

Chief among these challenges for Sir David is the issue of climate change. When he was the government’s top scientist, he made the famous remark that the threat from climate change was bigger than the threat posed by terrorism.

He said alternatives to fossil fuels were desperately needed to power a civilization that would number some nine billion people by mid-century – nine billion people who would all expect a high standard of living.

“We will have to re-gear our thinking because our entire civilization depends on energy production, and we have been producing that energy very largely through fossil fuels; and we will have to remove our dependence from fossil fuels virtually completely, or we will have to learn how to capture carbon dioxide from fossil fuel usage,” he said.

Finding and exploiting clean energy sources was now imperative, he said; and Sir David questioned whether the spending on particle physics research in the shape of Cern’s Large Hadron Collider was the best route to that goal.

He even doubted whether Cern’s greatest invention was an outcome that could only have come from an institution that pursued so-called “blue skies research”.

“People say to me: ‘well what about the world wide web? That emerged from Cern’. Brilliant. Tim Berners Lee was the person who invented that. What if Tim Berners Lee had been working in a solar [power] laboratory? Perhaps he would have done it there as well. The spin-out would have come from the brilliant individual.”

Poland’s finest to rock Wembley

Bajm were popular across Eastern Europe before the Iron Curtain fell

Eight of Poland’s top pop and rock acts perform in front of a 10,000-strong crowd at Wembley Arena on Sunday. Billed as the biggest ever Polish music event on foreign soil, what does it mean for Britain’s Polish community?

Crowds of adoring fans will pack Wembley Arena on Sunday to see their favorite superstars perform to a full house.

But it will not be Madonna, Oasis or Jay-Z entertaining more than 10,000 people.

Bajm and Lady Pank may be largely unheard of in the UK but are household names in Poland, where four million viewers are expected to watch the London Live show’s highlights on state channel TVP2.

Tabloid hellraiser

Described as Poland’s answer to Pink Floyd and Red Hot Chili Peppers, their albums have sold three million copies.

Alongside Bracia’s modern grungy-rock and Natalia Kukulska’s soulfull R’n’B, the show even has its own tabloid hellraiser in Doda, who has posed for Playboy and courted controversy by spitting on stage.

Stanislaw Trzcinski, president of promoter STX Records, said: “This is like the O2 Festival, except for Polish music.”

Performing at Wembley is a great honor Natalia Kukulska

Guests on stage include Jan Tomaszewski, the goalkeeper whose heroics at the old Wembley Stadium in 1973 helped secure a 1-1 draw to send Poland to its first World Cup at England’s expense.Mr Trzcinski said: “The name Wembley brings back happy memories for Polish people and it remains a special place, so it was the perfect location.”

Kukulska, 32, has performed with tenor Jose Carreras and duetted with British R’n’B star Lemar at the Sopot festival in Poland in 2005.

She said: “Performing at Wembley is a great honor. I hope I will draw energy from the people who have played there in the past.”

After picking up influences of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston during a year in the US, she blended them with her own style to sell 2.5 million records at home.

Free tickets

“I’m very excited because this is the first time a lot of artists from Poland are performing abroad together,” she added.

Costing almost £1m to stage, the event has been advertised on 30 London buses and is being beamed back to Poland in high definition, thanks to a 100-strong production crew. Tickets were free to those who registered.

More than one million people voted in an internet talent competition giving bands the chance to perform on a second stage outside the arena, where they will be joined by top acts from the UK and Ireland’s Polish communities.

The show’s arrival reflects the remarkable influx of Poles into Britain.

After the Second World War, the Polish Resettlement Act allowed around 200,000 people to remain in the UK. They were mainly Polish troops, who had fought alongside the British, and their dependents.

By 2001, the census recorded just 60,680 Polish-born people living in Britain.

But since Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, those numbers have swollen to the 405,000 estimated by the government last year, although the numbers arriving has dropped in recent months.

Appetite for rock

At least 100,000 settled in London, with many basing themselves around established Polish communities in western districts like Hammersmith.

There, the Posk cultural centre boasts the largest library of Polish books outside Poland, a gallery, restaurant and 350-seat theatre.

Supermarkets across Britain have started stocking Polish goods and delicatessens have sprung up in many towns.

THE PERFORMERS Bajm: Six-piece rock outfit, formed in 1978, their 13 albums all went gold or platinum Wilki: Hard-rock band, named “Wolves”, have performed in New York and London Doda (pictured): Daughter of an Olympic weightlifter, gave up athletics to be a pop tearaway Natalia Kukulska: Began singing aged seven and sold 1.5 million records as a child star Kayah: Was a backing singer before her solo career in soul, jazz and R’n’B took off Bracia: Their grunge-rock style made this band – “The Brothers” – favourites with younger fans Monika Brodka: Her soulful voice was inspired by her idols Erikah Badu and Lauren Hill Lady Pank: These punk survivors formed in 1982, playing 400 gigs to promote their debut album

But Piotr Grzeskiewicz, station director at Hammersmith-based Polskie Radio Londyn, said there had been little to feed young migrants’ appetite for rock and pop.

“Hundreds of thousands of Polish people in Britain have limited access to modern Polish culture and this is their best opportunity in many years to see some really big Polish bands,” he said.

Organizers hope many Britons will be at Wembley.

However, Mr Grzeskiewicz said: “The language barrier is huge. Only a few of these bands have played abroad and usually only for Polish fans.”

Warsaw-based bank PKO BP financed the event to promote its central London branch, which opened last December to cater both for migrants and British businesses investing in Poland.

Branch manager Katarzyna Cal said the move demonstrated the growing confidence in Poland’s economy and the number of investors keen to do business in the country.

Meanwhile, Dr Jan Mokrzycki, chairman of the UK’s Federation of Poles, admits he prefers the classical works of Chopin to today’s rock.

Vibrant

But the 75-year-old said the event would help build understanding between the established and newly-arrived Polish communities.

Initial tensions between the groups are diminishing, said the dental surgeon whose mother – a former Nazi concentration camp detainee – brought him to Britain in 1948 to escape communism.

“A combination of their youth, enthusiasm and education and our knowledge of the laws and customs of Britain is helping integration,” said Dr Mokrzycki.

“Cultural events of the old community have been traditional, forged from our experiences of pre-war Poland, so involve mostly classical or folk music.

“The new culture is vibrant with jazz and pop and it’s important younger people have access to that.”