Cairo (AFP)

Around midnight, Russian belly dancer Anastasia Biserova swirls energetically under the captivated gazes of wedding guests in Cairo.

Dressed in a bright green suit edged with sequins, she waves her hips and her pale pink stole to the rhythms of the drum derbouka, violin and synthesizer of a small orchestra, according to a video she posted on social networks.

Like many foreign dancers, the one who has lived in Egypt for four years has managed to make a name for herself there.

"No country in the world enjoys belly dancing like Egypt," she told AFP.

"There is a growing tendency to invite foreign dancers (...) to weddings, discos or other events."

Passionate people come from all over the world, especially from Eastern Europe and Latin America, to practice this ancient art in Egypt, considered to be its birthplace.

They now dominate the scene in this conservative country.

Egyptian dancers are increasingly rare, due to the bad reputation of this practice considered immoral and the growing repression carried out in all directions by the authorities.

And restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, including banning large gatherings and closing nightclubs, have dealt a further blow.

Many dancers have nevertheless maintained the link with their audience by posting videos of performances filmed during the confinement on social networks.

- Ambivalence -

Having become a star of social networks in recent months, the Brazilian Lurdiana has been slow to get used to the ambivalence of the Egyptians towards her profession.

Her art is appreciated but she is often not considered "as a professional", notes the thirty-something.

"They believe that I didn't have a good education and that I'm just showing off my body for money."

Belly dancing had nevertheless gained its letters of nobility at the beginning of the 20th century.

The dance scenes were a must for Egyptian cinema, immortalizing in black and white legendary dancers and actresses such as Tahia Carioca, Samia Gamal or Nagwa Fouad.

Dina Talaat, one of the greatest Egyptian dancers still alive today aged 55, estimated in 2017 that the "gaze of society" was responsible for the disinheritance of this tradition.

For Chaza Yéhia, author of a book on the history of belly dancing, this discipline has never been seen as entertainment, which respectable women do not practice.

A perception "reinforced by popular culture and by films that have represented belly dancers as seductresses, prostitutes or breakers of households", notes the historian.

Ever more conservative, Egypt is no longer the Eden of yesteryear for these dancers.

Accused by the authorities of "undermining modesty" or "inciting debauchery", several dancers, pop singers and influencers have been arrested and prosecuted in recent years for having posted dance videos on the networks social.

This repression did not spare foreign dancers.

In 2018, Russian Ekaterina Andreeva - alias Gohara - was briefly detained for wearing an outfit deemed too alluring.

Adorned in sparkling costumes highlighting their forms, the dancers are often criticized for their appearance considered vulgar.

- Western fantasies -

Originally a relaxation practiced among women, belly dancing particularly developed in the 19th century, explains Ms. Yéhia.

"The dancers were then called + awalem + - or the + educated + -", in allusion to their "advanced knowledge of dance and song".

But "awalem" and "raqassat" ("dancers" in Arabic) have today a scabrous resonance.

The dance scenes "titillated the imagination of the West" during colonial times and "Western writers and painters illustrated their own fantasies (...) then sought to make them come true", explains- she does.

At the same time, the costumes were changed to suit the taste of the European audience and movements from other dances were incorporated.

And, recently, the musical style has also changed.

Traditional Arab music is gradually fading away in the face of the "mahraganat" or electro-chaâbi.

This popular music mixing fast oriental rhythms and self-tuned choruses (robotic voice effects) is considered obscene by the authorities and was banned in February by the Egyptian musicians' union, to little effect.

The profession of oriental dancer bears the scars of all these changes.

Especially the Egyptian dancers, judged more severely than the foreign artists who continue to try their luck in Cairo.

"Egypt is quite simply the land of belly dancing. Foreigners must come here to fully understand and to practice," says Ukrainian Alla Kushnir.

"Otherwise, (a career) won't work."

© 2020 AFP