The Politics of Dance in Egypt Part I
Contrary to what many people think, I am indeed doing shows here in Egypt. Not a ton, and not every night, but I do have them. I don’t always post about them or share anything from these shows, and part of that is because I am highly critical of myself and I don’t feel like anything is good enough. That topic is for a different post though.
So what is the dance world like here? Why don’t I have shows every day, nonstop like some of the other dancers in Egypt? In a place with so much live music and constant entertainment, shouldn’t I be a superstar already???
First, I want to preface this with a disclaimer: I am not talking about any dancers specifically in this post, but just discussing the general atmosphere of the entertainment world in Egypt. I would never name anyone without their permission, and any similarities are coincidence.
Second, this is all based on my own personal observations and experiences. Everyone has a unique experience and path that they follow, and each story is different based on who you meet, how you work, and your negotiation skills.
The Elusive Contract
There are a number of venues that can legally provide contracts to foreign dancers. Of these venues, some actually do complete papers, but some don’t bother because they don’t want to deal with the hassle and/or want to be able to fire and hire new dancers however they wish. To get a contract, you have to audition and the venue has to like you enough PLUS the politics have to match. There are only a few places I know that don’t have extensive politics at play, and they tend to be very picky about their dancers (only want certain height, certain hair color, certain weight).
The politics part of this world is the most crucial element, because men with huge egos are constantly strutting around, promising all kinds of elaborate things, and making claims about their connections. My observation is that the vast majority have some connections, but Cairo is a throw-away culture in the sense that everyone is replaceable and connections will mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Because so many dancers come here looking for their big break, it means that dancers are replaceable too, and many will work for terrible pay without knowing any better.
Once a dancer passes the “audition” phase of a venue, then comes the contract offer. However, remember that in a throw-away culture, even a dancer who has been working at a venue for a long time can suddenly lose her contract to a new dancer who may be willing to do anything for work; I have heard stories of dancers who did get contracts and were dating well-connected Egyptians, and when they broke up, suddenly their contracts disappeared, or the venue created a fight with her to find a reason to fire her. Everything is unpredictable in this world and it’s completely based on the whims of the men who control the shows.
Some venues will promise dancers contracts/papers to get them to work for a reduced rate or try to get the dancer to trade other things to get those papers, like their freedom to dance in other places, expect them to sit with them for hours, or kiss or hug the owner in front of everyone (usually on the cheek but in Egypt, this time of opposite-sex affection NOT culturally acceptable and signals to everyone that the owner has had sex with the dancer whether she has or not), among other things. These types of places rarely can actually provide real papers, and they are (in my experience) usually less-than-reputable venues.
I regularly get questions about contracts and what is needed to get one. Contracts are sticky business and there are lots of rules that are put into them to control the dancer. Some venues have lax contracts, but as you can imagine, they are hard to find. That is not to say I’m not looking, and I have had some leads but it just has not worked out yet. There is also the money aspect: when you get a contract, you have to pay about 30,000le to get them processed. If you are only working on the boat offering the contract for 1-2 nights a week, and you make around 1,000le-1,500le per night, then it will take a really long time to recoup the cost. By the time you are in the green for your contract cost, it’s time to renew it. Some boats will contract 9+ dancers, so you will rarely work and lose a lot of money, but since you have a dance license you may be able to make it up by dancing in the discos. However, the discos do not have live music, so if that is the reason a dancer has come to Egypt, then they can likely make much better money without the hassle in their home country.
The Male Politics and Money
I mentioned it earlier, but it deserves its own book: my observation of the male politics in the entertainment sector are INTENSE. The ego level here is through the roof, and there is a lot of money to be made in the entertainment industry because Egypt is considered a relaxed tourism destination country for many of the surrounding, more-conservative countries. These traveling businessmen bring tons of money and they spend in the cabarets and nightclubs. The dancers in these venues have to appear “available,” and it is not unusual for there to be rich clients of the cabaret who try to buy them for a night. The venue might try to mitigate this by telling those clients someone else has already claimed the dancer for the night, but at no point is the venue going to flat say that a dancer is unavailable because she isn’t working as a sex worker. This type of behavior by the venues contributes to the reputation of dancers as sex workers, because it still gives the audience the impression that she is for sale even if she is flat-out NOT. This gets even more complicated by the venues playing the dancer by telling her that someone has tipped her to get her to acknowledge the men, etc. In fact, the venue may even try to get the clients to outbid each other by throwing more money to see who gets to take the dancer home (in the end, no one will win), because the cabaret is giant scam designed to get men give away all their money in any way possible, and it uses drugs, sex, alcohol, male egos, and dramatic music to make this happen. This does not bode well for the dancers in these venues, as it ends up being moderately dangerous and there can be lots of harassment and other issues.
This plays largely into which dancers get booked as well. Some dancers accept this as just part of the work, and it’s no big deal to them. As long as they aren’t being overtly harassed, then they are fine with whatever people want to think. Also, many dancers come here for just a few years and then move on, so they really couldn’t care less about what some guest in a cabaret thinks about them. For me personally, I am fairly picky about my venues. I do not work in cabarets and I prefer the Nile cruises.
The Dance Managers
I also get questions about dance managers; why don’t I have one? Shouldn’t I be working with someone who can get me tons of shows?
To be clear, I have worked with a couple managers, but not under contract. These managers didn’t seem to be very interested in me as a dancer, and the big reason is that I have an Egyptian man with me all the time. If you see a dancer magically hit it big as soon as she arrives to Egypt, she is making someone very rich. Managers see “green” dancers come off the airplane and know they don’t have great connections, may not know how to speak Arabic, may not know the going rates for venues, and see someone who they can exploit. A common tactic that is used is to lie to the dancer about the rate of pay, then take their commission off the new rate. She has no reason to think he’s lying, and she’s probably been told that when she gets more famous, she will make better money but until then, this is the rate she should accept. The manager will capitalize on her dreams and she will make nothing in the end, because she will stick it out and the manager will keep producing obstacles as to why she can’t get a better rate - her skin, her hair, her nails, her breast size, her skin tone are all reasons I’ve heard managers use to keep the dancer submissive and insecure.
One good example of this is that an event may pay 1000le for a show, and then the manager should take a 20% commission from the 1000le; this means the dancer’s take-home pay will be 800le. The manager instead will tell the dancer it pays 500le and pocket the other 500le. After he gives her the 500le, he will tell her she has to give him commission from her 500le, so in the end, he gets 600le of her pay and she does a full show for 400le when she should get 800le. Unless she has someone tip her off, she may never find out he is taking all that money from her. Of course now that he knows he can get away with it, he will get her tons of shows like that because he gets to just sit around and drink tea while she works nonstop and he takes more than half of the the money. Also, any tips that she may get during the show will likely magically vanish into his pocket and he will have some excuse as to where they went. Excuses include anything from having to split tips with other people, or that the police came and he had to talk to them and they confiscated them, or that he would normally have to use HER pay to tip staff but instead he used the tips to do it. All of this is complete bullsh*t because he is the manager and ALL the extras he needs to cover should come from his commission; that is literally why he is being paid. Sweet, new dancers are nervous, may not be assertive (Egypt is a very assertive culture), and are afraid to lose their big break by fighting.
This is the risk you take when you work with a manager, versus the option of going straight to a venue and trying to see if you can negotiate with them yourself. This is also risky though, because often the managers will be giving the staff some kind of kickback too so the staff will make a problem if you try to cut out the managers. On that note, I have managers spread rumors about me as an excuse not to work with me, such as telling everyone that my SO is controlling and jealous and that is why they don’t call me. They even make up stories about him making problems at venues, but the truth is that he comes with me to almost every show to make sure everything goes smoothly, gets along with everyone we have worked with, and everyone in his family already knows I’m a dancer and many have been in my audiences or follow me on social media. The reality is that they know I am not going to make them rich because I have someone watching out for me, or they are (understandably) concerned I will take the venue and cut them out entirely.
The best way to avoid all this lying about money is to have a very trusted friend vouching for you, and it should be someone who is wealthy enough to not take bribes. Granted, the shady managers will know right away if your friend is “dirty” or not and will refuse to work with someone who is not going to help them with their scheme. They will try to avoid allowing this friend to come with the dancer by making up stories (see above), or telling the dancer that she is the only one allowed to go to the venue. This is again, bullsh*t, and my own standard is that I do not ever go to a show without knowing the location, the rate of pay, and having my SO with me for protection unless I know the hiring contact personally. If a manager cannot give me that information, I will not take the work. Another way is to work with dancers who have been in the scene for long enough to know the deal, and then they have you cover for them and you can see what’s really going on with different venues and the pay. However, in this world it is rare to find someone who is trustworthy and everyone has been f*cked over so much they know they have to look out for themselves before anyone else, so it is still necessary to proceed with caution.
Some managers take a bigger percentage than others. Some take 50% of the dancer’s pay, but will get the dancer extremely good-paying work because the get such a large percentage. Regardless, most managers will find a way to take 50% (or more) at the end, so some choose to just work with someone who will be clear at the start. However, there is no clear way to know if the 50% commission is of the actual amount or if the manager has already taken a cut off the top first.
Another tactic managers use is with housing. They may set you up with an apartment and then charge you for it every month, usually at an extremely inflated rate. I have heard stories of dancers paying fancy, downtown-Cairo rent for flats in areas that are dangerous and super cheap. The manager will tell the dancer that she will make about $20USD per day (much lower than she should make) and then he will take his commission and the rent as additional.
Dancing in Egypt: Should You Try It?
I have been here for almost 2 years now, and I have mixed feelings about the dance scene here. As all dancers know, the live music is just incredible. When you are on stage with a really great Egyptian orchestra dancing to Abdel Halim Hafez’s songs, there is nothing more euphoric. However, all the extra bullsh*t is just so much to deal with, and the constant lying and backstabbing in the industry gets exhausting. If a dancer is considering coming here, she should consider her support system that she already has in Cairo; if the manager she is talking to that is promising a contract is her only support system, then she should deeply reconsider. I know of dancers who came here and only knew their managers and ended up in a labor trafficking situation with violence mixed into it. Some were promised they would stay in a 5-star hotel but when they arrived, were told that their accommodations were not ready yet and were put in dirty, disgusting flats in very dangerous areas instead. These dancers were lucky enough to have resources back in their home countries that flew them home, but this is not worth the risk.
As with any foreign country, have a backup plan, funds to get home, know where your embassy is and have the emergency number memorized, and PLEASE have at least one emergency contact in the destination country who can help you if necessary. Join expat groups online first and make connections. Know the address where you are staying and share with someone at home, refuse to be moved to another location especially if there is no internet connection, and if possible, have a secret internet-enabled device in case someone takes your phone or you cannot get a SIM card right away. Remember that in Egypt, a foreign woman is already considered to be “easy” in terms of sex and if she is a dancer too, then this compounds the issue. If she is staying in a flat that is registered to a man, the police will treat her as a sex worker and this is make it even harder to get help, and since she lacks the language element, he can lie to the police about anything he wants. There are laws in place here to assist foreigners, but it is crucial to have multiple emergency plans in place in the event there is an issue.
In terms of work, a dancer should also know the going rates in nightclubs, cabarets, weddings, and boats before coming here, because otherwise it is too easy for the managers to lie to her. If there are experienced dancers on a Nile cruise already, it is not so hard to find out what the rate should be for a show. Also, the biggest advice I have is to always watch your back. Even other dancers will backstab and lie, and it is important to know what you are getting into before arriving. Also, know how much paperwork will cost, how much visa extensions are, and what the process is to get these things. I will admit I did not know all of these things when I arrived, and I was lucky to know experienced dancers who were willing to share this information with me. Not all dancers are willing to be helpful though, and some will guard information like where to buy tampons like they are holding the nuclear codes to the White House (these aren’t that secure these days so that means you can find it out too).
You should also know what the commercial aesthetic is in terms of looks, and have enough personal awareness to know if you can make it or not. Unfortunately, right now in Egypt light skin is preferred with working dancers, as is large breasts, a large booty, and a small waist. Long hair is also the trend. You can be curvy but not fat, and injections and implants of all types are popular. This is not to say that a unique look cannot be successful, however this is a commercial industry and therefore you can expect lots of picky audiences in terms of body. As for actual dance, you should be experienced with gigging and preferably with live music, although ironically this seems to not be as important as looks.
In closing, I just want to point out that the biggest difference that I have observed between the dance industry in the USA and in Egypt (these are my points of reference as an American) is that in the USA, women largely run things. We are the ones going to venues, organizing, negotiating rates, selling our entertainment services, and as a result, it ends up being a much better system. Even when I worked for a troupe where we had a booking agent who would take a cut, I was very rarely paid below the standard rate. I think because we are the ones doing the actual work, there is a different level of respect for the industry, and when I have other women asking me to work here, it ends up being very similar. I do see dancers in Egypt working without managers and doing the networking themselves, and I am hoping that at some point this will force the managers to behave better.
Overall, this is not a place for the faint of heart or the inexperienced, and I am beyond fortunate that I have people here to protect me and assist me. Do your research about the culture beyond dance, and be prepared for anything.
