Fifi Reloaded! Review of Fifi Abdo Workshop and Show Sponsored by Little Egypt Holiday Inn Select, Dallas, Texas May 18-20, 2007 by Catherine Barros photos by Monica Berini Except where indicated A condensed version of this article has been previously published by the Papyrus Newsletter From the first time I saw Fifi Abdo on video, I liked what I saw. My first video purchase of Fifi is the one where she is lowered onto the stage at a big concert in Al Ismailia, Egypt. In fact, I bought this video at a long-ago version of the Little Egypt shop in Vikon Village, which was so small that if two people were in there that you would practically have to squeeze by each other. I was amazed at how Fifi would run across the stage to jump into the splits then a cross- legged position and execute some of her shoulder/chest shaking movements. She had a megawatt smile, masses of long black hair, a bold sassiness to her movements, and such an easy and relaxed style of performing. I knew that I should watch a lot of her, in hopes that some of Fifi would rub off on me.
I would stand for hours it seems (and still do) trying to get that loose ease in my hips that she has when she shimmies. I have also been fortunate to study with Vashti (Dallas) for many years and her fascination with Fifi meant that we spent a lot of time working on some of the great Fifi moves. I purchased videos of other concerts and parties at which she performed over the years because I wanted more of Fifi. I was able to see her "shisha" routine along with getting to see her many unique costumes as she goes through multiple costume changes at each show. I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to see her “up close and personal,” and thought that I would have to be satisfied with my videos. Fast forward many years to 2007, to the workshop and show presented by Little Egypt the weekend of May 18-20 in Dallas. Fifi has been retired from dancing for three years and has been very busy pursuing a career in films and theater. She finally decided to accept Little Egypt's offer to come to the States after Dee Dee and Ahmed visited her many times and she found time in her schedule when she could come. All that video-watching doesn't compare to experiencing her real personality. I might have learned a lot through my years of study, but it didn't tell all I needed know about dancing “a la Fifi” and Fifi as a person. The best reason to have gone to the workshops was to experience the full-blown, 3-dimensional version of Fifi - "Fifi RE-LOADED".
She mentioned several times that she didn't learn by "1-2-3-4" and she doesn't like to dance that way at all. She didn't really spend time breaking down the movements, but would ask "Again?" whenever the song finished. When people would ask questions about specific movements she would go over the movement for them. Of course, sometimes this required the person to come up on the stage with her. Then there were the people that she saw doing things that she wanted to help them to do "correctly". This had some hilarious results such as when she was showing Drakon how to do shoulder shimmies. She had to point out that he couldn't do "breast" shimmies as he didn't have them, but a well executed shoulder shimmy looked just fine on him. This was emphasized by comments such as "You this way, Fifi this way". Another one of her oft-repeated comments was to make it different every time - "The same, but different". And we must always remember to SMILE and show our personality! On Saturday, we started off with "Tamra Henna" but spent most of the 3 hours of the workshop following along with her to many repetitions of a song by Saad El Soghayar, "El Hantour (The Carriage)", dancing in the Shaabi style. She had us prancing like horses as the song starts off with the sound of horse hooves. She used a lot of hand movements (did anyone else think "itsy-bitsy spider" when she did the flipping hand movements where she touched her thumbs?), touching herself at times (more than we are used to as many times we have had our dance teachers tell us to never touch ourselves while dancing), hugging herself, putting her finger in her mouth as she gave a coy look at us, playing with her hair and flipping it around. She was very much a flirt as she danced. She did mention that this playful style was fine for her balady and shaabi, but never when dancing to Om Kalthoum.
 I
tried to follow along as best I could, relying on my knowledge of
her typical movements. As the repetitions of the dance changed each
time (remember "Same, but different"?), I felt that was
OK. I was there more to absorb the essence of Fifi, have some fun
and get some sorely needed Author?? and Fifi inspiration for my
own dancing as my personal physical woes (banged up knee from accident)
had me feeling a bit discouraged with dance. I did get a tad grumpy
when I could only see the top of her head. One time during the
day, when we took a break for Fifi to chat about various things,
somehow the topic of large breasts came up. I was standing up in
the back of the room while others were sitting, so I think I was
a bit oblivious as I didn't realize she was talking to me until
she said "Orange". I was wearing an orange t-shirt (and
Fifi had on a long orange tunic-type t-shirt with Egyptians motifs)
so I guess I stood out a bit and this attracted Fifi's attention.
I didn't catch the words of her follow-up comment about me, but
caught the drift when she started to repeat some of the sam things
to Miasia (who had prodigious "pillows"
as Fifi called them at some point). Miasia was a good sport and
went up on the stage where Fifi laid her head on Miasia's "pillows".
This was funny and entertaining but got repeated a bit too much
on both Saturday and Sunday. I think Miasia liked the attention,
but I was a bit shy myself to be jumping up on the stage like Miasia.
On Sunday during one of our few photo ops, I did get a rather blurry
photo of me with Fifi where she laid her head on my "pillows".
The
Show
OK, I stole the "zills a-blazing" comment from someone else, as it was so apropos for the moment. Everyone was clapping and yelling from excitement during most of the show. I think I almost went deaf myself from all the yelling over the loud music. Fifi had the audience eating out of her hand, and didn't disappoint anyone. Along with dancing to "Ana Fi Intizarak" and performing some cool cane moves, she treated us to a rendition of her Shisha "dance". This means she basically wandered through the audience, with Mark Balahadia submissively following her around as her "shisha boy", and blowing smoke out her nose (I think she was alternating her nostrils). This took up quite a bit of time, but I think that Fifi was probably tired from the workshop so this was probably a good way to conserve her energy. For most people, this was a good opportunity to get to see her close-up as she really did try to visit with every table in the room. In addition to all of that, she had to get the whole room up to dance to "Al Hantour" as we had that music so burned into our brains after working on it most of the afternoon that we couldn't help but want to dance along with her.
So the weekend ended on an exhausted but high note. There was a last minute crowding into the shopping areas for many of the workshop participants trying to make up their minds on final purchases and, after Fifi sat through her last photo session and signed posters (and butt, in the case of Desdemona), she followed along after them to check out what was being sold. Everyone left with a lot to think about in regards to what they learned and what they would do with all the information. My weekend went a bit longer, as I volunteered my services to take Shaynaz (SF) to the airport by way of downtown Dallas. She wanted to go up the tower at the Hyatt Regency, so that's where we went. I got some nice photos from the cocktail lounge while Shaynaz bought a souvenir penny in one of those "engraving" machines. While we were driving back and forth from the hotel, to downtown, to Richardson, then on to the airport, we talked the whole time about the "Fifi" experience. I know many of the other workshop participants were probably doing the same thing that night during the post-workshop festivities arranged by Tamra Henna at Al Amir. The excitement spilled over into various on-line forums the next week or so as people discussed different aspects of steps that Fifi does (jewel, foot tap on steps), the music she used, the Saturday night show, how much charisma she has, her sense of humor and her larger than life personality with that mega-watt SMILE! I know that I have pulled out some of my videos so I have been watching Fifi being lowered onto the stage again and dancing with the shisha one more time.
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The
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