CAIRO'S NIGHT CLUBS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 164, 13 July 1929, Page 10 (Supplement)

CAIRO'S NIGHT CLUBS.

EVERYTHING WELL ORDERED.

TAT IDOLS OP NOCTURNAL HAUNTS. THE ORIENTAL "SHIMMY." (By PAUL DE LASZLO.) If the visitor to Cairo expects to be able to see daring spectacles and lurid "danses du ventre" in the native quarters of the town, he will be disappointed and would probably have had more success nearer home. There was a time when it was different, but. British influence and a strong King have changed all that. But he may get entertainment and much amusement if he asks a dragoman, or Bedouin guide, to conduct him after dinner to a native dance hall.

There will probably be a lot of bargaining with the dragoman to begin with. "Well, sir, give me money to reserve seat in first-classa place —I will bring tarbouche and make gentleman look like Egyptian." These'little tricks to extract extra baksheesh can be easily overcome with a firm front. A dragoman, in fact, is not essential for the visit, but advisable simply as a guide, for the policemen do not speak English. A First-Class Place. ■phe hall resembles an informal theatre. It is a large room, with chaire arranged at random, but facing a raised stage at one end. There are tables everywhere, on which is served Turkish coffee, with the inevitable glass of coldwater. There will be perhaps two other Europeans in a room containing a hundred wearers of the tarbouche, the Egyptian fez. The whole place is clean and well ordered and looks at first glance like a big coffee room, reserved, of oouree, for men only. Nobody is in evening dress; except for the attendants, European day clothes are worn, for, as the dragoman has hinted, it is a first-class place.

The performance has no beginning and apparently no end. On the stage are 6eated throughout half a dozen Orien-tal-looking folk in lounge suits, and while three perform on what looks like a zyther, a tambourine and a violin, the remainder emit queer noises through their permanently-open mouths. The music is played on a range of some seven notes. The tune, if it may be so called, is short and endlessly repeated, and the time is that of a one-step. The vocal support is in unison and follows the tune which, though so contracted, appears to be written in no particular key. At a distance,, a very great distance, it may sound momentarily like a cathedral solo chant. This is suggested by the nasal intonation and the monotony, but it is useless to attempt to compare it with European music, for

it is Egyptian and that does not even imply that there is a tom-tom in the hand. Twelve-Stone Beauty. After an interval the dancer appears. She is sure to be of a powerful 'build, and is covered with masses of gilt chain, and on her head wears a huge tiara of the same material. Flesh bulges above her metallic stomacher and over the top of her Turkish trousers. The fatter the better, so far as Egyptian taste is concerned, and the popular idol at the moment, though below the average, weighs at least twelve stone. Her dance is remarkably informal. While she walks slowly up and down the stage, she is scrutinising the carpeted floor to see if there are any nails or tears that will annoy her later on. Having continued these gentle perambulations for some time, she will stand perfectly stationary,f acing the audience, and shake her well-developed front for some three minutes. This is a popular turn, and, together with punctuating the music by clicking her fingers, constitutes the foundation of the performance. She may vary it by balancing a candelabra on her head, or by performing the shimmy turn on her knees. There's Not Much In It. That is all. Nor must the eager tourist look for anything more vigorous or excitnig. If he finds it dull and the dancer not in accordance with his notions of feminine grace, he will be entertained by the faces of the audience, and, especially by such as have been convulsed with joy by a sly smile in their direction from the dark and heavy-featured beauty. L , It may not be up to expectations, but it is worth a visit, and infinitely preferable to a walk through the lees iiavoury street in the locality which is interesting only to those whose curiosity can overcome their revulsion at the sight of dirt and sordidness. (Anglo-American N.S. Copyright.)