Nagua Fouad

Nagua Fouad ( _ar. نجوى فؤاد) (born 1943) is a noted belly dancer.

Nagua was born in Alexandria, to an Egyptian father and a Palestinian mother from Nablus. Her parents went to Jaffa, then the largest Palestinian city, when she was three-months-old. There, she spent the first few years of her life. Her mother died a few months after Nagua was born and her father married another Palestinian woman, whom the young child loved as her mother and who was to become Nagua's only source of support in the difficult years ahead. In 1948, Zionist gangs blew up the Fuads' house. Nagua and her step-mother escaped Jaffa like many Palestinians by boat to Al-Arish in Egypt where they were reunited with Nagua's father who was visiting Alexandria at the time. [ [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/390/people.htm Al-Ahram Weekly | Nagwa Fuad "Hours of glory" ] ]

At age 15, Nagua ran away from her Alexandria home to work as a telephone receptionist at Orabi Agency for Stars in Cairo, Egypt. Nagua's dream was to dance like her idols the belly dancers of the 1940-1950s era including: Naema Akef, Samia Gamal, and Tahiya Karioka.

At the age of 16, her employer Orabi spotted her belly dancing while on the job and persuaded her to rent a costume for 50 piastres from Nemat Mokhtar and helped her perform at the Sahara City Tent. A few months later and she was dancing at the famous Auberge Nightclub run by Mohamed Abdel Nabie where she was arrested by the vice squad for dancing professionally at an illegal age.

After her release she performed at the Abdeen Casino where she met Ahmad Fouad Hassan (her future husband for 6 years), a producer of stage shows that later became a famous conductor. He convinced her to perform live at the most prestigious music and dance show in the 1960s called Adwa El Madina (City Lights) which had featured such superstars as Shadia, Abdel Halim Hafez, Fayza Ahmed, and Sabah.

In 1976, the famous composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab wrote an entire musical piece exclusively for her belly dancing show titled Qamar Arba'tashar (meaning the full Moon of the 14th), it was her transition from traditional oriental dance to a choreographed stage performances.

Famous performances

* Qamar Arba'tashar (Moon of the 14th) 1976
* Music by Mohammed Abdel Wahab

References

External links

* Bellydance superstars: [http://www.belly-dance.org/nagua-fouad.html Nagua Fouad] at Belly-Dance.org
* GoBellyDance.com: [http://www.gobellydance.com/NaguaFouad.html Nagua Fouad]
* Al-Ahram Weekly: [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/390/people.htm Nagwa Fuad "Hours of glory"]
* Hossam Ramzy: [http://www.hossamramzy.com/stars/starsofegypt_nagwa.htm Nagwa Fouad]