- Nagua Fouad
Nagua Fouad ( _ar. نجوى فؤاد) (born
1943 ) is a notedbelly dancer .Nagua was born in
Alexandria , to an Egyptian father and a Palestinian mother fromNablus . Her parents went toJaffa , then the largestPalestinian 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 inCairo ,Egypt . Nagua's dream was to dance like her idols the belly dancers of the1940 -1950 s era including:Naema Akef ,Samia Gamal , andTahiya 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
piastre s fromNemat Mokhtar and helped her perform at the Sahara City Tent. A few months later and she was dancing at the famousAuberge Nightclub run byMohamed Abdel Nabie where she was arrested by thevice squad for dancing professionally at an illegal age.After her release she performed at the
Abdeen Casino where she metAhmad 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 the1960 s calledAdwa El Madina (City Lights) which had featured such superstars asShadia ,Abdel Halim Hafez ,Fayza Ahmed , andSabah .In
1976 , the famous composerMohammed 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 byMohammed 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]
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