Saturday, Dec 11, 2010
Gulf News
The group brought to the fore their most famous traditional collections from Egypt
Dubai The Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation, in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, brought to the UAE audience one of the most popular Egyptian concerts — the Reda Troupe for Folkloric Arts.
The performance was part of the foundation’s winter agenda, which has always included several colourful cultural activities. The troupe performed on Wednesday last week as part of the UAE National Day celebrations.
The concert merged a number of exciting performances, where the group brought to fore their most famous traditional collections from Egypt, including the Halawit Shamsina, The Alexandrian, Mowashahat, Al Tanora, Al Tuboul, The Anklets and Luxor is our Country.
However, the audience was most drawn to the extraordinary performance on Al Mawlaweih, a song inspired by Sufism.
The Reda troupe has also achieved spectacular success through the years, in addition to receiving numerous awards at folklore festivals in Russia, Britain, Austria, Turkey and Belgium.
Its founder, along with essential members at the troupe, was the recipients of honour from King Hussain of Jordan back in 1965, and also the former Egyptian leader Jamal Abdul Nasser in 1967. In 1973, Habib Bourguiba, the former President of the Republic of Tunisia also honoured the troupe for their extraordinary performances.
Inspiration
The idea of establishing a dancing troupe was the brainchild of Mahmoud Reda, an Egyptian who conceptualised the performances form jazz and ballet techniques, besides Indian and the former Soviet Union folkloric dancing movements. He said that these techniques caught his attention at first sight, which he later decided to blend with the heterogeneous admired styles to ultimately come up with a unique technique called eastern dance that the Reda troupe today is very famous for.
The decision, however, to take on the music of late musician Ali Esmail resulted in a qualitative change in the approach of the troupe.
Esmail merged western and traditional instruments to reintroduce heritage in a contemporary style. Reda troupe has garnered a lot of appreciation in Egypt and has toured a number of destinations throughout the world.
The troupe performed at top theatres around the world such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Congress Hall in Berlin, the historic Royal Albert Hall in London, the Stanislavski Theater in Moscow, the Olympia Theatre in Paris to name a few.
— with inputs from Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation
Supplied picture
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The Reda troupe has achieved spectacular success through the years, in addition to receiving awards at folklore festivals in Russia, Britain, Austria, Turkey and Belgium.
By Fatma Salem?Staff Reporter
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