Samia Gamal
| Samia Gamal | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Zeinab Ali Khalil Ibrahim Mahfouz 5 March 1924 Bani Swaif, Egypt |
| Died | 1 December 1994 (aged 70) Cairo, Egypt |
| Years active | 1942–1963 |
| Spouse(s) |
Rushdy Abaza (1958-1977) (divorced) Shepard King (1952-?) (divorced) |
Samia Gamal (Egyptian Arabic: سامية جمال, born as Zaynab Ibrahim Mahfuz, 5 March 1924 – 1 December 1994) was an Egyptian belly dancer and film actress.
Born in the small Egyptian town of Wana in 1924, Samia's family moved just months later to Cairo and settled near the Khan El-Khalili bazaar. It was many years later that Samia Gamal met Badia Masabni, the founder of modern Oriental dance. Badia offered Samia an invitation to join her dance company, which Samia accepted. Badia Masabni gave her the stage name Samia Gamal, and she began her dance career.
At first, she studied under Badia and Badia's star dancer at the time, Tahiya Karioka. However she soon became a respected soloist and brought forth her own style. Samia Gamal incorporated techniques from ballet and Latin dance into her solo performances. She was also the first to perform with high-heeled shoes on stage. She starred in dozens of Egyptian films next to the famous Farid Al Attrach. They could be thought of as the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the Middle East. They not only played each other's love interest on the silver screen but also in real life. However, their love was not meant to be. Because of Farid's social position, he refused to marry Samia. Farid believed that marriage kills artist talent, he never married. Some claim that Farid as a Druze prince, told her it would bring too much shame to his family for him to marry a belly dancer; but the claim is baseless. Farid helped placing Samia on the National Stage by risking all he owned, and managed to borrow to produce a film (Habib al omr) co-starring with her in 1947.
In 1949, Egypt's King Farouk proclaimed Samia Gamal "The National Dancer of Egypt", which brought US attention to the dancer.
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