Amal Choucri Catta does the housework Solar Son, Camaguey Folkloric Ensemble, Cuba: Dance and song performances, Sayed Darwish Theatre, Alexandria, 17 October, 8 pm, Cairo Opera House, Main Hall, 19 -21 October, 8 pm On the empty stage, in front of drawn red curtains, stood a lonely dustbin filled with brooms, tins, pans and smaller buckets as well as all kinds of cleansing and washing paraphernalia. That night, as the audience entered the Cairo Opera's Main Hall, some were surprised at that huge monstrosity, thinking the cleaners must have forgotten to put it away. One guest even smilingly told the usher, "Cairo's opera house is among the most elegant, the most reputed venues in the entire Middle East, don't you think that the presence of the dustbin on stage is ludicrous, if not shocking?" The kind gentleman was all the more surprised when the usher answered: "The dustbin is not the opera's, it belongs to the sets of the Cuban company performing tonight!" As on all three nights at the Opera's Main Hall, the show contained not only dustbins but tins and metal sheets, pipes and wooden sandals, pieces of woods and empty bottles, anything that could be used as objects for percussion, producing as much noise and rhythm as possible. The Cuban "Camaguey Folkloric Ensemble" with their cast of 17 dancers, musicians, singers and actors, "developed themselves in the Central-Eastern region of Cuba, representing the authentic musical and dancing traditions of the country's folkloric, contemporary or popular cultural manifestations". The company presented successful performances at many international festivals in Latin America and Europe, receiving a number of prizes for their work in the field of folkloric and contemporary music and dance. Though at first sight rather disappointing with the backdrop of a grey-in-grey patio in a humble neighbourhood of Havana and an endless number of barrels to be dumped or cabbages to be peeled, clothes to be hung and dishes to be washed on a sunny Cuban morning, the performers soon took over in their simple clothes, with their simple slippers and their simple way of moving their hips while letting the public know they were without a care in the world. The choreography was quite suitable for the décor and the neighbourhood: it would not have been suitable for the salon of a palace, but it was doubtless perfect for the present surroundings, with as many dustbins being pushed around and as many bottles being thrown to the winds. There was as much song as there was dance in the air, as much percussion going crescendo, while the singers chanted their "Blue moons" and the dancers tossed their hips from one pole to the next in a most unbelievable way. Between one scene and the next there was chaos, at times, or so it seemed, but it never lasted: the actors soon came in to hang another towel on the line, while talking to their friends and pretending not to be on stage in the first place. Then the show went onto a new dance, a new song, a different choreographic line and often different performers who never stopped wriggling and writhing, twisting and turning, giving great joy to the male viewers and planting big smiles on the ladies' lips. It was all for fun and really quite enchanting. But one thing was certain: there were never as many dustbins and broomsticks on Cairo Opera's main stage, nor were the viewers given as much percussion with slippers, stewing pans, kettles and casseroles. The performers were brilliant, the show splendid, though rather repetitive. It was new to the eye, new to the ear. The question rather, is whether it was a show for Cairo's Main Hall? Naturally, if we believe that our opera house is not an opera house but a national cultural centre, then we should ask ourselves why we cannot have our very own local folklore on the Main Stage. After all, our folklore has been quite successful in many countries, but it has never been accepted at the Main Hall. The company does have their very own Balloon Theatre and they furthermore do sometimes perform at the opera's open-air theatre, whereas foreign companies have nowhere else to perform. So they are given the Main Hall. But why not the Goumhoureya Theatre, which is perfect for performances of the folkloric kind, while keeping the Main Hall for ballet, opera, symphony concerts and shows of a refined kind? Let us not forget that from 14 to 18 September 2006 the National Ballet of Cuba performed at Cairo Opera's Main Hall and in Alexandria, under the title "The magic of dance". It was a phenomenal spectacle, worthy of the venue. The company had given us scenes from Adam's "Giselle", Tchaikovsky's "The sleeping beauty", "The Nutcracker" and "Swan Lake", Delibes' "Coppelia" and Minkus' "Don Quichote", adding an introduction to Gottschalk's "Night of the Tropics", reminiscent of Caribbean "Art de vivre", with dusky nights and exotic perfumes. The entire show was unforgettable: everyone hoped they would come again. Therefore, remembering the glory of the Cuban ballet, viewers were rather displeased with the dustbins and the broomsticks, though they did applaud the brilliance of the performers. After all, we did get some nice costumes and dainty dresses towards the end. This is however not the first time that members of the audience would have wished to see the show in another theatre: around 19 years ago the prima donna Ratiba El-Hefny, at the time director of the Cairo Opera House, had brought the loveliest of Russian performers to the Main Hall: the "Ghzel" company were presenting the most fantastic folklore from the Don and the Volga. It was an "out of this world" show, which made most viewers happy. Yet there were, as always, those who complained, saying: "Today we see Russian folklore, tomorrow we shall see the Chinese". And we did. They were all good and we loved them all. Just as we loved the Cubans with their swaying hips, their lovely voices, their excellent performance...and their dustbins... photo: Sherif Sonbol
