The Secrets of Egypt - Dance, Life and Beyond: A Journey of Death and Rebirth in the Country of the Pyramids

by Joana Saahirah

Once upon a time I had a dream and I chased it. This Magical Book tells about my Adventure in Egypt, the Price we pay for our Dreams and the Wisdom we gather on the Journey up the Mountain. Almost killed, chased, shocked and amazed with an Egyptian (fascinating) underworld very few foreigners ever get to know. How did I end up living and performing in Egypt for almost a decade, succeeding in my career against all odds? How did I do it* when everyone yelled: YOU CANT?! The answer to these - and other - intriguing questions is above rational understanding; its Magic were talking about. In my heart, I knew I had to go to Egypt and rescue Oriental Dances Soul (my own Soul) so that the World could remember, once more, why WE ARE ALIVE*. This Book is a about my real life Adventure - my (OUR) Journey*. I can hear the deserts wind whispering: it was never only about the dance, darling. Oriental Dance is just a Door - covered in veils and luminous sequins - to a Temple where much about Lifes Adventure is to be learnt. Welcome to Egypt: welcome to the World (enjoy the Ride*)!

364 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2014

Reviews

[Bean]

I was caught off guard, actually. When I cracked the book open and saw an explosion of frenetic font changes, random capitalization of letters, and insane font size changes (basically from Times New Roman 12 to Comic Sands 32) I groaned internally a bit. I may be passionate about dance, but I am also equally passionate about good writing. I think this book would have seriously benefited from some hardcore editing. She uses a rich vocabulary but frequently makes bizarre grammar and vocabulary mistakes, some of which seem due to this book perhaps not being carefully reviewed by a native English speaker. She also mixes metaphors in a manner that just plain make me facepalm sometimes. So it should be noted and critiqued that I would not call this good writing. It seems like all of the writing was wildly improvised as she felt it. Perhaps her response would be that real art is improvisation without editing and correcting? Maybe. Writing is not an art that actually should rely solely on improvisation, unlike dance and music.

However...as an artist, this woman is phenomenal. She really is. And once I got into it, that really comes through. Her experiences are raw and real, and her vision on art and spirituality are absolutely marvelous.

I wish there was rather an AUDIOBOOK of this, rather than the text. I've heard her speak before and got the chance to take a dance workshop class with her, and I know her ideas are so, so beautiful but better conveyed through her voice, I think. I think I would get more out of this if I could listen to her speak her experiences, rather than try to pull it out of the endless font/font size changes, weird single-letter capitalizationS (like that), and incredibly strange paragraph and bullet-point formatting.

Real, marvelous inspiration, in spite of strange writing and lack of editing. And I believe, one of the greatest modern artists of Raqs Sharqi and Beledi.

[Caroline]

3.5/5