| researchers & producers | The researchers and producers listed here have contributed to preserving Egypt’s music and dance repertoire and/or have done research and published work that contributes to Egypt’s dance history and culture by dealing with movement, ritual, dance, rhythm and music or any other body work technique that cultivates this dance form. |
| Chevat, Caroline (France/Switzerland)
music producer
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Khane, Babacar (Senegal/Switzerland)
creator of Egyptian yoga
He introduced it to Europe and America and leads the “Institut International de Yoga” based in Switzerland. Together with Egyptologist and writer Genevieve Khane, this master of Indian, Chinese and Egyptian yoga passes on a complete set of original postures with a strong emphasis on verticality, spinal axis correction and concentration development. Egyptian yoga constitutes a perfect complement to Egyptian dance with numerous physical and spiritual benefits as well as a thorough learning of Egyptian aesthetic principles. Book tip |
The beauty and sophistication of Egyptian music and the absence of quality recordings inspired her to produce the first CD with Ibrahim el Minyawi in 2000. Since then, she has travelled regularly and extensively throughout Egypt to do field research for tanz raum music projects, bringing together skilled musicians to record and produce their traditional repertoire as well as innovative, high-quality music. She produces, edits and distributes CDs worldwide under the tanz raum label. Caroline Chevat is director of tanz raum music projects and makes an invaluable contribution to preserving a rich musical heritage that is in danger of dying out.
The rediscovery and reactivation of Egyptian yoga, also known as Pharaonic yoga, must be credited to yogi Babacar Khane.
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Horwarth, Julio (Poland/United States) creator of Girotonic® and Girokinesis®
Ancient knowledge of yoga and Chinese medicine have been integrated into this unique method. Julio Horwarth not only repaired the bodily injuries that he sustained as a professional dancer but also sought to create a system of exercises that anyone could perform, regardless of age or state of health. Gyrokinesis® constitutes a perfect complement to our dance training as it relies on a holistic vision of the human body, which helps us to understand the movement system of Egyptian Dance enormously. Two tanz raum dancers are certified Girokinesis® teachers: Ainhoa Izagirre and Claudia Heinle. For a full list of teachers around the world please consult www. Gyrotonic.com.
Bral, Robert (France) creator of APR - Robert Bral has been a professional dancer and teacher of dance for many years, and has been awarded certificates in osteopathy, F.M. Alexander Technique, Body Mind Centering, and Stretching Global Active. Robert teaches anatomy and functional analysis of movement in Paris and all over France. He also teaches at universities, training dancers who apply for the state diploma in dance pedagogy. Robert has developed a specific technique for dancers which takes into account the holistic organization of the body, and enables them to lengthen whole muscular chains. His technique was inspired, among others, by the techniques of Mézières and Souchard. It is used extensively in body training because it allows dancers to develop perfect alignment of the spine that is indispensable for Egyptian dance. |
In the 1970s, the French musicologist Alain Weber discovered the Shaabi musicians Mustapha Abdel Aziz, Metqal Qenawi Metqal, Shamandi Tewfick, Qenawi Bakhit Qenawi, Jad Al Rab Mahmoud and the other musicians in their group. They were all masters at playing ancient instruments like the rababa, the arghul, the tabla baladi, or the mizmar. 
With Gyrokinesis® Julio Horwarth has created a complete exercise & breathing programme to train spinal movement in a holistic way. This novel approach is based on circular movements that extend from the spine into the arms and legs so that the whole body works in a holistic way.|
Ali, Aisha (United States)
music producer
In the 1970s she travelled to the Middle East to observe at first hand the many traditional styles of dance. She made subsequent visits to Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia from 1973 to 1997 to document folkloric traditions that were fast disappearing. This material contributes enormously to the very few documentaries that show glimpses of Egypt’s traditional movement language. Aisha Ali spent time with an entertainer tribe family, the Banat Maazin, a Nawar gypsy family of Ghawazee in Upper Egypt. This resulted in numerous audio and video recordings, which can also be purchased on this website: CD tip DVD tip
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Van Nieuwkerk, Karin (The Netherlands) researcher, anthropologist
She conducted the first ethnography of female singers and dancers in Egypt between 1986 and 1991. After that she researched the subjects of gender and conversion to Islam as well as Islam and migration in the Netherlands. Presently she is engaged in a new research project on “repentant” artists and the Islam- ization of art in Egypt. She is also supervising a new research project on “Islam and the Performing Arts in the Middle East and Europe”. Her book “A trade like any other” is a major reference book on female entertainers in Egypt. It explains the reality and the difficulties female dancers and singers are exposed to nowadays in Egypt. Singing and dancing are an essential part of weddings and other celebrations. A family’s prestige rises with the number, expense, and fame of the entertainers they hire. Paradoxically, however, the entertainers themselves are often viewed as disreputable people and are not highly esteemed in Egyptian society. Karin van Nieuwkerk’s look at the Egyptian entertainment trade starts with this paradox. Book tip |
Aisha Ali is an internationally recog- nized authority on the dances of Egypt and North Africa. She lives and works in Los Angeles in the United States. She publishes, lectures at universities and teaches internationally. Her recordings are among the best and most valuable in the field of Egyptian shaabi music today.
Karin van Nieuwkerk is an anthro- pologist working at Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands.