Remembering the butterfly of ballet
In 1966, the Cairo Opera House hosted the first ballet performance ever to be staged in Egypt, titled "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai", featuring five Egyptian young women who had trained in the Soviet Union. Despite the presence of four other girls in the show, Magda Saleh was the one would who become synonymous with Egyptian ballet.
Recently the New York dance and theatre company "From the Horse's Mouth" honoured her contribution to the world of dance. During the event, two documentaries on the history of dance in Egypt were presented: "A Footnote in Ballet History?" directed by Hisham Abdel Khalek, and "Egypt Dances" (1977), in which Saleh starred and provided commentary.
Here we get to know Magda Saleh, from the moment she took flight as the "butterfly of ballet", standing on the stage of the Opera House, saying, "Look at me, I have a story to tell you".
"I knew this is what I wanted to do for my entire life"
Saleh's story as a dancer, dance instructor and later director of the Cairo Opera House, followed by her subsequent move to the United States, reflects what Egypt has experienced over decades, from enthusiasm for political, ideological, and cultural experiments to periods of cultural shocks.
Her life journey stands in contrast to the situation of many women in Egypt, as she sought to "reinvent herself" and achieve her lifelong passion to become what she had dreamt of being since she was a young girl: a ballet dancer.
"I wouldn't have become the person I am now, if I hadn't gone through all that. If I had stayed in Egypt, I would have been like any ordinary Egyptian girl. I would have grown up and gotten married like most women in the Middle East," she said in interview with Shelter Island Reporter.
In one of her interviews, Saleh recalled, "I was taking ballet lessons and thinking that my teacher was dancing in the Bolshoi, and as I watched her, I felt a sensation I couldn't describe. That's when I knew this is what I wanted to do for my entire life."
She grew up in Cairo with three siblings to an Egyptian father and a Scottish mother. Her father was one of the first graduates of the faculty of agriculture at Cairo University and received a scholarship to study in Glasgow, where he met her mother, who returned with him to Egypt, where they got married in 1937.
Saleh began learning ballet at a young age. Her passion for the art form grew steadily, despite her father's reluctance. In Egyptian society of the time, merely talking about dance was regarded as scandalous.
"He was a prominent academic, and from his perspective, convinced my pursuit of dance would plunge me into a social war. He wasn't happy with my career choice at first, especially given the stereotypical idea about dancers and artists in Egyptian society," she said.
Nevertheless, Saleh joined the Alexandria Conservatoire School, which had a ballet department supervised by teachers from the Royal Academy of Dance in Britain, before they left Egypt due to changing political circumstances.
In 1958, the Russian "Moiseyev" dance company came to Egypt for a tour that included Alexandria. "At that time, the director was invited to watch the young local ballet children, and he summoned me... I remember he told me that I was talented, and there was a teacher from the Bolshoi School coming to start a similar one in Cairo, and that I should apply," said Saleh.
By the time she turned 14, she was studying with a Russian faculty at an academy supported by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. It was like a university for arts, comprising seven institutions, with ballet being one of them. Every year, more Soviet professionals would come on a nine-year academic training programme.
"They couldn't believe we were Egyptians"
After five years, Magda and the other four, Diana Hakak, Nadia Habib, Alia Abdel Razek, and Wadoud Fayez, were selected for a scholarship in Moscow. Saleh recounted the experience:
"We graduated after two years from the Bolshoi Academy there... Moscow was definitely a challenging experience for us. We were like spoilt little girls when we arrived there, but we learned how to take care of ourselves by the time we returned at the age of 21. We were prepared to face the world."
Although Egypt was regarded as "the developing country aided by the Soviet Union”, Saleh recalled in Hisham Abdel Khalek’s documentary film "A Footnote in Ballet History" that one of the teachers asked the Egyptian girls not to show up in front of their Russian peers with new dresses every time, because most of them only had one dress for the entire year.
The five young women were to form the core of a professional troupe in Egypt. They spent a year rehearsing for their debut performance in Egypt in 1966. Former army officer and minister of culture Tharwat Okasha was keen to attend the rehearsals of "his children", as he called them.
When the moment came, the Egyptian audience was astonished – "They couldn't believe we were Egyptians!"
President Gamal Abdel Nasser also attended the ballet, which led to all of them being awarded the Order of Merit by the state.
"Our only goal was to deliver a good performance. We trained for more than a year. All our previous ballet performances involved training, and I focused on my own performance. But to have a purely Egyptian performance presented at the Egyptian Opera House... It was a completely different feeling."
After the success of the performance in Cairo, the Ministry of Culture decided to move it to Aswan, which surprised people. Who would go to the ballet "in the land of the High Dam"?
After the performance there, the audience was amazed. "I was surprised by a humble-looking man wearing a jellabiya [traditional robe; editor's note] who entered the backstage area and looked at me. When I asked him why he was there, he replied, 'Young lady, this is a truly beautiful thing.' That's when I realised that our performance had reached this simple man," Saleh recalled.
She explained that during that period, "there were many taboos, prohibitions and objections to dance and dancers. However, Egyptians love dance, joy, and life. Look at Egyptian celebrations, and you will find that dance is an essential part of our lives as human beings."
"I cried when the Opera House burned down"
Saleh was at home when the Cairo Opera House caught fire in 1971. She recounted, "A fellow dancer came to me on his motorcycle and told me about the Opera House fire. I jumped on behind him, and we headed to the city centre, where the Opera was located. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people, all standing in silence."
She added, "Nearby, there was a main fire station, but it only had water pressure for two hoses. It was a pitiful effort. We all stood there and cried. It was a terrible moment. It was the end of an era and a devastating blow to all cultural and theatrical activities in Cairo."
After the Opera House fire and the changing circumstances surrounding it, her mother advised her to face the reality of what had happened. "She told me that if I wanted to continue dancing, I should find another path."
#Egypt and the Arab world’s legendary first #ballerina Magda Saleh has passed away. A true trailblazer when it comes to Egyptian culture, ballet and dance. A sweet and humble soul to all those who knew her #egyptianicons #egywomem #rip pic.twitter.com/kUZkj6mXkn
— Zeinobia ️ (@Zeinobia) June 11, 2023
With the help of her family connections – her father was vice-president of the American University in Cairo at the time, she applied for a scholarship to study arts and traditional dance at the University of California, where she obtained a master's degree, followed by a doctorate at New York University. During that time, she also participated in the production of a documentary film about traditional dances of the Nile Valley called "Egypt Dances". She travelled all over Egypt, documenting 20 different types of dance.
Director of the new Cairo Opera House
In 1983, she returned to Cairo to work as a professor at the Higher Institute of Ballet, going on to become its dean. Then, seventeen years after the fire that changed her life, she was appointed director of the new Opera House. "I am afraid that the art of ballet will be confined within the walls of the expensive Opera House," Saleh said in an interview with the Egyptian publication Shabab Baladi in 1989, as documented in the archives of the Library of Alexandria.
She believed that "culture is not a luxury, but rather an essential part of society." However, the saga of bureaucracy, wasteful spending and political disputes eventually led to Magda's removal from her position, stifling hopes for a "new era", as described by Abdel Khalek, the director of her documentary film.
News reports document the details of her dismissal, a troublemaker who did not have a fair chance, to the point where her office was sealed with red wax and she was expelled from the Opera House. No reason was given for the decision made by the former minister of culture, Farouk Hosni. The rumour circulating, however, was that the minister was annoyed with her because she had completely bypassed him, issuing a personal invitation directly to former President Hosni Mubarak to attend a premiere at the Opera House.
In 1992, she returned to the USA, devoting herself to education at New York University. Retiring from dancing in 1993 due to a back problem, she married the Egyptologist Jack Josephson at the New York Institute of Fine Arts.
Asked about her stance on the January 25th revolution and Tahrir Square in 2012, she said, "Some people feel that everything is collapsing, and some are very optimistic... I am very proud of what they have achieved, I'm very proud to be Egyptian."
Although she still felt regret for not being able to serve her country, she pronounced, "Egypt is with me", referring to her efforts in supporting Egyptian artists in the United States.
Mohammad al-Mansi