tran tran dance ropa de moda flamenca
tran tran dance ropa de moda flamenca

Meeting the legendary Dalilah

Anyone fond of oriental dance has heard of the “golden age”, that time when the dancers who dazzled in the casinos were called to the most important events to dance in front of kings and personalities of all kinds. They elevated this ancient dance to another level. There are many names, all of them shining stars: Samia Gamal, Naima Akef, Badia Masabni? but the one that concerns us today is a Spanish dancer, elected in 1959 the best dancer in Cairo no less, and whose life deserves to be told on the big screen.

Adelaida Angulo Agramunt (así se llamaba) nació en Madrid en 1936 y desde pequeña estudió diferentes disciplinas como ballet clásico, escuela bolera y flamenco.
She trained with the most prestigious teachers of the time and began a promising career as a Spanish dancer. It was 1954 when she traveled for the first time to Cairo for a three-year tour of the Middle East and how important that trip was! One day, the owner of the place where she was working needed an oriental dancer and asked her to dance. Soon the newspapers were already publishing the news: “A new Samia Gamal was born”.

During the following years she traveled, already as Dalilah, to Persia, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon… ending again in Cairo. There she performed at the grand opening of the Nile Hilton Hotel together with Nagwa Fouad, in the presence of President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Marshal Tito, where the hotelier Conrad Hilton invited countless artists from Hollywood for the occasion.

He had a resounding and unprecedented success. She also had the honor of performing for such notables as the Shah of Persia, King Hussein of Jordan, King Farouk of Egypt, King Saud of Saudi Arabia, President Chamoun of Lebanon and President Nasser of Egypt. She came to be considered “the queen of oriental dance” and was so popular even among the Middle Eastern aristocracy that she aroused the professional jealousy of the Egyptian dancers (fortunately she had the protection of a friend, the mythical dancer Tahia Carioca).

She also toured all over Europe and wherever she went the triumph was assured. She was in demand for events of all kinds. In Italy, for example, she was hired to make a private performance at Marcelo Mastroiani’s party at the end of the shooting of the movie “La Dolce Vita”. She shared the stage with great artists such as Tom Jones, Edith Piaf and Johny Halliday, among others, and close friendships arose, such as the one with Josephine Baker (as a curiosity, some say that she is the “Delilah” of the famous Tom Jones song).

On her return from the European tour, destiny had another nice surprise in store for her. Her path crossed that of Paul King, a popular London singer who would become her great love and lifelong companion. It was a real crush, just a few days after they met they were already husband and wife. It is said that her mother was so upset by the suddenness of the marriage that in a fit of rage she burned some of the dresses.

Dalilah took up residence in Lebanon for a while and loved life there, but when political problems began she left to settle in Mexico and a few years later (1974) in the United States, where oriental dance was becoming fashionable.
She settled in Las Vegas and opened an oriental costume store and a dance studio, standing out as one of the main teachers. From there she carried out an unprecedented work of divulgation and organized the first study trips to Cairo so that American dancers could train with the masters and dancers of the time (Fifi Abdou, Hala Sofi, Sohair Zaki or even Nagwa Fuad). He also introduced the renowned Mahmoud Reda to the United States and together they toured the country giving seminars on Arabic dance and folklore.

They even had a television program where they spread the technique of oriental dance. Her teaching method was very simple and at the same time preserved all the authenticity of this art, which made her the “Ambassador of modern Egyptian dance”.

Back in 1984 she returned to Spain to discover that unfortunately this type of dance was only found in bad restaurants and with a sense far removed from its essence, which discouraged her to the point of leaving the stage. Luckily (among others for us) her love for dance and Arabic culture soon made her return to theaters and schools to try to improve the situation. In the days of Gloria the Lebanese media published “an angel has fallen in the cabaret” and coincidence of life, that angel ended up right here in Colmenar Viejo (Madrid), in the school of dance Line and Movement. There a small group of girls excited and eager to dance we were dazzled by that lady and the exotic world of glamor that opened before us. That’s how my sister Paloma and I fell madly in love with oriental dance (not belly dancing, as she taught us), but that’s another story.

Dalilah did choreographic work for the movie Juana la Loca and returned to the stage with a show at the Sala Galileo Galilei in Madrid and the Teatro Goya in Barcelona, where she performed for two weeks in a row. Most of us were unaware, but in the meantime she was fighting a battle with the disease. The news of her death that summer of 2001 came as a complete surprise. She left us too soon, but it gave her time to change our lives. In my case, it transformed a secretary into an oriental dancer at heart and everything changed color from then on. I would not be where I am today if it were not for her, I will always be grateful.

Fascinating character, isn’t she? Were you, like me, lucky enough to meet her, to see her dance perhaps?

References:

Zuel. (2006). Ha caído un ángel en el cabaret: Dalilah. from Añil danza: http://www.anildanza.com/dalilah-reina-danza-oriental/.

Pamela Sloan (2012) Revisiting “A Belly Dancer’s Dream Come True”, (…) from Gilded Serpent: Tribute to Dalilah for the readers of the Gilded Serpent

Mabel Amado “La reina de la danza oriental”, Diario ABC, (2014)

Últimas publicaciones
News

Health and Dance

Dance is an art that can have positive impacts on the physical, mental and emotional health of those who

Leer más »
9 de July de 2024 No Comments
News

Meeting the legendary Dalilah

Today the legendary Dalilah would be 88 years old, it is the perfect day to remember her. A Madrilenian elected in 1959 the best dancer in Cairo no less and whose life deserves to be told on the big screen.

Leer más »
19 de June de 2024 No Comments

Links of interest

Other links

Join Our Newsletter

Instagram Facebook
Skip to content