1. One of the most important bridges in Cairo, the Badia Masabni Bridge, is named after her and is located next to where she had her performance hall.
14 Facts About Badia Masabni
1. 2.
Badia Masabni was born in 1892 in Damascus, Ottoman Empire, one of seven siblings, to a Syrian father and a Lebanese mother.
3.
The family's financial condition abruptly worsened when Badia Masabni's father died leaving his sons to care for the family business.
4.
Badia Masabni studied at a Christian school of nuns, where she was taught classical ballet and tap dancing.
5.
Badia Masabni later moved to Cairo, where she began a new life and her career as a theater actress and dancer.
6.
Badia Masabni incorporated the shows with many dancers dressed in bright colors and glitter, with extremely provocative clothes at that time.
7.
Badia Masabni introduced a mix of classical dance movements, especially in terms of displacements, and arm movements above the horizontal, in particular the arabesques of the classical and the undulating movements of the arms extended horizontally using more flowing gestures later known as snake arms.
8.
Badia Masabni fostered the Western fantasy of veils by promoting handkerchief shows and two-piece costumes, copied from Hollywood movies, as well as trying to copy the star system.
9.
In 1926 Masabni opened the local evening club known as the Badia Casino, known as the Opera Casino, with the idea of attracting both Western and Eastern audiences.
10.
The Badia Masabni Casino became the world's first belly dancing academy.
11.
In fact it is known that Winston Churchill's son and the Duke of Gloucester were there, and that Hitler accused Badia Masabni of being a spy in the service of Britain.
12.
When Gamal Abedel Nasser took power in Egypt, he pursued the activities of Badia Masabni and imprisoned Taheyya Kariokka.
13.
Badia Masabni sold the Opera Casino and fled to Lebanon, where she lived with her adopted daughter Juliette and other relatives until her death.
14.
Badia Masabni lived for a few years with actor and comedian Naguib el-Rihani, with whom she made some films, but never dared to marry him for fear of being asked to stop dancing or close the Opera Casino.