Samia Gamal was born with the name Zainab Ibrahim Mahfuz in 1924 in Wana, a little Egyptian town. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Cairo to live near the famous Khan el-Khalili (a bazaar full of belly dance goodies).

When Zainab was in her teens, she met Badeia Masabny, a famous night club owner in Cairo. Badeia offered Zainab a job in her club dancing. Zainab accepted the offer and was given the stage name Samia Gamal.

At Badeia's club Samia like all the dancers there was taught ballet, jazz, tap, modern dance and improvements on her already good Egyptian Baladi style.

Samia made very close friends with a dancer there. This dancer was Tahia Carioca, another very famous dancer of the time.  Click Here to see a clip with both of them dancing together. Samia also made friends with a singer from Lebanon called Farid Al Atrash. They became very close. Farid's, like Samia's, popularity was increasing at the club.

In 1939, Samia got her first chance to have a go at acting (no dancing) in the film "Min Fat Adimo" (He who has no past has no Future). The film wasn’t a success. After that Samia was given a few supporting roles in small film, she was loved by audiences. This early acting was more of a thing on the side. Dancing was still Samia's main love and activity.

Samia and Farid Al Atrash, where growing closer and closer and became passionately in love with each other. Farid Al Atrash who also was appearing in films and had became a famous singer produce his own film in 1947 "Habib El Omr" (The Love Of My Life). Together with Samia they performed in it. Samia got her first chance to really show off her dancing, and that she did. The dance she did in this film was amazing. The film was a massive success. This lead the way for many more hit films with: Samia dancing in them and Farid singing Click here to see a clip of a film with the both of them in a film.  They are a memorising duo to watch. Their love and infatuation for each other shines through the films. When I watch them I get goose bumps. If you ask an Egyptian about Samia all they say is Farid. The names go hand in hand. Egypt and the Arab world loved to watch them together. The where the celebrity couple of the time.

Samia, from then on, appeared in film after film dancing and acting. Here are some of the films she starred in:

Wow! As you can see she made an amazing number of films, sometimes more than one film was released per year. Samia's other successes included dancing with Tahia Carioca on a regular basis for Egypt's last king, Farouk, at royal banquets.

Samia had many admirers, but she only loved Farid. When she asked him to marry her, he broke her heart, by telling her that he comes from a royal family from Druz. It would bring shame to his family to marry a dancer. Their love affair ended. Samia was overcome with sadness. She didn’t have the will to carry on dancing, until she was offered to work as a dancer in a European nightclub. She accepted the challenge. I think she felt it was away to get away form her problems and was a new start.

In 1950 Samia met an American millionaire, Jack King who fell madly in love with her. He convinced her, by converting, to Islam to marry him and move to the United States. Samia was still hurting from Farid. I don’t think at all for one moment that she loved this American, it was more an attempt to convince herself and the world that she was over Farid.

In America she was photographed by the famous photographer G. John Mili and performed in New York's renound nightclub: The Latin Quarter. She became quite well known in the States. This and her work in Europe was first time that belly dance really hit the western world. Samia had planted the seeds which now has become the massive belly dance world we now have in the western world.

While in America Samia learnt the western ways of treating dance: like an art form and a professional performance. Samia took this on board and also influences from the dance styles there. She went on to incorporate this in her dance. The marriage didn't last long and she returned to Egypt, bringing back a new perspective on the dance. These perspectives went on to influence and literally form the classical style of belly dancing we know today. The arabesque is one of the most used and common moves of today, that Samia introduced.

Soon after returning to Egypt she married Roshdy Abaza, an Egyptian film star. They had a daughter and stayed together until she was old enough to leave home. After retiring from dancing she lived alone but was still very close to Tahia Carioca. She died on the 1st of December 1994 she was 70 years old.

Samia Gamal, an innovator

Samia Gamal was the first dancer to do just about everything. She form the classical style of the dance. She made the dance a professional performance which lead to the improvement of its reputation and image. Arabesques, now a main stream ballet as well as belly dance move, where her creation, she was the first to dance them!

Samia was the first to use a veil in her dance, the story is that when she was having ballet training her teacher gave her a piece of cloth to hold, because she needed to improve and make her arm movements more fluid. Samia took to the dancing with the cloth (veil). She to it on with her at the beginning of a performance for the intro, to increase her confidence and ensure her arm movement where right. The crowed loved it and and from then on Samia used  a veil countless times in her intros. Samia Gamal dances so so gracefully with a veil and is the one to watch to learn how to dance with a veil. She doesn't just throw it about the stage in a violent fast way, and stand in one spot and waft it around. Her and the veil dance as one the veil is an extension of her movements.

Samia vas also the first Egyptian belly dancer to appear in western films here is a clip of her in the French film Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves   This clip is amazing you can see her dancing with the veil like i said above. You also see in this clip that she has jewels in her navel, she was also the first to do this. However the best bit of this clip is right at the end the camera has close up of her waist and it is her you can see just how BRILLIANT her movements are they are hypnotizing faultless and controlled ...... this is the best clip of her every I LOVE IT!!!

This is woman who brought the dance to the western world and the western world to the dance. I am so thankful to her, as without her would the dance be what it is now in England? Would I have had such easy access, to being able to learn it and go to classes? I think not!

To probably the world's most famous belly dancer of all time: Thank you!

 Sources: General information from asking Egyptian Family and friends, www.gobellydance.com, www.belly-dance.org, www.wikipedia.org