“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle and the life of the candle will not be shortened.”
Buddah

Historical evidence shows candle dancing done in Thailand, the Philippines, Greece, Armenia and Nordic countries, among certainly many other countries. Wiccans use candles in their ritual dances. Churches worldwide flicker with votive prayer candles. But, ”Nobody knows the origins of raks shamadan for sure. Mahmoud Reda has said that Turkish Court dancers of Egypt’s Ottaman rulers introduced the candelabra dance to Egypt. . . . One story has it that the famous Lebanese nightclub owner Badia Masabni invented the candelabra dance at her nightclub, Casino Opera during the 1920′s. However in Mohammad Ali Street legend, the originator of the shamadan Dance was Zouba el Klobatiyya, reputed to be the first dancer to balance a klob (lantern) on her head during a Zeffa al arousa (procession of the bride) . . .” (http://www.rakscandi.co.uk) The shamadan as a dance prop is in a category of its own, neither entirely classical Orientale nor folkloric, yet also both. Accounts of zeffah are hundreds of years old. This is the ceremony in which a girl becomes a woman, taking her place in society as bearer and teacher of the next generation.

The wealthy in the 1800’s secluded the bride in a chamber on a camel, then it became popular for her to walk under a canopy. As cultural norms changed to include viewing a woman’s face, she could walk unsecluded with candles to light her face. The traditional zeffah would start at the family of the bride’s house and proceed in a long route to the family house of the new husband, at night, long before electric lights were commonplace.

Besides the bride, candles are used by other females in the zeffah, larger ones carried by the unmarried girls, smaller less decorated tapers by younger girls, who precede the bride. Between them and the bride herself comes the professional dancer(s).

“Don’t tell me I’m burning the candle at both ends, tell me where to get more wax.” William Butler Yeats

Credit: http://www.bellydanceplus.com/photos/labrie2.htm

Music with a rhythm known as the zeffah beat is the appropriate music to use during this event. Wedding parties in Egypt have became more urban and the zeffah has moved into a hotel setting. The zeffah will parade down the central staircase and into the reception room where it will circle the room and deposit the wedding couple at their special flowered thrones at one end of the room. After the processional, the dancer will get the bride up to dance, then the groom, and then get the couple to dance together. The dancer may then also do a solo candelabra dance, which includes floorwork. This is a theatrical performance for entertainment, separate from the zeffah procession.

There are three types of shamadan dancing:

1. The traditional zeffah processional—outdoor clothing, shoes;
2. the farrah party dance after the wedding—indoor costuming, no shoes, floorwork okay, and
3. the Classical Oriental Dance in the manner of the black and white films of the 1940’s—bedlah or gown, shoes optional, no floorwork.

With the advent of President Nasser in 1952, the first Egyptian to rule Egypt for hundreds of years, Mahmoud Reda and his associates formed and promoted the concept of educated, trained dancers of Egyptian dance on a theater stage. His shamadan dance was for a group of dancers.

“Religion is a candle inside a multicolored lantern. Everyone looks through a particular color, but the candle is always there.” Mohammed Naguib

Source: Taken from a Collier World Travel brochure for a Reda tour including classes with the master and shows featuring Nagwa Fouad and Fifi Abdu 1983

Author’s note: When I was a girl on the farm in Ohio, pulling weeds in the garden, hanging clothes on the line in the cold, I knew this was not my destiny. Decades later, when I saw the shamadan in Angelika Nemeth’s belly dancing class, I knew I had found my destiny—dancing with a flaming candelabra on my head!

“Shimmy from the heart!” Comments: jherico@cox.net

Candle
I light my candle,
melting it clear
the air whispers,
sometimes too near.
My candle burns
yellow, blue, white,
I keep it going
all through the night.
Sometimes it flickers,
moving in torrid patterns,
circling, dwindling, sparking tatters,
flame wanes, then rises up,
springing form what you thought was no more.
It keeps on fighting,
melting wax as time goes by,
the candle is me,
and it is I.
May Richardson

*Sahra Saeeda Kent is an expert on Egyptian dance, having done much research in the field. She currently offers worldwide master certificate classes (Journey Through Egypt) on the regional dances of Egypt. I have used a handout from one of her classes to inform parts of this article, with much sincere thanks.