Shabab il Nasr / Port Said / a glimpse of the Bamboutiyya dance

Recorded in Port Said for the compilation of field recordings titled Mono Egypt.

The name of the dance comes from the English term “bum-boat”, referring to a fleet of small rowing boats, enabling the local population to carry out small-scale trade with the crews of passing ships. There are no traditional costumes in the Suez Canal region, so dancers of the Bambutiyya (and other dances) usually wore clothes characteristic of professional groups: fishermen, sailors or coast guards.

This recording relates to a wider musical phenomenon and the history of the socio-political turmoil of the Suez Canal area over the past 150 years. Read full story here: