Hendeya

Hendeya is a contemporary Egyptian performer who has become one of the highly visible dancers of Cairo's current nightlife scene. Her professional image combines recognisably Egyptian movement with the faster, more compact and personality-driven aesthetic characteristic of many twenty-first-century Cairo performers. She is particularly associated with strong hip articulation, playful interaction with music and the use of contemporary Egyptian popular repertoire. Hendeya has also attracted a substantial online audience, which has allowed her work to circulate internationally far beyond the venues in which she performs. International festivals increasingly invite her to teach and perform, extending her influence from the Egyptian commercial scene into the global workshop community. Her profile is useful for Raqs Atlas because she represents the current living evolution of Egyptian Raqs Sharqi rather than an attempt to reproduce an earlier historical style.