BELLYDANCER TAHEYA CARIOCA 1954

This is a clip from the 1954 film Arouset Al Moulid (Birthday Doll aka Sugar Doll) In this movie Taheya Carioca plays the part of a sugar doll who grows bored with standing on a shelf without being able to move, so she becomes human for a while, but she then suffers the injustices and hardships of being a human and of working in a club, so she gladly goes back to being a sugar doll on the shelf of a shop. In Egypt, during the celebration of the Prophet's Birthday (called Moulid al Nabi) it is the custom to buy sugar dolls (Arousat) for little girls and also for sweethearts. Shops all over Egypt are full of them in all sizes and colors. Boys get sugar horses with a rider on them. In this scene the background dancers are dressed to look just like these sugar dolls. Taheya Carioca is dressed as one as well, then she does several different styles of dance. She changes into a baladi costume and does a baladi dance. Then she changes into a Moroccan costume and does a Moroccan style dance, after that she changes into a Sari and does an Indian style dance. Then finally again as a sugar doll. The man on the horse is singer Abd El Aziz Mahmoud. And the woman singing is Souad Mekkawi