Born: 1 February 1892, Syria
Died: 23 July 1974
Country most active: Egypt
Also known as: بديعة مصابني, born Wadiha Masabni, Badiaa or Badi’ah, وديعة مصابني
Badia Masabni was an entertainer and businesswoman best known for establishing a series of influential clubs in Cairo in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. She is considered to be a mother of modern belly dance and is credited with launching the careers of many Egyptian artists, particularly belly dancers Samia Gamal and Taheyya Kariokka.
Born in Lebanon, then part of Syria, she moved to Egypt in the early 1900s to build a career as an actor and dancer, reportedly after her father died and his business burned down, leaving the family destitute. She opened her first music hall in Cairo 1926, the Opera Casino, also known as Badia’s Casino and Madame Badia’s Cabaret. Offering a range of entertainment like singing, dancing, comic acts and magic, Badia modeled the club after European cabarets to attract both Middle Eastern and European tourists, who were visiting Egypt in greater numbers. As an actor, Badia was a talented impersonator and her performances often included impersonations of famous singers. Her casino became Cairo’s spot to be and be seen, frequented by “le beau monde”. She also offered special shows only open to women. Comedian and Badia’s estranged husband (they separated in 1926, before she opened her first club) Naguib al-Rihani, AKA ‘Kesh-Kesh Bey’, performed at the club. She opened the Sala Badia in Alexandria for the summer season of 1928. She took a break from club management and produced and participated in six theatre productions with her estranged husband in 1929. She then opened Casino Opera in Giza in 1930, later remodeling and re-opening as the grander Cinema Badia (also known as the Cabaret Badia, Casino Badia or Badia’s Garden) in Giza in 1931.
In 1935, she declared she was leaving the clubs and theatre to act in film. Unfortnately her first film, Malikat el Massareh (Queens of the Theaters) – which she invested 20,0000 pounds of her own money in – was a critical and commercial failure. She returned to producing plays and her clubs. She was then betrayed by her son-in-law, to whom she had given power of attorney to help manage her clubs. He sold her Cairo club to his mistress behind Badia’s back in 1936. They posted guards, preventing her from even entering her own club. This, combined with the flop of her film, left her of the edge of bankruptcy and she attempted suicide.
Badia’s comeback in 1937 started with presenting several shows in the pretigious Brentania Theatre and re-opening her Giza club. The following year, she opening a new club, the Casino and Cabaret Badia, on 8 December 1938, right next door to her stolen club, but politely refrained from speaking publicly about the theft. While Badia’s new club reportedly attracted high-class audiences, the stolen club tended to draw drunken patrons, unruly soldiers and the like, with a reputation as a place where drunken brawls often broke out. It eventually closed.
In 1940, Badia moved her club to a new location when the neighbourhood began to deteriorate with the onset of World War II. The larger and more luxurious club featured the first in-the-round stage in Egypt, where the audience was seated all around the stage. During the 1940s, her Casino Opera was a place where officers, swindlers and spies intermingled with Badia’s famed belly dancers. Failing to secure her loyalties, Nazi propaganda attacked Badia, accusing her in turn of being a traitor, a dangerous spy and a British secret agent, in part because various prominent Brits had enjoyed her clubs. After World War II, she decided to travel to Europe, once again leaving her assets under the management of her son-in-law. Surprising likely no one except Badia herself, upon her return she discovered he had completely neglected her club, spent all her money on his new mistress and racked up huge debts that he insisted she pay before he turn control back over to her. She also hired back his previous mistress, who had stolen her old club from her, but then had to fire the woman because she was rude and nasty to patrons. The woman retaliated by trying to force Badia to sell the club and, when that didn’t work, spread rumors that she was going to sell the club. Badia sold it to the woman despite this, for 20,000 pounds. Her own negligent lawyer did not warn her that she was required to inform the Tax Department of her intention to sell a business two month prior to the sale. Because she did not, she was now prey to the department’s notoriously exorbitant and unfair fines (with jail time as the alternative to paying) – 74,000 pounds, more than three times the sale price. Badia, on the advice of a new lawyer, sold her posessions and fled to Lebanon, regaining her Lebanese citizenship. She then married a gambler 22 years younger than her, divorcing after only two months. He tried to demand 50,000 pounds from her, but settled for 500. She retired to the country, living out her days on a dairy farm.
Badia’s club earned a reputation for innovation and creating dances that became popular, such as the “gazelle”, “body,” “sport”, “peacock” and “village” dances, as well as popularising the Charleston. She ran a dance school at her Casino Opera and Badia is credited with changing the style of belly dance – disregarding the limited range of arm motions, Badia lifted them higher above the head and used more flowing gestures later known as snake arms. She also used more space on the stage – the ghawazee and almeh were performed almost entirely in one spot, but in the club, dancers were required to use the entire stage which was a larger space than that what they were used to. Traditional dancers mostly improvised but Badia pioneered the use of choreography. Because the audience in the back couldn’t quite see the fine movements, props like veils were incorporated in the dance show. Badia also added trained classical musicians to the traditional line up of riqq, derboukka and ney or zurna.