PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 34 – EGYPTIAN DANCING GIRLS
EGYPTIAN DANCING GIRLS.—That prominent feature of the Midway Plaisance, a Street in Cairo, had a theatre among its attractions, and what doubtless drew most visitors to this place of entertainment, was the performance of the Egyptian Dancing Girls. The illustration gives excellent portraits of the three dusky beauties who were most prominent there, and shows also the semi-Oriental costume in which they danced. Of the performance it may be said that it was something entirely new in America and something not likely to become acclimatized. Suggestive it certainly was, but to American eyes lacked even the redeeming quality of beauty, though the dancers were lithe as panthers and should have been capable of graceful movements. It resulted in a protest from the Board of Lady Managers, their course being supplemented by the action of the Director-General, who compelled the interested concessionaires to restrain all future exhibitions within the limits of stage propriety as recognized in this country. The three women whose portraits appear may be considered typical representatives of the class who for centuries have been an element in the sort of amusement favored by the Oriental rulers of the valley of the Nile. Their dancing is a profession to which they are trained from childhood though it can hardly be considered a dance so much as a contortion.