Mahmoud Reda (b. March 18, 1930, Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt [today Egypt] – d. July 10, 2020) was an Egyptian dancer and choreographer, best known for co-founding the Reda Troupe, and as an Olympic gymnast.
When the Reda brothers and Fahmy founded the state-sponsored Reda Troupe in 1959 it consisted of only twelve dancers and twelve musicians. Reda's choreography combined traditional Egyptian folk dances with Western styles like ballet.
Due to the social connections of Fahmy and her family, the normally stigmatized profession of dance soon became acceptable by Cairo society and both men and women attended performances by the troupe.
Although the Reda Troupe was well known in Cairo society, initially it was not in Egypt as a whole. That changed in 1961, however, when Mahmoud Reda and Fahmy starred in the film Igazah nisf as-sinah along with the rest of the troupe. Directed by Ali Reda, the film was responsible for popularizing the Reda Troupe among ordinary Egyptians. The team followed this success with Gharam fi al-karnak in 1967. In 1970, the troupe appeared in a third film Harami El-Waraqa.
Reda stepped down as the principal dancer of the troupe in 1972, but still continued choreographing and directing performances. By this time, the troupe had grown to one hundred and fifty dancers, musicians and stage crew. Under Reda's direction, the Reda Troupe toured the world, giving performances at Carnegie Hall, and in China. They went on five international tours during his tenure, performing for various world leaders.
In 1990, Reda retired as director of the Reda Troupe.After his retirement, Reda continued to teach dance workshops in Egypt and internationally.
Reda married Farida Fahmy's elder sister Nadeeda (Nadida) Fahmy in 1955. She served as the costume designer for the Reda Troupe until her death from rheumatic heart disease in 1960. His second wife was a Yugoslavian ballet dancer, with whom he had a daughter, Shereen.
He died on July 10, 2020, aged 90.
Folk dancing icon and founder of the legendary Reda Troupe, dancer, choreographer and Olympic gymnast Mahmoud Reda died last Saturday at the age of 90. He was born in Cairo in 1930 and graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at Cairo University, where his father was head librarian. He was the eighth of ten children, and one elder brother, Ali, was a dancer who inspired him.
After representing Egypt in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and graduating, Mahmoud Reda toured Europe with an Argentinian dance troupe. While working as an accountant for Royal Dutch Shell, determined to start his own troupe but lacking the necessary funds, he met Farida Fahmi – the sister of Ali’s wife Nadida Fahmi – at the Heliolido Sporting Club and they performed as a couple in the Soviet Union in 1957.
Together with Ali and his wife Farida, Mahmoud and Nadida (who was the troupe’s costume designer before she died in 1960) founded the Reda Troupe in 1959. With 12 dancers and 12 musicians, Mahmoud realised his dream of a modern Egyptian folk dance troupe aware of ballet and modern dance as choreographer while Ali worked as art director. Farida was the prima donna.
Speaking to Dina Ezzat in the Weekly last year to mark the troupe’s 60th anniversary, Fahmi recalled the troupe’s Cairo debut: “I remember it so well. It was 6 August 1959. We were all set for the show. We had rehearsed it so many times, perfected the costumes and decided on the makeup. We had put our hearts into the launch, and we were hopeful, but also of course anxious.”
In 1961 the Reda Troupe became a state sponsored company affiliated with the Ministry of Culture. According to Fahmi, President Gamal Abdel Nasser was himself a fan: “He attended one of our very early performances, and he liked what he saw because I think he appreciated good art. He took pride in the nation’s history, and he believed in art as an essential part of the country’s soft power.” These were years of enlightenment in which art was as appreciated and as promoted as it should be”.
But it was becoming part of a bureaucracy that led to the troupe’s long-term decline, with the artists turning into civil servants and the creative spark going out. Ali died of cancer in 1993. And so the story came to an end, but not before the Reda Troupe achieved great glory.
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Eager to produce a more lasting record of the troupe’s achievements, Ali had had ambitious plans early on. Three films were made starring the troupe: Agazet Nos Al-Sana (Mid-year Vacation) in 1962 and Gharam fil Karnak (Love at Karnak) in 1967 and Harami Al-Waraqa (Paper Thief, 1970), all directed by Ali Reda.
Mahmoud retired as lead dancer in 1972, continuing as a choreographer, by which time the troupe boasted 150 dancers, musicians and technicians. Performing – sometimes to world leaders – in New York and Beijing, the troupe made five glamorous world tours.
According to Fahmi, “It was Mahmoud who went through the many dance styles to design the performances, a hard and innovative labour that was done with passion and sincerity… There was something almost magical that connected all of us together: the choreography of Mahmoud, the costume designs of Nadida that my mother Khadiga executed to turn artistic drawings into dance costumes, and the inspirational art direction of Ali. There was also the unending support of my exceptional father Hassan Fahmi, a professor of engineering who shrugged off the disapproval of his own class in allowing his daughter, a graduate of the English Department at Cairo University, to become a dancer.”
From 1972 on, Reda taught dance. His second wife was a Yugoslav ballerina, Rosa Reda, with whom he had his only daughter, the celebrated actress Sherine Reda. He is also survived by Sherine’s daughter Noor Diab.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 July, 2020 edition ofAl-Ahram Weekly
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