About Props: Maleya

This week, the Maleya. This is a modesty garment common in Egypt many years ago, and was used as a character prop for a long time. 

The dance we generally associate with the Maleya comes from the Reda Troupe's performance with it. (We'll get more into the Reda Troupe during the folklore unit.) It is associated specifically with Alexandria because the troupe performed it as part of an Alexandrian tableau, but it's not specific to just Alexandria.

Golden era movies would use Maleya in tableaus

Farida Fahmy, sister-in-law to Mahmoud Reda, and star of the Reda Troupe, talks about how they created their maleya dance

Here is the Reda tableau

Fifi does her own tableau with maleya