Hi Arabella! Glad you enjoyed the two videos!

One challenge in watching collections such as The Fabulous Samia Gamal is that you don't see the dancing in the context of the movie it came from. From watching Afrita Hanem, you know that two of the big dance scenes are on theatrical environments, dancing in operettas. In other words, presenting a European-based style of theater, and doing a very Europeanized style of dance accordingly. Ie, think of the style of dancing seen in Ziegfeld Follies as a source of inspiration... In such sequences, the artistic decision is to be less Oriental, more European, and that's why you're seeing what you're seeing with respect to fewer hip drops, more traveling steps, etc.

Many of Samia Gamal's most famous movies were made before the Egyptian revolution in 1952, when Egypt still was ruled by an Ottoman king, who was kept in power through British influence and money. Akher Kedba (The Final Lie) was made in 1950, Afrita Hanem (Genie Lady) in 1949, Ahebbak Inte (I Love You) in 1949, Ma Takulshi La Hada (Don't Tell Anyone) in 1952. At this point in time, the audience for nightclub shows and movies would have been royalty, rich British and other Europeans, and rich Egyptians who either attained or kept their money through collaborating with the European infestation. The latter, the rich Egyptians, took on a lot of Western trappings with respect to their clothes, their musical choices, etc. So, the audience for these shows embraced Western tastes in music and dance artistry, and correspondingly the entertainment industry gave them what they wanted.

That's why you're seeing such minimal Oriental styling in both music and dance in those clips, meaning absence of hip drops, absence of drum solos, etc. Those big production number dance scenes collected on The Fabulous Samia Gamal were MEANT to be a portrayal of Western-style entertainment for audiences (such as royalty kept in power by British money) with Western tastes.

While the whole nightclub/movie scene was evolving for audiences with Western tastes, there continued to be a class of dancers who focused on dancing for local Egyptian audiences - the Mohammed Ali Street dancers. They performed at moulids (such as what you can see in the movie Tamra Henna) and weddings, and they retained the Oriental music and dance because their audiences were the local Egyptian populace. It's interesting to see how the movie Khally Balak Men Zouzou portrays this differentiation between the "family" dancer versus the nightclub dancer.

For more historical perspective on this, I'd recommend the book A Trade Like Any Other. It's really a pain to read because it's someone's PhD thesis and therefore full of lots of thick academic writing, but it's worth wading through all that. It offers a real treasure of information about how Oriental dance evolved in Egypt over the 20th century.

As for that multi-dimensional figure 8 move, I know the move you're describing, and I like it too. I think you've described it fairly well!