Nelly Mazloum Calvo

"The Legend"

"Learn to move in space
learn to think with your body 
learn to love 
with the whole of your being, 
and put a bit of God 
in all you do. 
Then the Dance 
will become Your Prayer!"
Nelly Mazloum

Meanwhile in 1957 she started touring Egypt for three consecutive years, from the Delta to Upper Egypt, from Suez to Salloum. She made intensive research work in the life, mores, music and rhythms, costumes and gestures, movements and steps, belonging to the local dance traditions of Egypt. She was learning and studying under wonderful teachers and meeting with remarkable human beings who knew a lot about the culture and traditions of this land where high civilizations and divine religions have made history since 5000 BC to our time. During the forties, fifties and sixties, she had the opportunity to witness and participate in Egypt's booming Renaissance period of the Arts. This blooming of the arts from 1956 to 1963 was due to the vision and enlightened Spirit of his Excellence Dr. Sarwat Okacha the minister of culture and education. Thanks to this extraordinary personality Egypt came to know the Golden renaissance in the arts which had never been equaled before or since.  All domains were touched, films, theatre, music, song, literature, scholars, archeologists, renovators and passionate artist, never before gathered so densely in a single city, Cairo! In such an incomparable rich period Nelly Mazloum had the great good fortune to be  appointed by the Egyptian government to organize the Egyptian National Folklore Dance Academy. 

In 1956 she founded her second school, this time for Egyptian Folklore. She was the pioneer who attempted for the first time to apply Egypt’s traditional legacy of Folklore Dances into a dramatized artistic form. She was the most famous folklore dancer in the Orient, and her performance inspired a whole new generation of dancers and choreographers. 

Meanwhile the Egyptian Ministry of Culture asked her to become adviser and main collaborator of Mr.Ramazine who was the first assistant and dancer of the "Moiseyev Dance Company" in Russia.  

But this collaboration was interrupted, when the Minister of Culture his Excellency Dr.Sarwat Okasha suggested her to form her own theatrical company, which inaugurated a style, and which was entitled by the medias and the public as "Raqs Al Ta' Biry" (expressive theatrical dancing). She was the first to bring on the stage popular, religious and typical traditional stories accompanied by original music especially composed for her company, and live singing recounting the loves, tribulations and adventures of ancient popular heroes.

 Nelly Mazloum presented in an artistic dance form, theatrical spectacles combined with expressive themes taken from the pure tradition of Egyptian life. The "Nelly Mazloum Arabic troupe of Dancers" was quickly established and they toured Egypt several times, performed in Syria, Lebanon and Sudan, giving innumerable performances in all the local theatres in the country, Ezbekieh Theater, Mohamed Farid theater, Port Said open air theater, Khartoum National theater,  the Floating theater (Masrah el Aiem), Pocket theater, National stage theater,  they traveled from Cairo to Luxor as well as appearances at National Festivals, the Dar Al Opera, television and Egyptian films. It was through Nelly Mazloum's exhaustive touring that Egyptian Folklore gained a new international following.  

In 1962 Nelly Mazloum and her company were chosen by the Egyptian Government to represent Egypt at the Helsinki Youth Artistic competition Festival amongst 80 other state delegations. At the VIII FESTIVAL MONDIAL DE LA JEUNESSE ET DES ETUDIANTS POUR LA PAIX ET L'AMITIE -Concours Artistique- She obtained the title of "LAUREATE" and the silver medal for the specialty of "danses folkloriques, solistes professionnels". The Great Russian Ballerina Assoluta Galina Ulanova was among the jury. All these spectacles and material have been recorded and can be found in the film archives of the Ministry of Culture as well as the Cairo Television archives.  

In 1965 she founded the "Nelly Mazloum Calvo" school, recognized by the ministry of culture in Athens.  

Early in her teaching career she noticed a great lack of general interest in Body Dynamics and in 1965 she started Intensive experimental work in movements conducive to Psychosomatic Alignment which she named VIVICORPOREAL® Psychosomatic Alignment Technique for AWARED CONSCIOUSNESS. Its conception is especially structured on the important Sufi principles of Double Consciousness Body Coordination involving the whole person into an expanded, free and regenerated way of being.

For half a century she delved into the labyrinth of the human mind, analyzing the relationship between mind and body feeling. In short she was teaching Dance for five decades. 

After so many years of experience in this field as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, lecturer and writer, she codified a methodological system of Oriental Dance based on her 50 years of research work and traditional dance teaching. She systematized a technique that enables the students to understand the spirit of Oriental Dance and follow the style and the practice of the Folk Dances of Egypt easily, simply and in a relatively short time. The Nelly Mazloum Oriental Dance Technique system is structured upon a comprehensive understanding of body rules, which permit the free play of systematic movements. Her technique is based on the habitual every day movement of Egyptian culture that conceives Art as an involvement of the whole self.

Students can find in her book, Nelly Mazloum "Oriental Dance Technique", information that will deepen their knowledge and inspire their creativity.  Her book is a guide to teachers and the younger generation of dancers who care to learn and wish to gain a strong foundation as well as acquire a clear insight into Oriental Lore and its fascinating magic. Nelly Mazloum’s Book “Oriental Dance Technique” is an interesting book, it is a guide for Oriental dance teachers, which will find important wisdom in its pages. Her method has guided the work of many Oriental dancers and  teachers.

In 2001 Nelly Mazloum founded the "Nelly Mazloum Mediterranean Archaic Dances Research Institute, MADRI" a non-profit dance research association for the evolution and preservation of Mediterranean Archaic Dances and music cultures. As well as to preserve and propagate the wealth of research material she has gathered for half a century and more; to encourage the new generation to discover the heritage of archaic cultural roots and link the old with the new consciously and creatively.

Nelly Mazloum believed that it is never enough to teach just steps or only a technique, it is imperative to inspire the students and give them the material necessary to enlarge their capacity as performers, to develop their possibilities as artists and to incite them to flower as human beings. Students must learn to love what they do with their whole heart, their whole mind and their whole body.