'If I am not dancing, I will only be half alive': A tribute to Egypt’s late ‘Opera Butterfly’ Magda Saleh

Once upon a time, there was an Egyptian ballerina destined to represent her homeland at a time when Egypt was taking its first steps towards presenting the sophisticated, classical art.

Little did late Egypt’s first prima-ballerina Magda Saleh know at the time that she would turn into a legend leaving behind a rich legacy that inspired the next generations.   

“I feel if I’m not dancing that I will only be half alive,” Magda Saleh had said during an interview with the Egyptian El-Fasla online magazine about four years ago.

A talent cultivated

Born to an Egyptian father who worked in academia and a Scottish mother among three brothers, Magda Saleh was one of the first ballerinas to enrol in the Institute of Ballet, founded by the Ministry of Culture in 1959, and affiliated with the Academy of Arts.

"In 1963, Magda Saleh was among only five women students offered scholarships to study at the Bolshoi Ballet Company in Russia"

“When my father and mother felt that I was dead serious about taking ballet as a profession… that I have become absolutely, madly passionate about [it]… My father was very upset… he said: ‘If I allow you to become a professional dancer, I am taking a grave, and he used the word ‘grave,’ social risk because my father was a very foremost academic in Egypt,” she recalled.

“The next reason he gave me was the [risk] of relying your career on your physical fitness… He said one injury and you’re finished. So I became Dr Magda… A dancer’s life is very brief… like butterflies,” she reflected, smiling.

In 1963, Magda Saleh was among only five women students offered scholarships to study at the Bolshoi Ballet Company in Russia.

After returning to Egypt, she joined the newly-established Cairo Ballet Company and performed Boris Asafiev’s Fountain of Bakhchisarai. This was the first ballet performed by an entirely Egyptian cast and starred Magda Saleh.  

Dubbed the “Opera’s Butterfly,” she was also the first Egyptian woman dancer to gain presidential recognition.

In 1966, the late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser granted Magda Saleh the Medal of Merit shortly after watching her performing at the Fountain of Bakhchisarai.

In 1968, the Cairo Ballet Company premiered Giselle when the minister of culture, Tharwat Okasha, against all the odds managed to keep the troupe going during Egypt’s war with Israel.

Turn of events

Magda Saleh continued working for the ballet company, starring in several other key ballets until a crucial turn of events took place.

In 1971, the Khedivial Cairo Opera House mysteriously went on fire 1971 turning Magda’s life, dreams and plans upside down.  

“Everything we had including our home [the opera house], our costumes… [burned down],” she sadly recalled during her El-Fasla interview.

Magda Saleh’s mother suggested to her that she should look into an alternative career path while maintaining her passion for dancing in the process.

“While many of my colleagues departed to Moscow to continue their graduate studies, I received a scholarship to study modern dance techniques and choreography at the University of California in Los Angeles. Of course, I hadn’t had the faintest idea of what modern dance was as I hadn’t had a chance to see it in Egypt,” she said during an interview with state-run Al-Ahram Weekly in 2016.

Entitled An Exploration in the Modern Idiom of Egyptian Themes, Magda Saleh created choreography based on Egypt's ancient legend of Isis and Osiris (1974).

Later, she acquired her PhD from New York University in 1979 where her dissertation focused on documentation of the ethnic dance traditions of Egypt. Her research included a feature-length film of 17 Egyptian ethnic dance traditions.

"In 1987, she was appointed as the first founding director of Egypt’s Cairo Opera House established as a grant from Japan till it opened its doors one year later"

Magda Saleh's contribution to the cultural and artistic scene in Egypt became even more prominent after she held several top positions in notable arts bodies in the country.

In 1981, she returned home where she taught at the Higher Institute of Ballet and held the position of the dean.

In 1987, she was appointed as the first founding director of Egypt’s Cairo Opera House established as a grant from Japan till it opened its doors one year later.

The iconic ballerina moved to the US during the 1990s, residing in New York City and continued to visit home regularly until her death.

During her stay in the US, Magda Saleh kept promoting Egyptian arts and culture for the rest of her fruitful life.

“I continued to serve the cause of Egypt with the best I can out of Egypt, but Egypt is not out of me,” she once said.

In 2018, she was honoured by New York’s Theater during their From the Horse’s Mouth series.

Magda Saleh passed away aged 78 in the early hours of 11 June in Cairo.