His elder brother Ali was a dancer and through his influence (and that of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire films), Mahmoud became interested in dance.
[5][6] While on tour in Paris he resolved to start his own dance troupe back in Egypt, but due to lack of funds he had to work as an accountant for Royal Dutch Shell.
He joined the Heliolido Club in Cairo, where he met Anglo-Egyptian baladi dancer Farida Fahmy, who became his dancing partner.
After the two performed in the Soviet Union in 1957, they decided to start a folk dancing troupe in Egypt with Ali Reda.
Reda's choreography combined traditional Egyptian folk dances with Western styles like ballet.
[5] Due to the social connections of Fahmy and her family, the normally stigmatized profession of dance was deemed acceptable by Cairo society and both men and women attended performances by the troupe.
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.