Encyclopedic Dictionary of Ethnic Dance Arts

FLAMENCO

• History of Flamenco from Saudi Aramco world, 1994. Flamenco is considered by many to have evolved among the Gitanos (Gypsies) who migrated from India across Asia, the Middle East and Europe. La Convivencia is a term denoting the coexistence of Jews, Muslims, gitanos and Catholics in relative peace together during the tenth to twelfth centuries AD in Arabic Spain, an event which tempered and influenced the Spanish Gitano music and dance.
• Basic Palmas video
• Timeline
• Flamenco Clock
• Studio Flamenco online handouts.

FLOORWORK

• Video of Farideh in 1978

GHAWAZEE Dance, Music and Costuming

Ghawazee (pronounced "guh WAH zee") refers to the descendents of Rroma (Gypsies) that migrated to Egypt 350 years ago. The Ghawazee are known as professional dancers, entertaining the outdoor festivities of the lower classes. Commonalities in movement are huge hip swings, hip shimmies layered over other hip movements, shoulder shimmies, spins and foot stomps to emphasize accents in the music, occasional head slides, back bends and some floor work. Ghawazee music is organic in sound, utilizing instruments like the mizmar and rebab with tabla, tar, and finger cymbals for percussion.
-- Oriental Dancer.net

• Aisha Ali in a short clip of Ghawazee style dance, wearing the older style Pharonic dress.

GIGS

From a 2011 interview of Cera Byer by Onca OLeary in Fuse Magazine:

I have a browser window that has the following tabs open at all times: Craigslist, DancePlug audition board, Theater Bay Area audition listings, and one empty one that cycles through Google searches and dance magazines. Every single day I look through each of these and apply to everything that looks interesting. Everything...just so people have my resume on file.

I Google dance festivals, theater companies - anything that I know pays dancers in my area - and I send in unsolicted applications. This means that even when I don't see a listing saying they are hiring, I write to them, tell them who I am, and say I'd love for them to keep my resume on file for future projects. Some companies don't like this, but I've had people write back and say OMG, a choreographer just quit, can you come in today?

Once you have a gig, be cool with everyone. Exchange cards with the tech guys, the venue owners, the bartenders, the dancers, the directors. Treat everyone like your peer, because you really don't know who is around. Everyone you meet may be the person who hires you for your next job.

Be punctual, manage time well, deliver a strong product, take criticism well, follow through on commitments as best you can (and own mistakes when you cannot)- like every other relationship you'll ever have - and one job will be easily into 20.

You don't have to be the most talented candidate if you are the best to work with. If you are both, it puts you way ahead of the game.

In a 2011 interview with Princess Farhana published in Fuse, Kajira Djoumahna (of Black Sheep Belly Dance) described how she prepares for her shows.

As I put on my costume and makeup, I start my backstage process. Even if I am at home looking into my own mirror, I am now 'backstage' ...as I don my makeup I also don my persona. I become larger than life, I take on a new idea of myself as I transform my physical look.

At my destination I put on my finishing touches close to the time of my performance...belt, lipstick, dance shoes, and heavy tribal bracelets. Once fully adorned, I stretch and breathe and ready my finger cymbals for a quick put-on.

After my cymbals are on my hands, I always do a backstage centering meditation in the form of an East Indian pranam, or puja for the stage. My personal pranam (also known as a prayer, moving meditation or centering exercise) is a variation of my teacher's. Everyone in my classes learn this as well, as it serves to set apart sacred time from mundane and it really works to help change focus and bring one into the now.

Once on stage, I almost always make a circle when I enter to help me claim my space and set it aside in my mind from anywhere else. If I cannot make a circuit because of my style or choreography that day, I do so in my mind to delineate my space from everyone else's. Now fully prepared, I lose myself in the moment and just dance!

GYPSY

See Roma : Gypsy

HABIBA

American dancer, choreographer and teacher who has done extensive field work on Tunisian and Ghawazee dancing.

2011 article in Zaghareet, duplicate of one in Arabesque in 1983:

• Tunisian dance is particularly strenuous and features twisting movement as opposed to the dropping of the hip typical in Egyptian dance.
• Raks Al-Juzur is the traditional pot dance, performed with a pot partially filled with water balanced on the head.
  • Usually performed to a medley of popular traditional songs, arranged to increase in tempo, with the last song reaching the climax.
  • Typical steps include a counterclockwise twist step, with the right arm raised and the left outstretched.
  • Also included is the basket step, during which the right arm reaches in and out of a basket formed by the left arm as the left foot kicks out.
  • A typical entrance step consists of three forward and one back.
  • Another entrance uses two clockwise twists with feet together followed by two steps, then reverse.

HAHBI RU

John Compton and Rita Alderucci, the founders and directors, both studied with Jamilia Salimpour and performed as solo dancers in Jamila Salimpour's Bal Anat in the early 1970's. They organized Hahbi Ru in 1991 in part to recreate the ensemble style of performance developed by Jamila Salimpour and to develop the genre further. From their web site:

Hahbi Ru's focus is on the Tribal-Folkloric style, quite different from the Cabaret style or American Tribal style most people think of when they picture Middle Eastern dance or belly dance.

• Duet at 1991 Renaissance Faire.
• At Tribal Fest in 2010.
• John Compton and his famous tray dance at Tribal Fest 2010.

• Hula Costuming technique and lore.

KAJIRA DJOUMAHNA

A well-established and long-time American Tribal Style dancer who studied with FCBD went on to create her own version of Tribal style (Black Sheep Belly Dance, BSBD). Unlike the original ATS format, her format develops and uses both sides of the body.

She and her husband Chuck produce largest and longest-running Tribal belly dance festival in the world every May in Northern California. She is a writer, with a regular column for the belly dance magazine Zaghareet and she is the author of the definitive book on Tribal style belly dance, The Tribal Bible.

KHALIJI

• "Khaliji refers to Arab dances from the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, UAE and Bahrain). The movements have some African and Indian traits due to geographic interaction, yet the core is definitively Arab. The movements consist of limping steps, shoulder pulses, various hand vibrations, swaying, turning and hair twirling."
  -- Karim Nagi, Arab FolkDance DVD.
• A brief clip of Aisha Ali performing a khaliji dance. Her semi-sheer robe is unique and beautiful.

LEONA WOOD 1921- 2007

Leona Wood was an accomplished book designer and illustrator, painter, and folk dancer. As artistic director of the Aman International Folk Ensemble, she moved into new territory by moving belly dance to the stage. Aisha Ali was quoted in a 2002 issue of Habibi Magazine as saying:

“It was Leona Wood who was largely responsible for taking the belly dance from the cabaret setting of ethnic nightclubs and outdoor festival venues and presenting it as an art dance in the theatre. It was her keen aptitude for lighting and dramatic choreography and an accurate knowledge of ethnic and tribal costuming combined with a solid knowledge of the cultural history of the Middle East that made her productions breathtaking to the connoisseur audiences who frequented the Los Angeles Music Center and California's University auditoriums.”

From the book Leona Wood published in 2011:

In the 1960s, Wood turned her attention to dance. She started a small performing ensemble that soon joined forces with another local group to form the Aman International FOlk Ensemble. As Artistic Director of the company, Wood used both her artistic talents and advertising expertise. In 1980, she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to produce “Tseyka — Episodes from Kwakiutl Dance Drama.” Wood's vision for the mise en scène included innovative concepts such as lighting the stage from instruments located center stage, and a traditional dance screen (painted by Wood) hung upstage to allow performers to enter without using the wings. (“A visual masterpiece,” wrote Martin David in Dance West (April, 1980).

In the 1960s and 70s, she began a series of paintings of 19th century Middle Eastern dancers which established her reputation as an Orientalist artist. Some of them were used as cover pictures for Aisha Ali's albums of MED music. The painting Entertainment in the Desert is familiar to many dancers as the cover for the Music of the Ouled Nail album published by Aisha Ali.

Aisha Ali highly recommends Leona Woods articles on the history of BD, first published in Arabesque Magazine.

• Danse du Ventre: a Fresh Appraisal, Part I
• Danse du Ventre: a Fresh Appraisal, Part II

MAQAM / MAQAMAT

Arabic scales.

• Fabulous collection of maqamat at Alsiadi.com.

MUSIC

Arabic Music

• Sama'i: a composed genre with four sections (khana, plural khanat), each followed by a refrain (taslim). A 10/8 rhythmic mode (sami'i thaqil) is utilized in the first threee hanat and the taslim. The fourth khana is typically composed in a 3/4 or 6/4 rhythm called Samai Darji, although some contemporary composers use a 5/8, 7/8 or 9/8 rhythm.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Taqasim: an instrumental improvisation which can be metric or non-metric. Usually performed solo but sometimes accompanied by a percussionist or an instrumentalist playing a drone. The taqasim is based on a maqam but often includes modulations to related maqamat.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Maqtu'ah Mousiqiyyah: Instrumental composition performed by an ensemble, usually incorporating melodies and rhythms found in rural folk and dance music.
• Dulab: an introductory short instrumental composition which sets the mood of a maqam. 8 - 16 meaures long, and usually a prelude to other musical genres.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Tahmila: a dance form in a simple 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm which alternates between short improvisational solos and composed ensemble refrains in a call-and-response format. Each section is two measures long.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Longa: Lively dance form in simple 2/4 rhythm. Originally a Turkish /Eastern European style. Alternates between khanat and taslim, each 6-16 measures long in 2/4, except for the last which is occasionally in 3/4 Samai Darji meter.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Bashraf: like the Sama'i, a composed genre with four khana each followed by a taslim. Usually played as an opening composition in a suite. One rhythmic mode is followed throughout the composition: 28/4, 24/4, 20/4, 16/4, or 93/4.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Dawr: Vocal genre in simple rhythmic modes sung in colloquial Arabic which was developed in 19th century Egypt. It alternates between a refrain and a verse. Usually begins with a Dulab.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Muwashah: performed by a chorus alternating with a soloist. The lyrics are written in Classical Arabic and often deal with the subject of unrequited love or with wine, used a a metaphor for religious intoxication.
  -- Simon Shaheen
• Qasida: A song whose text is a classical Arabic poem, performed by a solo vocalist with instrumental accompaniment. Usually performed in wahdah rhythmic mode. The subject is most often love, but could be about patriotism, death or other themes.
  -- Simon Shaheen

Ouled Nail

• Links to two articles by Amel Tafsout on the Ouled Nail (Ouled Nayl) published in a German magazine, Tanz Oriental. Lots of pictures.
• Short clip of Aisha Ali performing a dance of the Ouled Nail.
• Old photos and postcards at the Belly Dance Museum site.

PERFORMING

• Sports Strategies for Musicians: Concert Day Routine at Violinist.com.
• Recovering from sub-par performances at Musicians Way.

PERSIAN DANCE, MUSIC and COSTUMING

• 16th Century Coat Pattern

PUBLICATIONS

• Society for Dance Research

RAQS SHAABI

Raqs Shaabi is a relatively new genre of Egyptian dance, a blend of traditional beledi combined with each dancers own individual improvisation. Moroccan Chaabi style is also very popular, although the music is different from the Egyptian style Shaabi. Moroccan Chaabi music uses a lot of violin, and is typically in 6/8 rhythm. It starts slow, and builds to a fast frenzy, and it could include anything from tea tray dancing to jafna, dancing on top of a wash tub.

RHYTHM

Middle Eastern Rhythms

Fabulous collection of rhythm diagrams at Alsiadi.com.

Mary Ellen Donald:

The Middle East is essentially divided into three cultures: Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. There are a lot of similarities in those three cultures, though the languages are different. They all have quarter tones in their music, tones that come between the half-steps in our western scales. If you look at a piano, quarter tones are the notes between the black and white keys, the notes in the cracks. We don't have them in our music scale. But all three Middle Eastern cultures do. In addition, Turkish music is very particular about dividing a tone into nine parts and tuning to the exact ninth of a tone. So a very subtle ear is necessary.

In my specialty, Arabic music, there are three further subdivisions corresponding to geographic regions.

1. One region is North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya. There, 6/8 rhythms and 3/4 rhythms are dominant. They have some short 2/4 rhythms, but they emphasize 6 and 3. Then they overlay those two and a very exciting polyrhythmical texture comes out of that.
2. The second area is called the Arabian peninsula, or as we know it now, the Persian Gulf. The rhythm from that area has an almost Latin sound to it. It has a 3/3/2 pattern. They call that music khaligi. It is sometimes very fast, very lively music, and it is typical of the Gulf area.
3. Finally, the area of my heaviest specialty is Egypt/Levant. Levant refers to several countries: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine. Egypt shares that same music.
   • The key Levant rhythm is called the baladi rhythm when it's played slow and heavy.
   • When it is speeded up, it's called maqsoum.
   • Then, in Egypt, that same pattern gets speeded up even one more notch and is called fallahi. Fallahi is very popular in upper Egypt.
   • There is also a malfouf rhythm, which has a 3/3/2 pattern, that is very much in use in the Levant area.

Urban Greek (rebetiko) rhythms:

• Sirtaki (aka Hasapiko) including various kinds of Greek music. It is also the fast version of Chasapiko (like 4/4 and 2/4 meter)
  • You Tube
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=6OZPRctkwFI
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6is5aJjzeIU&feature=related
• Syrtos, line dances with a leader: mostly a 4/4 meter in various forms
  • Phantom Ranch
  • You Tube tutorial
• Zeibekiko (or Zeimbekiko)
  • Greek folk dance with a rhythmic pattern of 9/4 or 9/8.
    1 2& 3 4 5 6& 7 8 9
  • The origin of the dance may be a Turkish warrior's dance, Zeybek. Zeibekiko, as danced by the Greeks, is a showcase for passionate improvisation and is usually performed by one person, usually a male. Depending on the inclination of the dancer and the music, it can be as emotional as Flamenco The name of the dance comes from the Zeibek warriors of Anatolia.It is danced by one person only and is of free choreographic structure. In older times if a second dancer got up to dance, it would be a cause for conflict and possible violence. However, in the 21st century a certain dance etiquette has evolved, so that other men wait to take turn after and if the dancer stops. Traditionally, applause was not sought nor commonly given, out of respect.
  • Tutorial from Sirtaki.com on You Tube
  • Soldier takes the stage to perform during a concert.
• Hasapiko , (a 4/4 meter and the fast version Hasaposerviko in a 2/4 meter)
• Antikristos or Karsilamas and Argilamas (a 9/8 meter)
• Kamilierikos , (a 9/8 meter) and Aptalikos, broken down in two sixteenths, (slow version a 9/4 and fast version a 9/16 meter in various forms)
• Tsifteteli (not the same as the Arabic Chiftelli)
• Kalamatianos, circle dance in 7/8 time, organized in a slow 3, quick 2, quick 2 rhythm which is repeated twice per phrase. The steps of the Kalamatianos are the same as those of the Syrtos, but the Syrtos is slower with a 4/4 beat.
  • Phantom Ranch
  • Diagrammed at Sacred Circles and at BTInternet.
  • Youtube featuring music, dancing not clear<.
• Zembekiko: male line dance.
  • Sirtaki.com on You Tube

ROMA : GYPSY

• DOM Research Center for Middle East and North African Studies.
• Facebook and web site for Jaynie Aydin, recommended by Marguarite as an excellent source for Roma and Turkish Roma dance info.

RUSSIAN ETHNIC DANCE

These were posted on Facebook by Laurel Victoria Gray.

• Russian Khorovod, an astounding floating circular dance.
• A faster Russian style.

SAIDI

SHAMADAN

AKA Raks Shamadan.

From Anna Cancelli's article in 2011 Zaghareet:

• A lighted shamadan means open flames on your head. You must protect head, hair and floor from wax drippings, comply with any fire ordinances, and know where fire hazards and fire extinguishers are located.
• The Shamadan is heavy, and a challenging prop to work with.
  • The dancer must be sure of her technique with strong isolation and precision.
  • Stamina and strength are required.
  • The shamadan needs to fit the head securely and comfortably. Use padding, foam or leather to the inside cap to keep the headpiece secure.
  • Warm up thoroughly before performing, paying attention to neck, back and upper arms and shoulders.
  • Do not do floorwork unless you are exceedingly skilled in floor work with exceptional upper arm and thigh strength.
  • Examine the dance area before the performance. Identify the location of light fixtures, decoration, and ceiling fans.
  • Keep away from blowing air: it may put candles out or blow wax on your skin or on the audience.
  • No-drip candles are a good investment. Use new ones each time because new candles drip less.
  • If live fire is inappropriate. use battery-operated candles.
  • Be prepared for hot wax drips. If you flinch, your Shamadan may topple off your head.
  • If the Shamadan feels unsteady while you dance, slow down and stand still. The audience will enjoy a good look.
  • Buy or make a carrying case to protect the shamadan and make your entrance to the venue more professional.

• Princess Farhana performs Raks Al Shamadan.
• Morocco's article on Nadia Hamdi, an accomplished Egyptian dancer and expert Shamadan dancer.
• You Tube.
• Huge shamadan with zills, and then a cane dance.

SWORD DANCING

SUFI

Tarab

Ecstatic state in music and dance.

Dr. A. J. Racy: In Arab culture, the merger between music and emotional transformation is epitomized by the concept of tarab, which may not have an exact equivalent in Western languages.

Lee Ali: The shows which strive to achieve tarab are by design, very long. There must be adequate time to a) develop the magic, as there is a kind of aspect almost like magic to the tarab experience. when achieved, it is akin to out-of-body (would be the closest way to describe).

Cassandra Shore: Tarab is not the same experience as meditation or trance, and requires other sentient beings in the room to be involved in what is happening. That's part of the cycle of energy that happens to an audience and performers together. Trance can be communal as well as solo...When writing about tarab, Arab writers tend to write about it happening with music or poetry, rarely dance. Mostly, I think, because they rarely write about dance as an art.

• Orit Maftsir talks about Tarab.
• Mona Said

TRIBAL Belly Dance

Asharah offered some definitions for Tribal belly dance in a 2011 article in Fuse.

• Tribal belly dance must have roots in American Tribal Style (ATS) and/or the Jamila Salimpour format, the dance stylizations that led to the development of the Tribal aesthetic, movement vocabulary and musical selections.
  • Lifted chest, high elbows, grounded quality and proud demeanor;
  • Movement vocabulary derived from the Jamila Salimpour format;
  • May have other dance movement vocabularies incorporated;
  • Costuming that fuses the ethnic-fantasy ATS costuming with other designs;
  • Music that blends Middle Eastern and South Asian with other musical traditions.
• Tribal Fusion:
  • Sharp belly dance isolations;
  • Rich ethnic and vintage costuming;
  • Many ATS-based movements;
  • Music that incorporates Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Balkan traditions;
  • Possible incorporation of the "sinewy, slinky" quality that Rachel Brice and similar have made into an art;
  • The music need not be Middle Eastern based.

"Tribal Fusion is a specific style of dance with certain characteristics, and it is in its essence belly dance. Tribal Fusion is not another term for popping and locking, nor is it a justification for dancing to non-Middle Eastern music or not learning more traditional Middle Eastern dance styles...also not a catch-all term for a dancer to use to label herself because she is not sure what else to call her dance."

TURKISH Dance, Music and Costuming

• Well researched costume patterns
• Ottoman Influences in Turkish Dress
• Women's Costume of the Near and Middle East by Jennifer M. Scarce
• Suggestions from a private collector
• SCA moderated board, many nitty-gritty details.
• Turkish garb.

• Medieval Turkish music from Traditional Crossroads, Music of the Dancing Boys, which also has a nice booklet. The song Mevlana is period.

UZBEK Dance, Music and Costuming

Uzbek dance has three major schools - Ferghana, Bukhara, and Khorezm. --Laurel Victoria Gray

• Uzbek Dance and Culture Society

• Clips from 1970s aired on Uzbek TV on YouTube.
• Khorezm style on YouTube.
• Silk Road Dance Company channel.