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Dear Dancers.
Here goes my big mouth again. I think I should thank you all for
reading anything I wrote before and for reading this too, as I have
a feeling that this may be taken in more ways than I wish. But please
assume that I am a nice guy underneath it all. I can be... I promise.....
.
"BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, READ THE BOOK,
SEEN THE FILM AND GOT THE T-SHIRT?"
I have visited almost all the continents of the world, seen all
the continents during the Last few years. Almost every single state
of the USA, all of the European countries, all of the South American
countries, almost all of Australia and of course many of the Arabian
and African countries. I was very fascinated by the interest and
love for our dance, culture and music and for the sheer number of
dancers that just came out to welcome me wherever I went and were
very hospitable and caring and gave me no less than a couple of
thousand new sisters all over the world whom I love dearly, respect
deeply and dedicate my musical life to making music for them.
I also am amazed by the level of involvement of these lovely ladies
and their families in the Egyptian/Middle-Eastern dance, music and
culture. Some of them have fully dedicated their lives to the dance.
I hope and pray that one day the Egyptian people look at our magnificent
Art Form with that much respect or that much reverence, and actually,
very few of us middle easterners dedicate much time to it except
in weddings, birthday parties or in some government sponsored thing
like our national troupe, who have to do thing in a communistic
art council style, in order to impress our heads of states and to
put it out in national celebration days.
So, I feel an urge, deep from my heart to help and inform all those
caring people I met on the road in my travels, workshops, and who
send me videos of their dancing or in the parties that were held
to celebrate my visit to their city. I feel I want to advise them
correctly of my culture and of the way it is used, and an easy way
to approach it.
But first of all, there is one thing I want to ASK to a large percentage
of the dancers I met in my travels:
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO START DANCING TO THE MUSIC, PLEAAASE?
Quite a few of the dancers I met are interested in "The Latest **NEW**
Step from Cairo?, Or the **The Latest **New** Designed Costume,
or some thing that is such an extra-extra thing to the dance.
However, I actually met a very small minority who were interested
in anything that is fundamental to the dance. I have seen many dancers
doing all sorts of odd things in some funny strange costumes and
some in super expensive costumes that were even made by this or
that famous costume maker of Cairo and some have even gone to Egypt
and got them made to measure.
But I have RAARELY EVER seen any of them "DANCE TO THE MUSIC
".
So of course you are going to ask me what the heck have they been
doing then?
I'd say, I have no idea.
In my opinion dancing is like drumming, like playing nay flute,
or like playing piano, or like playing the Oud, Quanoon or any other
instrument. The instrument while dancing is the body. The dancer
is a musical member of the orchestra.
In any musical sphere and style, it is known that the best type
of musician, is the type who LISTENS TO THE OTHERS, while he's playing
his part, fitting with what they are playing. Hopefully playing
the same song with them and accenting what they are doing, rising
with them, and stopping when they stop.
As a Tabla player, when I play my drums to a song, I pay very close
attention to every musical phrase that is being played. As a member
of the group, I should definitely know what the rhythm is and I
must know when the rhythm changes, slows down, speeds up, stops,
accents or changes any way. I must listen to every musician playing
and make sure that what I am playing compliments what he/she is
playing, be it a solo or part of the orchestration. When the full
orchestra is belting out a string part, I have to compliment that
and rise with them, and express that part, but when the music is
only played by a soloist, I play very quietly, just enough to accompany
him, while still keeping the timing of the music and holding the
rhythmic part, I may also very gently decorate the little accentuations
that he does every now and then in order to keep the whole thing
aesthetic and artistic, and keeps the communication flowing between
the two of us. This same attitude applies to all instrumentalists
performing on the same piece of music. Or the whole thing becomes
a shamble of un-related mesh.
In my contact with many great artists of the world who's dance is
relevant or related to our beloved dance, like the Indian Kathakaly
dancer Nahid Siddiki of Pakistan or the Spanish Maria Belen Fernandez
of Madrid, they have ALL explained to me how much time they spent
learning about rhythm, counting and singing the sounds of the rhythms
and learning the meaning of the body movements and what these movement
of the hand means and what that look of the eye indicates and how
much they loved it and how it means something in the observer's
eye and how without all of that they would have never been allowed
on stage, and if by miracle they were, they won't be accepted by
the audience, as the audience knows what to look for.
"Why does anyone think that in the Egyptian/Middle Eastern dance
it is different?"
Yes, I know… if you show enough leg, many people will be interested
in the middle east, but I am talking about ART, CULTURE and AESTHETICS
HERE.
I have seen many dancers that came out with the most unsuited choreography
to the music and said : And I quote "This choreography was specially
designed for me by (#~@%$£ &^%@#~#x ) {Some famous teacher's name}".
I feel from my heart about this, because I want the YOU to understand
the dance and to REALLY DANCE good.
So if you want to know how to go about it and how organise your
dance to the music this is the way to do it. This is a free gift
to you, and I hope you make good use of it.
Here is what I think:
If you have chosen this or that piece of music.
Now, try to find out a little bit more about it. What it is saying
(musically and lyrically if possible), and what is the over all
gesture of the composition... is it a happy song?, is it a sad song?,
is it an angry song?, is it a melancholic song?, what kind of music
is it, is classical, is it folkloric, is it a Baladi song piece,
is it an improvised Baladi piece, is it Saidi, and this is just
in the Egyptian field …
Then find out what the rhythms are. How many bars of each rhythm
it has.
Providing that you have a basic vocabulary of movement that would
go with each one of those rhythms (Two or three steps that can fit
each rhythm). You should do a great job. One of my favourite dancers
of Egypt is Fifi Abdo. I promise you she does only three or four
steps in her whole repertoire. But she does them in the right place
at the right times with a lovely smile.
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