In the Middle East you will her music used for entertainment as well as for religious worship.When choosing music to dance to it is very important to understand the origin and content of your music, so you can avoid potentially offending your audience or just looking foolish. This is a general guide for things to look out for:
Religious Music and Ritual
Most all religious music is inappropriate to belly dance to.
The call to prayer is used to remind Muslims to attend to their ritual prayers. In the Middle East, it is broadcast from towers called minarets five times a day and it sounds like this: call to prayer.
The Koran (the holy book of Muslims) is chanted as part of religious worship by some Muslims. It sounds like this: The Holy Koran Chanted.
The Sufis are Muslims who delve into a more mystical dimension of worship. They can be Sunni or Shiite Muslims. Sufis often use music and movement as part of their ritual worship.One example of this practice is the whirling dervishes of Turkey. You will find a lot of Sufi religious music on the CDs of Omar Faruk Tekbilek, mixed in with a lot of wonderful dance appropriate music. - Just a side note, there are whirling dances meant more for entertainment than religious worship, like the Tanoura in Egypt. In this sort of presentation, the performer will typically wear bright colored costuming and use music that is not religious.
The Zaar is a religious ritual practiced in Egypt and throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It is a dance meant to appease an unhappy spirit. It is usually accompanied just by drumming, or drumming and singing. Although I wouldn't recommend actually performing a real zaar (because the dancer goes into trance), theatricalized versions of the zaar ritual have been included in folkloric dance shows as well as belly dance shows. To learn more about the zaar ritual, watch this video from Serpentine.org: The Zaar.
Political Music
Just like in America, there are songs written with heavy political content and messages. Some can sound like any other pop song, so it is important to, at the very least, get a general idea of the content of the song you are using before choosing to dance to it. Here are some examples of some popular political songs that would be inappropriate to belly dance to:
Hey Arab Leaders, Fayrouz-2 songs for Palestine, Who's the Terrorist - DAM
Sometimes it's really obvious, but sometimes something that just sounds like a peppy happy song can have a very different meaning like this song. So always be careful.
Dance Appropriate Music
Fortunately there is a lot of music appropriate to dance to. Classic music, popular music and music written specifically for dance. Although a lot of music is great to belly dance to, some is really meant more for specific dance styles or dances.
Just like you probably would probably cock your head at somebody who was doing the twist to Swan Lake or dancing a Tango to the Boot Scoot Boogie, it takes time to learn to identify different kinds of music, where they are from and the most appropriate way to dance to them. The Middle East is a very diverse culture with a real richness of dance and musical tradition. Just think of all the diversity of dance styles in America, then add several thousands of years of development. Don't let this overwhelm you. You don't need to know everything all at once. But feel lucky that as long as you are interested in learning more, there is more out there to learn. Now to get you started off with some Arab focused categories:
The Classics
There are certain artists in the Middle East whose music is timeless. Their songs never seem to get old and they are constantly being redone by younger artists. Many of these artists had Western musical training and they combined the best of East and West to beautiful result. A few of these classic artists include the composers Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Sayid Darwish, Baligh Hamdi and the Singers Om Koulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid El Atrache, Asmahan and Warda all made famous in Egypt. I'd also like to add to the list the singers Sabah and Fairouz and the composers the Rahbani Brothers from Lebanon. Many of their songs were made popular in old films, concerts and radio broadcasts. And many versions of their songs have been danced to by the most famous dancers in the Middle East, some from their original film appearances (for example Samia Gamal would often star in movies with Farid El Atrache), some that were re-orchestrated for the dancer later. Souhair Zaki, for example, was the first Egyptian dancer to dance to music by Om Koulthoum. Om Koulthum in particular is the most popular artist of the Middle East. Whenever dancing to her songs it is best not only to get and idea of the feeling of the piece, but to memorize the words. So many of her songs are so deeply heartfelt, it is important to know what the song is about.
Baladi / Shaabi
Baladi is the music of the everyday people. Many of the classics were sung in classical Arabic, like the Arabic used in the Koran, they also used entire orchestras to play them. Baladi might (though not necessarily) use more of the old traditional instruments, like tabla, tabl baladi, mizmar, rebab, mihbaj, etc, in smaller ensembles. Here is a clip of Hala El Safy performing with the baladi ensemble of Metkal Kenawy of Egypt.
Baladi also refers to the musical construct also called a Baladi Taksim or Ashra Baladi. It starts with a solo instrument, often an accordion, playing alone, then there is a call and answer between this instrument and a tabla, then the whole ensemble joins in and builds in tempo and energy until it reaches a climax, sometimes a lively drum solo, though not always. Here is an example of a baladi taksim with the famous Egyptian dancer Dina.
Shaabi means "nation", like Baladi means "country". Shaabi music is a genre of music that is popular in Egypt. Shaabi artists use colloquial everyday Arabic in their songs and address ordinary or everyday subjects, like fruit, horse carts, pretty girls and poopular opinino on politics. Shaabi tends to be a little more gritty or ghetto. Ahmed Adaweya is a very famous Shaabi singer in Egypt as is Fatme Serhan. Saad el Soghair and Hakim are more contemporary, popular shaabi singers in Egypt.
Baladi is a pretty general term that can encompass other terms. For example Saidi music and dance from Upper Egypt is considered baladi, the baladi of the Said, but not all baladi is Saidi. You could go to Saudi Arabia and their baladi music and dance would be very different.
You will also hear the term Shaabi to refer both to Egyptian music and other North African music from Algeria and Morocco. They are distinct from one another because of their roots and region, even though they are both Shaabi.
Something to watch out for when dancing to Shaabi music. Some of it is political, which you probably wont want to dance to. Also some of it can be a little raunchy and it's often filled with double entendres. You can still dance to this, but you might want to be in on the joke. For example, one cute song that sounds like its referring to fruit is actually referring to, well..., various body parts: Al 3einab video clip & the Al 3einab lyrics.
Al Jeel and Arabic Pop
Al Jeel translates as "new generation" or "new wave". It is sort of a light, dancey, more polished pop than the raw Shaabi. I think of it as the Egyptian equivalent of our top 40s pop artists. It mixes modern synthesizers and canned beats with traditional instrumentation and simple lyrics. Most everything in this genre is appropriate for dancing to, (although you might not be interested in dancing to some of the slow sappy ballads). Popular artists in this genre include Amr Diab, Tamr Hosny, Ruby and Shereen. A friend of mine argues that Arabic pop music outside of Egypt isn't really "Al Jeel", other Arabic popular artists that seems to fit easily into the same general description include Lebanese artists Fares Karam, Nancy Ajram, Haifa Wehbe and Carole Samaha.
Oriental Dance Music
This is music written specifically for dancers. Some times classic pieces are taken and rearranged for a dancer, or the piece is an original composition. It is usually the piece used for the dancer's grand entrance. Oriental dance entrance pieces are usually very elaborate with many changes in rhythm and mood and they are meant to show off the dynamism and skill of the performer. They usually utilize as big an orchestra as the dancer can afford to hire for her shows and they will sometimes also include a chorus of singers. Distinctive signs of an Oriental entrance piece include a long dramatic intro to build anticipation, an either lively or dramatic rhythm with full orchestra for the dancers grand entrance, a nod to something baladi, a slower portion with a solo instrument referred to as a taksim and a strong finish with the orchestra. Sometimes they contain several elements and they can last anywhere from 4 to 15 minutes approximately. A classic example of this is Princess of Cairo written for the famous Egyptian dancer Nagwa Fouad. Here is another example, a piece I beleive was written for Mona al Said.
More To Know
There is so much more to talk about. When we start to talk about different styles of dance, different tranditional forms, the different parts of a belly dancer's set, the structure of the music itself and the belly dance traditions outside of Arabic speaking world we will discover more and more and continually better understand what it is we are listening to and dancing to. Want to get a head start? Here are some good descriptions of Arabic musical genres and this website will teach you a lot about the structure and distinctive features of Arabic music: Maqam World. Enjoy!
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