The Belly Dance Workbook

Homework for week one:

  • Read "A little background on Oriental Dance (aka belly dance)" including "The Origins of our Modern Style Costuming" and "A Brief History of Oriental Dance" by Salome

  • Memorize your Arabic words of the week: Ahlan, Raqs Sharqi, Beledi, Tabla, Masmoudi Saghir :

    Ahlan - Hello

    Raqs Sharqi - Raqs means dance, Sharqi means Eastern or Oriental, together Oriental Dance. This refers to the professional stage version of the dance, with defining features including a lifted center of gravity, traveling around a stage, and influences from ballet and Lebanese folk dance. It was first called this to differetiate it from Raqs Beledi or Beledi dance. To see a beautiful example of classic Raqs Sharqi watch this clip of the very famous dancer Samia Gamal of Egypt. Notice her glitzy costume, lifted posture, traveling around the stage, and dramatic extended lines.

    Beledi (you may also see it spelled balady, baladi, beledy, etc.)
    1. My country, of the country or of the people.
    2. It can be used a complement as the beled are considered the salt of the earth or a slur when referring to somebody as unrefined, like calling somebody a hick.
    3. In dance it refers to the dance of the everyday people, raqs beledi as opposed to raqs sharqi.
    4. In dance it can also refer to a particular music and dance construct, also called beledi taksim, or ashra beledi.
    5. In American belly dance it also sometimes used to refer to the rhythm masmoudi saghir.
    To see a very beledi performance, take a look at this clip of the famous dancer Fifi Abdo of Egypt. Notice how she is just wearing a regular dress and she's tied a scarf on her hip as her only accent to her dancing. Her posture and arms are relaxed and she isn't traveling around very much.

    Tabla - Goblet Shaped drum used extensively in Middle Eastern Music. Known by many other names such as dumbek and darbuka. See a photo in the wikipedia Goblet drum entry, and see a you tube clip by master player Seido Salifoski.

    Masmoudi Saghir - the name of a common rhythm in folk and popular Arabic music, also sometimes called "Beledi". It is a 4 beat rhythm. You will often hear it as part of the Egyptian Beledi Taksim musical construct. "Saghir" means "little" in Arabic. So this is the "little masmoudi". You can listen to it in it's most basic form online at Al Siadi.com, you may also hear it filled on Jas's Middle Eastern Rhythms page, and you may hear the name pronounced and hear the rhythm in music samples at Maqam world. Here it is mapped out for you:

    D represents the low Dum sound made by the Tabla, T the accented high Tek sound and t k are the tek and ka.

    1-+-2-+-3-+-4-+-|  
D-D-__T-D-__T-__| basic form  
D-D-tkT-D-tkT-tk| filled
  • Memorize the basic Masmoudi Saghir (Beledi) rhythm, so you can speak it and play it with your hip - Dum is down, Tek is up.

  • I recommend purchasing at least one rhythm CD to practice with:

 

Homework for week two:

  • Revisit the basic Masmoudi Saghir (Beledi) rhythm, speak it and play it with your hip - for now play Dum as down, Tek as up.

  • Read "Different Styles of Oriental Dance" and watch some of the associated YouTube clips. Choose at least one dancer you liked and tell me her or his name next week and the style of dance he or she performed.

  • Learn a little more about some of the more famous belly dancers and how they contributed to the growth of Middle Eastern Dance. Perhaps select a few names from my styles article to research. I highly recommend exploring Kashmir's Who's Who in the MED World, The Belly Dance Museum and Serpentine's Egypt's Belly Dance Superstars to start you off.

  • Memorize your Arabic words of the week: Yalla, Marathania, Iowa, Habibi, Khallas

    Yalla - Let's go

    Marathania - Again or repeat

    Iowa - Yes

    Habibi - Sweetheart

    Khallas - it is finished or stop



Homework for week three:

  • Because all styles of belly dance are very connected to the music, now is a good time to learn a little about Middle Eastern music. Take some time to familiarize yourself with some common instruments used in Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Greek and other Middle Eastern music. The names of the instruments are your vocabulary for this week:

  • Learn to identify and recognize by sound and sight several different musical instruments used commonly in the Middle East:
    kanun - demonstrated by Umut Yasmut
    oud - performance by the very famous Egyptian singer, actor and musician Farid El Atrache
    ney
    kawala - deeper sound than the ney but a related instrument demonstrated by Abdallah Helmey
    tabla, darbuka or dumbek - demonstrated by Souhail Kaspar
    tabl baladi
    riq - demonstrated by Nasser Salameh
    rebaba (kemengeh)
    mizmar
    zurna (mainly Turkish, related to the mizmar)
    kaman aka violin
    bendir, duff or tar - demonstrated by Karim Nagi
    sagat, zills or sil sil - demonstrated by Karim Nagi
    mihbaj or coffe grinder, 2nd mihbaj clip
    organ (keyboard) - demonstrated by Omar Khorshid for another very famous Egyptian singer and actor Abdel Halim Hafez
    accordion - demonstrated by Deeb Kharman
    bagpipe - played for a Palestinian dabkeh troupe, accompanied by the tabla
    clarinet - played by Husnu Senlendirici and Ismail Lumanovski
    bouzouki (mainly Greek)
    cümbüş (mainly Turkish)
    saz, baglama (There are many varieties of this insturment, but that are in the same closely related family) demonstrated by Hasan Genc, here is an extra clip with Ismail Altunsaray
    buzuq (also in the saz/baglama family)
    arghul, 2nd arghul clip, 3rd arghul clip
    There are many other instruments used in Middle Eastern music, here is a good site to read descriptions:www.al-bab.com

    Pick one instrument that you really like, really hate or surprised you and tell me what it is next class.

 

Homework for week four:

  • Music Education continued - In the Middle East you will hear 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. Please read this general guide for things to look out for: Things a Belly Dancer should know about Middle Eastern Music.

  • Memorize your Arabic words of the week: Saidi, Shaabi, Al Jeel, Taksim, Mawwal, Chiftitelli

    Saidi - Pronounced "sayeedee" - a person, music, dance or thing from the Said region of Egypt, also known as Upper Egypt. It is the Southern part of Egypt, called Upper Egypt because it is higher in elevation. The Nile river flows North into the Mediterranean Sea.

    Shaabi (or Chaabi) - 1. a form of popular sung music in the lower classes of Egypt.
    2. a form of popular sung music in the lower classes of Morocco and Algeria distinct from Egyptian Shaabi.

    Al Jeel - a more polished form than Shaabi of popular sung music in Egypt.

    Taksim (or Taxim) - a solo musical improvisation by an instrument.

    Mawwal - a solo musical improvisation by a vocalist.

    Chiftitelli - It is an 8 beat rhythm. It is a Turkish or Greek rhythm used for slow portions of the dance and it is also found in some Arabic music (thanks to the long Ottoman occupation). It is very similar rhythm to the Arabic rhythm Wahda Kebir.You can listen to it on Jas's Middle Eastern Rhythms page. Here it is mapped out for you: 
    1-+-2-+-3-+-4-+-5-+-6-+-7-+-8-+-|  
D---__T---__T---D---D---T---____| basic
D-tkt-T-tkD-T-tkD---D---Tktkt---| filled

  • Memorize the basic Chiftitelli rhythm, so you can speak it and play it with your hip - Dum is down, Tek is up.


Homework for week five


Homework for week six

  • Read "Learning the Language of Belly Dance" by yours truly. Think about where you are personally in your learning. Find a favorite peice of poetry or prose, not necessarily dance related, and think about it as a dance.

  • Memorize your Arabic words of the week: Zaghareet, Hafla, Albi, Imshee, Wahid, Ethnin, Thalatha, Arba

    zaghareet - a high pitched ulation used as both a cry for celebration and a battle cry. About 13 seconds into this movie clip with Fifi Abdo you'll see and hear Fifi zaghareet.

    hafla - party

    Albi (or qalbi) - my heart

    Imshee - get going, get lost, move along, take a walk (In general a good way to tell a guy to bug off!)

    wahid - one

    ethnin - two

    thalatha - three

    arba - four

 


Extra Credit Homework

Congratulations! You have completed the Belly Dance Workbook!
If you are hungry for more learning check out these resources:

Book List of Reccomended Reading about Oriental Dance

Useful Belly Dance Sites with Articles, Information and Forums

More Articles About Belly Dance Online

Shems's Articles relevant to Professional Performers:
Behind the Rates
Professional Oriental Dance Set Primer

More Resources for the Professional Performer or Those Aspiring to be Professionals