Why I Chose the Salimpour Certification Program

Hi all, today’s blog post is personal. I wanted to talk about why I chose to certify in the Salimpour School of Dance. This past week there has been a lot of conversation around belly dance burn out and the change of the industry, which has made me reflect on my study and what I bring to my students. I’m not comparing or contrasting this program to others, this is my own personal experience and I hope it helps you think about this program as well!

My first Suhaila workshop was in the spring of 2005 in Charleston, South Carolina. Ziah Ali of the Awalim dance company gave me a ride and told me these workshops were vital to my training. To say these workshops kicked my ass was an understatement and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I was a sophomore in college, in my early twenties and had many workshops and years under my belt so naturally I felt like a hotshot. These workshops humbled me. The movement was so complex I could barely keep up, sweat was pouring from my body and I was in a zen of concentration. I LOVED that feeling (and I still do).

Soon after, I joined Ziah and Awalim dance company and learned how to produce a truly polished product on stage. My years with Awalim and the Salimpour influence shaped me as teacher and a dancer. I did get my first Suhaila Level 1 certification in 2009, but did not keep up with the program. Over the next few years, I would take the multi-level workshops when Suhaila came to Atlanta, but did not feel ready to pursue certification. Faaridah of Atlanta Fusion Belly Dance had begun to bring Suhaila consistently to Atlanta and started a Salimpour Collective which I also joined in 2015. It was at this time that I started to think about certification.

I took a lot of time to think about both the Jamila and Suhaila certification programs. What would I gain from them? Was the investment worth it? Would I lose my own artistic personality as a dancer? After some deep thought, I decided to pursue the certification. My first certification trip to the mothership in 2015 for SL1 and JL1. I’m now level 2 certified in both programs and I am REALLY enjoying the strength and depth of my dance. There is a lot of buzz in the belly dance world around certification, codification and standardization. To add to that discussion, I’d like to provide my personal reasons why I joined the Salimpour School of Dance Certification Programs:

1. Any dancer, plus size or not, will be challenged by this school. The Suahaila certification especially focuses on challenging movement that layers feet, hips, body, arms and zills at various timing. I can take that and apply it to my own dance.
2.  Academic study. As you progress through the program, there are multiple opportunities to study not only belly dance, but also the art of dance and performance. Sometimes I feel the belly dance community loses that element and I’m happy to have that embedded in the certification. I have an entire library of books, DVDs and tools that I can dork out with! I’ve also branched out into other styles of dance for more foundational studies, ballet in particular.
3. Arabic music. This should not come as a surprise! This is my passion and it also happens to be a passion for Suhaila. The in depth work we do with Arabic music in these programs are so vital. You get to work with talented Arab musicians which is a treasure in today’s belly dance world. I don’t care what style belly dancer you are, you need the history and background of Arabic music.
4.  I love the structure of the program. It is clearly outlined what you need to do to work through the program. The curriculum is robust and the fact that you must consistently apply effort is a big deal to me. Not everyone passes. Not every chooses to go through the entire program, that says something about the caliber of the program.
5. Foundation and observation of movement. This format has taught me to observe dance and be able to break down that movement. Ziah and the Awalim dance company played a large role in this too. As a ‘natural’ dancer, the ability to break down and understand movement hasn’t been the easiest for me.
6. I’m a plus sized dancer. I chose the Salimpour format as my work out and get healthy. I’m about 80ish pounds lighter than when I started and I plan to continue my path to health and wellness. A lot of that is attributed to food and lifestyle changes, but dance also played a huge part and in particular the Salimpour program.
7. To be able to find my own dancer. I’m very sensitive to my own style and voice as a dancer. I feel like this program gives me tools not only in movement, but also in how I can apply movement from this school AND OTHERS into my own performance voice. I’ve written choreographies very differently since progressing in the program, they are not complex for the sake of being complex. They say more and have more depth. This could also come from having more life experience, but the program has given me tools to be able to interpret those experiences into performance. (Collages for the win!!)

Reasons why I didn't join the program

1. I did not join the program be a clone of Suhaila. I find this to be insulting, but I have heard this said before. Suhaila is her own dancer, chorographer and creator and so am I. If the moment comes where I begin to emulate her style in my personal choreography and performance, I feel like I have failed the program.
2.  I did not join to only learn a single style of dance. While the Jamila certification is a distinct style, it’s also a basis for a good chunk of American style belly dance. What an opportunity! That doesn’t mean that I don’t pursue classes that focus on Reda technique, Bobby Farrah technique or ATS – I still do.
3. I did not join the program to learn Suhaila choreographies. The choreographies are a learning tool for me. They have stretched my ability to learn someone else’s method and style that I can apply to learning other choreography. It keeps me on my toes and sharp. I feel like I can learn a choreography so much faster now.
4. I did not join the programs to feel superior to other dancers. The Salimpour certifications are very personal to me. This is a structured path that is increasing my dance ability. I feel like it has given me a lens where I can perceive other belly dance performance, styles and schools and a means to be able to translate and interpret that variety for myself.

Long post, but I wanted to provide some insight that is not tied directly to the school. This year I begin my journey into the land of Suhaila and Jamila level 3. I’ve got my 8-month training plan and am already executing against it. This will be a lengthy part of the journey but one where I feel I’ll learn even more. I’m truly enjoying my experience so far. Yes, the certification is expensive, but I feel like I’m in belly dance college. It works for me. :)

Links: Direct from the Salimpour Website About Certification


Why, why, why? by Beatrice Walker

Beatrice Walker is a good friend of mine and fellow dancer in the Salimpour School of dance. This is her blog entry for the Salimpour Summer of Love 2017 contest. Enjoy!

Why am I torturing myself? Why am I spending so much time perfecting a technique when it is “just” a hobby? Why? I asked myself this question regularly and often when I hit a roadblock and I can’t figure out to overcome it. But I always end up going back to the basics and remember how I felt when I was not as active in the program: alone … I felt alone and with no purpose.

It was an accident!

My encounter with belly dancing was a total accident. A friend of mine who knew a friend who knew a friend who was teaching, asked me if I would take classes with her. Since I have always took dance classes since a young age and I was missing not taking any, I said sure! Let’s see what it looks like! It was a major challenge as I was used to big spacious movements with jazz and grooving on western “simpler” music. But I loved the difficulty. I eventually met three amazing women, Judy, Vonda and Stacey who had just discovered the Salimpour format and wanted to share it with the Austin community. Vonda always jokes with me saying that on my first class, apparently (I cannot remember this!) I complained that I was sweating (ah!) and also I thought downs and ups were the same (I know … this is vintage terminology!). But I could not resist and fell in love with the format because the learning is endless. It is a format that challenges your body, that challenges your mind, that challenges your approach to difficulties in life. It is a format that inspires you and show you the way to become a better dancer and a better person.

Getting to do something I never thought I could do! That is why I love the Salimpour program! imagine you are trying to move a certain way and your mind/body tells you “No, this is not possible.” Then wake up a few months/a few years later, and realize where you struggled before is a piece of cake now! That really sums up the Salimpour format.

The most memorable moment of achieving something I did not think I could was when Stacey brought Bal Anat to Austin in 2011. It was my first time seeing Bal Anat. We had the opportunity to audition and our piece was the sword dance. For the unfamiliar readers, the sword dance includes balancing a sword on your chin while getting into your split and performing floor work. First time dancing with a sword and split was out of my dance vocabulary! I honestly thought this was something my body could not do. But I put my mind to it and worked really hard to “get it”, even rehearsing over Christmas holidays while my parents were visiting and observing my attempts! We even put foam at the end of the sword in order to not scratch the wood floor if the sword was going to fall! So … many red chins later, I was on my way back from a rolfing session working on releasing my muscles to help with the split, when I got the phone call from Stacey saying I was in! I was so happy including my other fellow dancers who got in. Little note: If we had not been ready, Suhaila had back-up dancers to make sure the sword dance would still happen! We just did not know that which helped us be even more fearless in learning that difficult choreography! Bal Anat was an amazing experience and everyone needs to see the show. So much power and history! Knowing that it was created in the 60’s give me chills and makes me want to continue to do it! Shameless plug here for the Bal Anat 50^th anniversary tour next year!

The sword dance is one example but there are so many other ones such as playing left hand dominant finger cymbals (what a comedy when I first started!) or the pot dance (practices videos were very entertaining!) or the L2FCDS (playing cymbals and dancing at the same time?? Who can do this?).

Learning about myself

The school is a teaching vehicle for life. It helped me discover imbalances in my body and how to address them, it helped me take care of my body with strengthening and stretching. It also helped me build my confidence on and off the dance floor, and allowed me to reflect on my approaches to specific situations off the dance floor. The program is a very mature self-reflecting program that builds character and strength. It opened my eyes on some elements of my professional life and how to address them.

The community is what really keeps me engaged.

Certifications are a goal in themselves and yes I am working on my SL3. It is not small task especially with all the projects that have been added last year. But the journey is really what is interesting and engaging. And comes with it the incredible community of women who have checked out their ego at the door and are in for themselves and bettering their lives. We all have fires in our bellies and we all support each other in learning how to ignite it. The international aspect of the school is very in line with who I am (French born living in the US who has lived in Canada with families from Taiwan, Central Africa, Caribbean, Luxembourg and Italy) and I love to be connected with dancers from around the world.

Let’s not forget

I did not highlight the obvious but let’s not forget that the school is meant to educate us on the ancient art form of bellydance. I mostly appreciate that the school is very keen on developing responsible dancers who do not just execute difficult dance movements but learn the context around them and the history behind them. Dancing with intention and knowledge is what the school is about. To build and maintain a legacy is a difficult and long journey and I am forever grateful to Jamila, Suhaila and Isabella for being the force along with their L5 certified dancers and the many more to come :)

Beatrice is SL2 and JL2 certified dancer and is working on her SL3 certification. She is a member of the Georgia Salimpour Collective. She was inspired and remains inspired by so many talented dancers in the program, and hope by sharing her struggles and showing how far she has come, she can also be an inspiration to those who are starting this Salimpour journey at www.SalimpourSchool.com

Get the Scoop for the Atlanta Belly Dance Scene

By the way, if you're ever interested in what's going on in the Atlanta belly dance scene, Barbara's Yalla Y'all is a GREAT blog for upcoming events. She's on the ball, whoo hoo! http://yalla-yall.blogspot.com/

Marketing Food For Thought

This past weekend I conducted a campaign-based marketing class at TribOriginal. The class went great, and I enjoyed our discussions! Here are the notes for anyone who wasn't able to attend or didn't get a copy.

1. It’s all about timing - Whether you are planning an event, wanting to increase the numbers in your classes, or book more gigs – timing is everything.

Time for participant prep
Might be longer or shorter in your area/ city/ student base
Are your students procrastinators or planners?
Document your success based on how far (or how close) to your event you advertise

Timelines: MAP IT OUT starting from the event going backwards (flyers, social, email, newsletter, etc)
This happens 8 weeks in advance
This happens 6 weeks in advance
This happens 4 weeks in advance
This happens 2 weeks in advance
This million and one pieces need to happen the week of

Seasons (Holiday and Industry specific)
Holiday seasons impact the general public’s willingness to participate in your event
Industry specific events can limit the disposable income of your target audience or current student base
Other festivals, workshops, etc
Touring groups
Adjacent industries that cross over – Burner events, burlesque, etc

2. Location, location, location - Sometimes you can only reach so far with your marketing efforts - literally. Be realistic as to who from your marketing base can attend an event based on travel.

GP Rule of Thumb - In today’s environment, belly dancers are EVERYWHERE. The general public won’t travel for more than 20 minutes to a class due to the current economy and gas prices. While we don’t always have the ability to get prime locations, clarification is key.

INCLUDE ADDRESSES - We live in a world of smart phones and GPS’s – don’t forget to add an address AND phone number to all marketing materials

3. Supply and Demand - Events happen every weekend. More events are happening in more localized areas. While the enthusiasm for dance is great, your marketing base will become jaded with too many events. Be aware of your community.

SUPPORT your fellow artists and guess what? They will probably support you too! Utilize other’s events as a means of networking and collaboration.

Don’t become insular – Event after workshop after event will eventually wear on your local student base. Broaden and vary your efforts for networking, performance, and event planning to broaden your base of ‘touches’.

4. Personas – Whom are you trying to reach? Everybody? No, not really. Putting bodies in your events or classes is always a concern, but inviting the right target market to your event is way more efficient. How do you define your target audience? Create the ideal persona of who you want to reach, and reach them in their channels of communication:

Demographics: Gender, Ages (what is your typical age spread in your classes/ events?), Location (are they near enough to care about the event?), Income (can they afford your classes?) , Mobility (are they willing to travel?)

Psychographics: College students looking to try something new?Housewives wanting to have fun for an hour? Fellow artists who want to try a new discipline? Other dance students looking to cross train?

Online/ Offline Digital Behavior: How is the best way to reach your persona? What is your persona’s digital communication of choice? (Social Networks? Email? Message boards? ) How often does your persona go online? Are there local hangouts where your persona frequents? Who influences your persona to engage with you? (Friends? Other dancers/ artists?)

5. Go forth and be social, digitally speaking – it’s free, everyone is doing it, and you should too. Here are some Facebook tips every starving artist should adhere to:

• Get a Facebook Fan Page
• Comment on photos
• Tag/ Untag your photos
• Comment
• Create events
• DON’T MAKE IT ABOUT YOU
• Tag other people
• Comment on others’ photos, statuses, and notes
• Offer advice, message, and

6. Degrees of Separation – Drip, drip, drip. To me, this is the most important aspect of marketing. I hear dancers/ sponsors say all the time – I posted a million Facebook statuses, flyers, emails, and still no one came! Ok great, you did everything right accept one small detail – did you make sure to extend beyond your close networking circle? If you are planning an event, want to fill your classes, or just have a rockin’ hafla – you have to make sure that not only does your close network know what is going on, but their friends understand, and their friends understand, and their friends understand…you get the picture.

Sheet Music Resources - UPDATED 9/29/10

Updated this post on 9/29/10 with more resources.

I've taken it upon myself to get musicians in Atlanta to see my point of view - that Middle Eastern music is amazing and should be played often! In doing this, I've also taken it upon myself to collect a large amount of classical Arabic sheet music. Here is a list of sheet music resources that I've found to be very helpful:

http://www.angelfire.com/music4/bilbilau/sheetmusic.htm - UPDATED 9/29/10 Great resource for Balkan, Turkish, and SCA-type music

http://www.istanpitta.com/cds_books/ - UPDATED 9/29/10 Avatar's Early Music Books. His arrangements are well thought out, giving a little more ornamentation that your normal melody lines that are written out. I've only focused on the handful of Eastern music in his collection, but can't wait to dive into more.

http://www.khafif.com/rhy - Jas's great percussion site, complete with midi sound clips

http://www.khafif.com/rhy/abc.html - Jas's resource for some sheet music, in ABC notation and sheet music

http://www.issaboulos.com/archive/ - Archive of Middle Eastern sheet music, amazing resource.

http://www.maqam.com/store/p/20-Arabic-Music-Songbook.html - Great source book with lots of tunes + lyrics in Arabic.

http://ifdo.pugmarks.com/~seymour/midipage/ - AMAZING site I stumbled across with stuff from all over the world

http://www.alsiadi.com/index.html - Has a great selection of free music, but you have to download scorch to see the music.

http://www.dorku.com/ - Carmine and Melissa's transcribing project, some free pieces and a lot for sale for about .99 cents each

http://www.bellydancesheetmusic.com/ - Melissa's continuing project for sheet music

http://www.arabicmusicalscores.com/buysheetmusic.php?cat=all - For purchase sheet music, mostly Egyptian and Lebanese

http://pentagrammi.wordpress.com/2005/05/25/spartiti-musica-araba/ - Random blog with some cool stuff for free

http://www.maryellendonald.com/CDs&BooksAvailableforPurchase.htm - Mimi Spencer's and Mary Ellen Donald books - great song books, clear and organized, some with song lyrics.

Now Accepting Students for Private Sessions

I'm not currently offering weekly classes, but I would like to extend the opportunity for students to schedule private sessions with me. First lesson includes a 30 minute dance consultation - let's figure out what you want to do and how you want to do it - and then we'll dive into your hour session.

These sessions will help you get on the right track for your dance aspirations. I don't teach trends or tricks; I teach technique an...d theory - and I'll work you HARD. We'll take the sessions at a pace that is comfortable, yet challenging for you. If it's easy, you're not learning! Private sessions are for specific feedback to accelerate your dance growth, so constructive criticism is an essential part of these sessions.

Topics include:

- Musicality
- Music Theory
- Arabic Styling
- Drills
- Zills
- Spin Technique
- Veil Technique
- Shimmy technique
- Layering drills
- Choreography

I may have you work on other technique before we approach your topic of choice. This is a good thing. Great dancers build proper technique and then can easily extend that technique to their inspiration. Don't hurt yourself or compromise your dance integrity!

Please message me if you are interested and we can schedule your first session. $35 an hour or $60 for 2 hours, travel expenses apply to teach in your home.

You can also send an email to majda dot anwar at gmail dot com

Thanks!

The Integrity of Dance: Choreography and Expression

It's 6:45 PM on a Saturday and I'm getting ready for a show. We're at a local workshop show filled with local dancers performing. This is the first time we are performing one of our pieces with four dancers instead of three. The pinnacle of the piece involves a complicated Cross and Box pattern where we flip flop from one to the other. I'm not too worried about it since The back stage area is actually another ballroom that allows us plenty of space to rehearse our piece one more time before going on stage.

"Make sure to take small steps and make your shimmy bigger. The larger steps mess up the formation." Our director said, as we kept our zills quiet in respect to the other performers.

I practically make no steps to go into the formation, which gets hard when I get excited on stage. Ziah, Teejei, and Aziza remind me of this and I laugh it off.

"If I screw up on stage, I'll just make a joke of it" I said, knowing that a little touch of humor always saves me in a choreography. I've lost a shoe, ended up backwards on stage, and ripped a tear in one of my skirts, but some a performer's ability to get over the mess ups is key to a great performance. Humor works for me, and people seem to look forward to the expressive facial expressions I'll make when I do miss a step, ahem, or three like in our piece Dunje.

As we wrap up our mini-rehearsal, I think about what this choreography will look like in two years. It'll be beautiful and interesting to watch not because I'm about to run into Ziah and laugh about it, but because we'll be so comfortable in the music the audience will see the music for how we interpret it with our dance.

My dance company always has to rehearse before a show. Our choreographies are complicated, and need to be rehearsed in the space before we perform or we are very discombobulated! I love having that confident feeling of nailing a choreography, and I think this really boils down to an integrity of dance all of us strive for. It will take Awalim an average of 1.5 - 2 years until we feel a choreography is solid enough to emote the music in a way without worrying about the choreography itself. I LIVE for that feeling. By intense practice, rehearsal, and multiple performances of one piece, you're able to grow as a performer and listen to the music in ways you never heard before as you were worrying about your steps. Think about it this way, when you go to a concert to see your favorite band, do you go to see their new stuff or your old time favorite song?

The integrity of dance, for me, lies within your dedication to your movement. From the control of a choreography you are able to handle a degree of expressive freedom you don't always feel when improvising. You start to hear the music at a level of detail that will lend your expression to shape the music in a visual manner without worrying about which movement to do next. Its truly a beautiful experience.

"But I did that choreography last time!" Oh, what a slippery slope that statement is!

Don't throw away a choreography because you did it "last year" or even four years ago! It's still in its infancy as a piece. Years from now you will notice things about your dancing you didn't notice when you first created it. Think of choreography as an extension of your creative expression, why would you want to throw away what you've worked so hard on just after 1 or 2 performances?

Next Post - Dance Integrity: Ethics in Our Industry

Video: The performance from the workshop, Piece: Dunje

TribalCon 2010

Another TribalCon successfully completed, and damn am I inspired. For me, this TribalCon was also a great reminder about my love of music, or really, my love of PLAYING music. I took a big step this year and performed a piece on violin for the student troupe's performance of Veselba. It's been a great path getting back into playing violin and Saturday's performance felt great along side the musicians Darbuka Dave, August Hoerr, and Teejei to bring the piece to life for the students. Thanks guys, that really meant a lot to play with you!

This year's Friday night hafla was a great chance to play with some of my favorite musicians. I loved range of music everyone brought to the party, including Balkan, Middle Eastern, and even the Tetris song (Thanks Joachim!). Of course, no hafla would be complete with out a total jam out with our davul line led by the amazing Nevik. That really gets everyone on their feet. ATS fun was had by all, and Denys led and taught folk line dances around the ballroom, yet another basis of dance that belly dancers rarely are able to access.

Every year at TribalCon I am regenerated by the drive, thoughts, knowledge, and artistic expression of the teachers AND attendees. It's great to see so many dancers and musicians taking care of our art form. TribalCon really isn't just about dance, but what the artist needs to complete their training and further their own expression of the art, whether its dance or music. I felt this firsthand for the first time this year through the classes, and it was truly an experience.

Donna's lecture on Thursday evening was invigorating. I love how she is not afraid to cover topics we as dancers need to address to overcome our still existing misnomers of the art form. The lecture bounced from hyper-sexuality, to religion, to history, and back to our practice in the industry today. She challenged us to be informed and take these matters to deep thought so we can be prepared to respond to these issues informed and well spoken to our audiences. Oh, and her reading list is absolutely a must for any aspiring belly dancer. Period.

I loved Asharah's presentation on the history of tribal belly dance, diving into the roots of from Jamilar Salimpour to Carolena to our modern interpretations. I think it's so important to know your history as tribal fusion dancers, and this was presented in such a way that was succinct, and very well thought out. Asharah's workshop made my inner history dork giddy with joy talking about my favorite subject of belly dance in the 60's and 70's in the U.S. She then took us through a series of particular dance moves of the Jamila Salimpour method and how those basics were changed overtime to morph into today's American Tribal Stye vocabulary.

Jen Speiden's anatomy for dancers class has been a TribalCon staple for a few years now. This year was the first time I was able to attend the class - and it was AMAZING. As dancers we need to take care of our bodies to elongate our ability to dance. Jen showed us proactive examples of ways to protect areas that tribal belly dancers use very often, namely our rotator cuffs, abdominals, iliopsoas, and our spine and how they correlate to dance movement. She also explained how our bodies move so that we can avoid injury from trying to torque our body in unsafe ways. It was a great class, and I truly look forward to next year's class.

Sunday also held the music and dance discussions. Both discussions centered around inspiration in music. The dance discussion also touched on the practice regimen of our teachers, how to handle burn out, and how to handle the post-event 'blah's. Across the board, the teachers agreed that cross training, finding new inspiration in and out of the dance form, and knowing your own tolerance limit was paramount to overcoming your dance obstacles, oh and yoga.

Its Sunday night, I'm home, and the hustle and bustle of classes, vendors, and music is still echoing in my head. I'll try not to get the post-event blues, but it'll be hard after this weekend. Gulf Wars is in two weeks, that is something to definitely look forward to. I plan to play music every night with my friends and exchange more inspiration and ideas, so I guess I should go practice now...

Oh, and if you want to know more of what happened this weekend, check out Aziza Nawal's Note on FB

Salons Update

We've been having a great time at the salons. This summer is the trial run for what I hope will turn into a weekly meeting of musicians working on all kinds of Middle Eastern and Balkan music. Here are photos and audio of some of our sessions:


May 10th Recording

May 10th Photos

May 31st Recording

May 31st Photos

If you would like to come to a salon, JUST SHOW UP! We work on a lot of stuff and no you don't have to know how to read music and no you don't even have to know how to play an instrument! Plenty of people come and grace us with their voices. I think the lyrics to these songs are very important, so come on down!

You can either join the Atlanta Gypsy meet-up or the Google group I started to keep up with dates and details:

http://musicians.meetup.com/335

http://groups.google.com/group/memusicatl/

Drum Solo Construction

This past week I taught a drum solo workshop in Orlando, and I had a great time creating a workshop based on “how to construct a drum solo.” I know from personal experience, creating a drum solo that is memorable, show-stopping, and awe-inspiring is a daunting task. What I did notice while researching drum solos, however, is that most Middle Eastern drum solos have common elements if made for a belly dancer, more specifically they will probably have the following elements: Entrance, Answer and call, Pop/slap, Beledi resolution, Shimmy section (could also be finale), Finale punch line.

Entrance – introduces the dancer, the percussionist(s), and sets the tone for the rest of the piece. Could be a recurring rhythms such as ayoub or malfouf, a unique rhythm set that spaces between each riff, or a simple roll to warm the percussionists fingers.

Answer and call – a “power of four set” where the percussionist introduces a riff, and another percussionist (maybe the dancer utilizing zills) answers. Dancers could utilize this section with intricate isolations and musical interpretation.

Pop/ slap – literally referring to the pop and slap technique on the doumbek, these “power of four” sets gives a different texture to the rhythms and riffs the percussionist is presenting. The dancer should in turn give a different texture to her movement with level changes, directional faces, and internal isolations i.e. percussive belly rolls.

Beledi resolution – usually by this point of the drum solo both you and the percussionist have almost pulled all of your “tricks”. The percussionist then starts a basic beledi rhythm as a break for everyone including the audience. Middle Eastern audiences will clap in catharsis and familiarity to this rhythm. The dancer should relax at this point and conserve her energy for the build up to the finale, doing simple or folkloric steps. Awalim has used this break as an opportunity to use ATS in our choreography.

Shimmy section – exactly what it says, the part that everyone waits for. The percussionist will utilize rolls in which 95% of the time the dancer will answer with hip shimmies. Be creative with however you want to interpret those rolls; if you have a mean belly flutter, by all means, dazzle us! I know I was when Zoe Jakes pulled this technique at the latest BellyDance SuperStares show with percussionist Issam Houshan.

Finale – finales are the absolute peak of your drum solo, whether the last section builds or speeds in tempo with a traditional fellahi, or goes crazy with a million poly rhythms: make sure you save your highest point to be your final point. If you have lead your audience as you should with a drum solo, they should jump out of their seat when you end on this high note.

So, what are the pieces I pulled this information from? The following pieces:
Amer’s Drum Solo: Arabesque Dance Company
Naima’s Hip: Hossam Ramzy
Cat’s Meow: Susu Pampanin and the Cairo Cats
Rejoicing in Upper Egypt: Musicians of the Nile
Missr!: Raquy and the Cavemen

More “classic” drum solos can be found from the following albums:
Raquy Danziger – Naked, Jordan
Hossam Ramzy – Sabla Tolo Vol. 1,2,3
Issam Housham – The Dancing Drum
Susu Pampanin– Dancing Drums
Carmine Guida – Shake ‘Em Up Belly Dance Drum Solos
Sohail Kaspar - The "Magic" of John Bilezikjian
Mary Ellen Donald – Gems

Sheet Music Craziness!

I read sheet music. I was trained as a musician to read sheet music. Learning pieces by ear has been a challenge to say the least, learning Middle Eastern songs by ear? HA! I need some guidelines before I can dive off that cliff. Over the last couple of weeks I've bought some Arabic sheet music compilation books and CD's with sheet music files. I found these on all corners of the inter-webs and beyond. I'll share my initial thoughts with each as I become mroe familiar with each through practice and usage. Some initial thoughts include:

Mimi Spencer's song book (pink book pictured) is great for developing belly dance sets, very clear and to the point with clear notation. Can't wait to accumulate that entire collection of music.

Maqam.com's sheet music book (blue book on left) has a lot of pieces from the Levant which is nice as most of these song books carry a lot of Egyptian pieces. The lyrics are inlcuded in Arabic, which is useful if you can read Arabic. Transliteration only goes so far in my opinion, and if you're going to play and especially sing Arabic music, start learning the Arabic language. You'll be surprised at how much you miss out when you don't. I'm not fluent but I see this as an excellent way to practice and learn.

I've leafed through most of the others, but haven't had a chance to really dive into them. I'll be figuring out a better format of posting reviews and will start those soon.

Next post: Important terms for Arabic music: do you know what iqaat, muwashah, qasida, takht or wasala mean? My next post will include a glossary of terms for Arabic music.

Play in the Park

This weekend was just delightful. I sat in Piedmont Park for about 4 hours playing tabla with some other drummers at the Atlanta Burners Play in the Park event. I met some very cool people and worked on my slap for a while. I almost have it...We played around with a couple f rhythms I'd never tried before which was nice. We kept the rhythms going for a good length of time feeding off one another's variations of the rhythm. I guess you could say my "ess" was on! This is one of the pics I found from Facebook, one of the only times I switched my tabla for this other drum.



Then to top off a great day, my family and I went and had dinner at a new Arabic restaurant in Woodstock called Mediterranean Buffet. The name is horribly cheesy but the food was fantastic and not only because they had malfouf! After dinner we hung out with the owner and smoked sheesha. Victoria came over for a while and I took out the tabla again and did my first attempt at a drum solo for a belly dancer, all relaxed and non-showy. It was really fun, and gave me inspiration to work harder on tabla. The restaurant was fairly large and I hope it works out as the owner is very nice and wants to create a community...we'll see if that can happen with a Middle Eastern restaurant in Woodstock, GA.

Video Clips from trip

AUC Folkloric Troupe August 2008



Randa Kamel - Nile Maxim December 2008



Sufi Troupe at Al Azhar Park November 2008

Maybe, just maybe

Plans are in the works to go back to Misr with my friend Dave for the month of November...!!

Some last photos

Its been some weeks since I've been back in the country. School has started back, and time has ran away from me. Egypt was the adventure of a lifetime...a culturally shocking experience that this southern girl will always keep close to her heart. I do plan on coming back to Egypt, and when I do, I'll revisit this blog. But for now, I will leave with some of the last remaining photos and videos that I haven't posted yet.

Ma'a Salam ya Misr.

Sharm el Sheikh



Nile Cruise and Arabic Music Ensemble Concert Photos



Zaar Concert

Updates and coming home

The last couple of days in Cairo have been full of amazing adventures...and then the internet cut out of the entire Middle East. Really. A ship off the coast of Alexandria weighed anchor and cut the main DSL line giving Egypt, the Sudan, and some other countries internet. The entire country of Egypt was without internet for 48 hours.

I have lots of pictures and stories to post, but in my last few days here in Cairo, I am trying to save my moments. I should have the following posted before the New Year when I am back in the States with a fast internet connection:

- Pictures from Sharm El Sheikh
- Pictures from Luxor, Aswan, and everthing in between
- Pictures and video! from the traditional Zaar I saw in Cairo
- Write up of the Sufi Dance troupe of Egypt (no video at the performance hall)
- Write up of my experiences from my sufi dance lesson with Said Tanoura


Youtube videos of the following:
- Sufi dance show with both Sufi and Istaradi styles at al Azhar park in Islamic Cairo
- Folkloric troupe I saw in Giza - Saiidi/ beledi style
- AUC folkloric troupe - Saidi + tahtib + fellahi styles at AUC campus
- Zaar performance from Makaan cultural center off Saad Zaghlul in Cairo
- 3 separate performances of Randa Kamel on the Nile Maxim, pretty good lighting!
- Video my myself being taught sufi dance, you wouldn't beleive how heavy those skirts are!

Musical Salons/ Jam Sessions in the ATL

Salam aleikum min el Qahira!

This past semester I’ve learned so much about Arabic music. I really don’t want to loose what I’ve learned, so I’d like to see if anyone in the Atlanta area is interested in coming to weekly music rehearsals/ jam sessions/ learning sessions about Arabic music. I would like to be able to share what I’ve learned so I can practice and not forget it! Any instrument would be welcome, just keep in mind that quartertones are harder to play on some instruments than others.

I have some sheet music from this semester in Cairo, but I’m open to learning things by ear as well, which is how it really is done. The sheet music is all in C as I play the violin, so any of you b flat player be prepared to transpose the music if you want to play it.

We could hold it at different locations in the Atlanta area or agree to have it at a central place. I don’t profess in any shape, form, or fashion to be an expert in Middle Eastern music, just a student who wants to grow her skills with en ensemble! I would like this to be very low key and fun and hopefully a way to grow a handful of students and musicians that appreciate and want to perform Middle Eastern music, especially so that when the big names come in town, we can really benefit from their instruction.

So, who is interested?

Arabic Percussion

Last Monday two guests artists, Met’hat Mamdua and Khaled Abu Higazzi came to my Arabic music theory class class to give a lecture on Arabic percussive instruments. Mr. Met’hat is a very accomplished tabla player, who plays for Arabic singers all around Egypt - including Amr Diab! He also is involved in a Turkish band that recently played at the Sakia el Sawy this month. Mr. Khaled, who gave most of the lecture, specializes in the riqq and also performs regularly with ensembles and Arabic singers. After the lecture, which is summarized below, both musicians accompanied the class for rehearsal for our concert next Thursday.

Khaled started off the lecture by introducing the main percussive instruments of Arabic music. There are three main instruments, the tabla, the duff, and the riqq. The tabla is a goblet shaped hand drum that can come in up to four different sizes. The largest size is called a dahola, and the smallest is played by acclaimed percussionist Raquy Danziger. The standard Egyptian tabla weighs about six to seven kilos. The drum head, or the ra’ima as it is referred to, used to be made of fish skin, but now is made from synthetic materials. The reason for this change was the constant hassle of retuning the fish skin head as the material would stretch. Drummers would have to heat up their drums on heating pads to make sure the drum head would not stretch to be out of tune. Now, with the synthetic head, drummers do not have to have that hassle or worry about temperature change as much as in the past.

Players lay the tabla on their lap with the head of the drum facing in towards the opposite knee. The doum, or the strong beat, is normally played with the right hand giving an even base tone. The tak, or the weak beat, can be played by both the left or the right hand and in many different styles that include the normal tak sound on the very edge of the drum, or within rolls, pops, and snaps. The third type of sound is ‘es’. Es is the filling of silence between the doums and teks, or the heartbeat of a darb (darb is Arabic for rhythm).

The next instrument Khaled introduced was the riqq. The riqq, or the Arabic tambourine as it is sometimes called, is a small frame drum played upright with two hands. The doum and tek are opposite of the tabla as the doum is played on the edge of the drum frame, and the tek is caught in the middle of the drum. The es is mostly emphasized by the galagel, the five groups of four sets of cymbals set around the frame of the riqq. Like the tabla, the riqq used to have a ra\ima made of fish skin, but now it is synthetic. Another interesting feature of the riqq is that its frame is tunable. Players may tune a riqq higher or lower for different sounds throughout a piece.

The third instrument introduced was the duff. The duff is a large frame drum that keeps the heart beat of a darb. Duff players do not play ‘es’, rather they play the doums and teks of a darb whilst the tabla and riqq players elaborate. The duff is mostly recognized with the zeffa, a wedding procession in which a distinct darb is played for the bride and groom as they walk together through family and friends being presented as newly weds. A cousin to the duff, the maz’har is a duff with cymbals. The maz’har is slightly smaller than the duff, but both are considerably bigger than the riqq.

Arabic percussive sections change according to the type of ensemble. The two most popular ensembles are the takht and the firqa. A takht is a small chamber ensemble that consists of a qanoon (similar to a zither), kamanga (violin), ney (wind instrument), oud (the grandfather to the lute), and percussion instrument, most often the riqq. In these ensembles and smaller firqas the riqq is the lead percussion. When in larger ensembles, such as a firqa, the tabla becomes the lead instrument for the percussion section. In addition to this, the riqq is usually featured in pieces with longer darbs, while tablas are mainly used for shorter darbs and solos.

Pics of Mohamed Ali Mosque in the Citadel

Just an afternoon at the citadel, after we went to al-Azhar park and saw an amazing Sufi show...which I may post on youtube at some point.

Photos from Ibn Tulun Mosque

Photos from Ibn Tulun Mosque in Said el Zayeb, a section of Cairo. It was a beautiful mosque and we had an amazing view from the minaret.