Out with the sagat, in with the zills

I've been trying to learn to dance with sagat for years.  It is a rare an interesting sight to see a dancer on stage who is proficient in playing finger cymbals, and as a former musician this instrument has always had a certain appeal.  I have also been impressed whenever I had a teacher who used her sagat in class to provide instant music to accompany the moves, and I wanted to do that too.

One of my dance specialities is Sha'abi style folk dance from the South of Egypt.  This looks and sounds great when danced live with sagat, as exemplified by the Ghawazee tribes of Upper Egypt.  I even performed my own tribute to the Ghawazee dancers a couple of years back in Sarasvati Tribal's Gaslight Faeries show.

However, I found it difficult to make progress in learning this instrument.  Mine are the heavy one-holed proper Egyptian sagat, imported from Mohammed Ali Street in Cairo.  And although I love the sound, the one-holed design means that although they are fine when played sitting down, when I dance, they wobble.  I have tried every manner of things to stop this happening, different sizes and thickness of elastic, even using bra elastic, but nothing really helped.

I had to find another solution to my finger cymbal problem.  So I turned to a different instrument altogether, the zill...

Finger cymbals are an ancient percussion instrument, still played by dancers in the middle east today.  In Egypt they are called sagat, in Turkey they are called zills and the instrument exists under different names and sometimes slightly different forms all over the middle east and North Africa.  Zills have a higher pitched, more ringing sound than sagat.  The slightly different sound means that they are not entirely authentic to Egyptian dance, however they are a reasonable substitute.  And due to their popularity amongst Stateside bellydancers, good quality zills are easier to find.  The best ones also have 2 parallel slits, which you string with thick flat elastic, and they don't wobble!

I did some research and discovered Saroyan, one of the manufacturers of quality zills popular with US dancers (other brands include Turquoise and Zildjian).  And more importantly, I found a supplier in the UK, Aladdin's cave, who carries this brand.  So here are my new zills, they are professional quality Saroyan Arabesque II.

I'm quite pleased with them so far.  They are heavy and loud and more tuneful sounding than my sagat.  They stay on my fingers too which helps me to hold my hands in a nicer more open position while dancing.  And more importantly, this has given me motivation to start practising more regularly again.

A Taste of Morocco

I've gathered together a few short dance and cultural video clips from my recent visit to Morocco, posted to my YouTube account.

Berber women traditional dancing and singing

This was taken in a restaurant in Marrakesh.  The dance style is Berber from the Atlas Mountains and is characterised by earthy hip movements, twists and pelvic tilts.  This is a huge amount of fun and the chemistry between the women combined with changes in pace - "dance for a bit...get tired...sing for a bit...dance for a bit" reminded me of the Ghawazee dancers from the South of Egypt.



The costume is Atlas Berber.  The dress is in two parts.  Firstly a high necked, long sleeved underdress worn to make sure that the whole body is covered.  On top is a tunic with a very long and full skirt, tucked into the belt to give the hips extra volume to emphasise the movement.  There are then two long lengths of rope like wool, decorated with big sequins.  One is tied several times around the hips as a belt and the other in a sort criss-cross backpack style and around the bottom.  These add back in the feminine shape to help exaggerate every movement.  The look is topped off with a headdress and babouches (slippers). 

Moroccan Horsemen perform the Fantasia at Chez Ali, Marrakesh

This is a very short clip of the dramatic charge and gunfire, "Fantasia", of the Moroccan horseman.  This traditional art was showcased at Chez Ali - a sort of Moroccan Disneyland theme restaurant a few mile outside of Marrakesh.  The night, also called Fantasia, is on a typical package type itinerary for many a tourist to Morocco. However, this doesn't detract away from the sheer skill involved in performing this manoeuvre.



Cooperative Marjana, Essaouira, Morocco 

This clip is the highlight of my recent visit to Morocco, taken at the argan oil women's beauty Cooperative Marjana, about 30 minutes from Essaouira.

These beauty cooperatives appear throughout the Moroccan countryside, providing employment for local women to prepare natural beauty products through traditional methods.  Argan oil comes from a rich almond type nut grown on the Argan tree which is native to the region.   It is a vitamin E rich oil used in luxury face creams and other beauty preparations.  Again, these cooperatives are typical to a tourist itinerary.

Marjana, however, proved to be a little different and it was a joy to be welcomed by drumming, singing and dancing before the obligatory oil extraction demonstration and sales pitch got underway. And it was sheer magic when this worker who was in her 80s got up to dance for us.



My final clip is the same woman at work.  This time, she is showing off her dexterity, sorting almonds. Although producers often now use machines for processing the oil, the traditional methods of argan and almond oil extraction are being kept alive.

A little corner of Egypt comes to Dorset

Early October, did not just bring an unseasonal return of summery weather to the South of England, the warm wind also brought with it a little bit of Egypt, in the form of Béatrice Grognard, one of the foremost European teachers of contemporary Egyptian Dance.

Béatrice Grognard is a Belgian dancer who originally trained with Suraya Hilal’s Raqs Sharqi School in the early 1990s and subsequently went on to found her own school of Egyptian dance, Tarab of Egypt, primarily based in Brussels. Through Tarab, Béatrice promotes what she defines as the Theatrical Dances of Egypt and has choreographed and produced several full shows, often resulting from groundbreaking collaborations with traditional Egyptian musicians. Inspired by her original training as an archaeologist, she is an artist who has developed a unique and new translation of Egyptian dance, both modern and expressive but connected to centuries old Egyptian music dance tradition. You can read Béatrice’s own carefully crafted description of her art on her website.

I first discovered Béatrice’s classes when I worked in Brussels for a spell in 2006. Attending her classes twice a week was a wonderful escape from what was a very busy but exciting period in my life. And since returning to the UK, I have continued to train, attending Béatrice’s occasional UK workshops and participating in two of her study trips to Egypt to work with live musicians. When Diane and Ellie of Raqs Sharqi Dorset said they were arranging for Béatrice to come to their corner of England to teach, I jumped at the chance. And after over 7 hours of travel from Edinburgh, by planes trains and automobiles, we arrived at the sleepy Dorset village of Broadmayne for two intense days of workshops. And what an amazing weekend it was.

The first workshop on the Saturday morning was Baladi. As we worked with a Mawaal (vocal improvisation) sung by Ahmed Adeweia, the focus of the workshop wasn’t about learning sequences or technique, but explored tapping into the essence of Baladi, the Egyptian spirit; where the singer, musicians and dancer melt together like hot chocolate into a single melody. We were challenged to confront and break the boundaries or perceived rules of Baladi. To use placement of feet, fingers, changes in height and leans. To forget the single move to the music, the vertical eight, the camel…, but instead improvise through isolation focused on different parts of the body, the sacrum, the back, the neck to express the melody. And to intersperse all of this with elements of surprise. 

Ghawazee-Sha'abi Workshop

Saturday afternoon, brought a change of pace, with an incredibly energetic and enjoyable afternoon focused on the Ghawazee style of the Sha’abi dance, an earthy yet feminine dance made famous by performer families like the “Banat Maazin”. This workshop was focused on feeling like a Ghawazee, the strength, femininity and most of all fun. We worked with some fantastic music to interpret the sound of the Sai’idi instruments, Sibs, Mizmar and drum. We learnt the signature moves like throwing hips, twists, walks and back leans. We also practised the dynamic movements, wide shimmies, and rhythmic footwork, all contrasted with stops and poses.

Classical Workshop

An early start, the following morning brought with it the third workshop of the weekend, classical. The classical form, sometimes known as Sharqi, is the most modern of the three main types of Raqs Sharqi Egyptian Dance that I study, and can even be considered contemporary in its interpretation. And wow, what a workshop. We introduced a new perspective on classical technique, revisiting the previous day’s focus on introducing flexibility in the sacrum, back, and neck. We used our fingers, hands and arms to pick up melody and add a touch of Egyptian humour. But most of all, during this final workshop, Béatrice opened our eyes to challenging all our assumptions about how to interpret the music, unpicking many years of learning the “correct” way to dance. Why should we be intent to always shimmy with the sound of the qanoun, to be expansive with the violin and to travel to the dynamic passages? Is this indeed the correct interpretation, or is this the predictable one, or could it even be considered comfortable in its interpretation? And when the tempo changes, do we have to suddenly react, or can we respond instead with subtlety, to explore an alternative layer in the music, to pause for breath before embracing the new rhythm?

In fact, this is the part of the weekend of learning that I have been mulling over in my mind ever since my return home. So many questions that I am now compelled to consider. How can I apply this to my own dance? What are my assumptions? What are my goals as a dancer? How can I learn to perfect my dance and find a place in this wider art? Can I continue to teach what I teach? How can I apply this to my own teaching? What an amazing lesson to be part of.

Thanks to Diane and Ellie for their fantastic organisation, help and support over the months leading up to the weekend and throughout the weekend itself.

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Gaslight Ghawazee

Here's a short clip of my performance at Gaslight Faeries last week, which I've just uploaded.  For more about my experience performing at Gaslight Faeries and my inspiration for my act L'Exposition Universelle, read my previous post. Thanks very much to Elaine for filming. 



www.habibadance.com

The Challenge of Glasgow by Gaslight

Saturday night I had the honour of making a guest appearance in Sarasvati Tribal's show the Gaslight Faeries at QMU, Glasgow University.

Gaslight Faeries was originally conceived for the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall - the oldest surviving music hall in the UK - as a show with a connected series of Fusion dance acts, each taking a little bit of inspiration from the era of the Panopticon itself (1857-1938).  The first performance of Gaslight in August packed out the tiny auditorium of the Panopticon in the Trongate, Glasgow, with many people turned away.   The show contained a mix of Tribal Fusion group and solo performances, with the addition of a sprinkling of comedy, burlesque and good old fashioned story telling that featured the Dragon Lady, Cleopatra, the Victorian Gent and Mata Hari amongst its characters.  

About 2 weeks before the Panopticon show premiered in August, Laura from Sarasvati got in touch to say that one of her guest stars had pulled out and ask whether I was willing step in.  The challenge was to create an act complete with music that would look and sound in keeping with the era that the music hall was open.  I accepted.  My first stop was Wendy Holyer of Wen-D Designs to set about creating a period costume.  We settled on the design for a purple silk Ghawazee coat and while Wendy slaved over the dress, I put together a Courtly Classical dance to Farid El Atrache's Kharamana.

Following the sell-out Panopticon show, the Sarasvati girls decided to do the show all over again and I was asked back for another guest slot.  With a little bit more time to prepare, I had the chance to rework my act.  As I've been learning and teaching a lot of rural Sha'abi style Egyptian Dance, this was the style that I had really wanted to showcase and I thought it would provide a real contrast to the rest of the show.  Also, whilst researching I found inspiration in a beautiful film from Serpentine video about the French World Fair in 1889 which described the first European appearance of the famous Ghawazee dancers.  I have studied Ghawazee dance accompanied by Sai'idi muscians during recent study trips to Egypt and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to present a dance and music tradition that goes back centuries, but is still performed (albeit rarely) in Egypt today. 

I settled on my act, "L'Exposition Universelle" (the world fair), to evoke a time when thousands flocked to Paris to visit La Rue du Caire and gain a glimpse of the most unusual dancing you have ever seen.  But there was one further addition I felt I needed to add to the authenticity of the interpretation, sagat.  Sagat, the "metal castanets" described in Serpentine's film are always used by the dancers from the Ghawazee tradition and this was a skill I've always wanted to learn.  So I took the chance to practice and attempt to master the coordination of percussive fingers combined with strong hips.  And, although I wasn't yet entirely proficient at both at the same time, I decided to go for it for my performance on Saturday, at least to try to give a taste of what it might have been like to watch this dance in reality. 

The result, well it wasn't perfect, but the performance went down well and contrasted with the rest of the show.  The Wen-D costume also worked well and characteristics of the dance, particularly the energy and strength in grounded movement were conveyed.  Here is a photo of the end result.

A big thank you goes to Laura and Sarasvati Tribal for inviting me as a guest performer.  It was really a pleasure to work with them.  Sarasvati Tribal is a group of 4 dancers from across Scotland, led by the talented troupe leader Laura Monteith, a well respected Glasgow based Tribal Fusion dancer, teacher and choreographer.  Gaslight Faeries is their second production, following Extraordinesque which debuted last year and played to audiences in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Peebles.

The photos are courtesy of Violet Shears.