Countdown to Under a Desert Moon

February 3, 2009 09:51 AM

It nears midnight on a Friday and drumbeats roll through the speakers. I’m dancing with over a dozen of my newest girl friends and am energized by the music and from laughing until my cheeks hurt. Someone mentions the time yet we keep going, for the night is young and we’re having too much fun.

But this isn’t Adams Morgan and that’s definitely not the latest Kanye West single pounding through the sound system. I’m with my friends from Elysa’s Arabic Folklore performance class and we’ve gotten together for our last practice before the Raqs Caravan student showcase. With the performance less than 48 hours away, we’ve crowded into a fellow folklorette’s living room to polish our Hagallah shimmies and Saiidi jump turns.

Midnight arrives and we decide to take our Saiidi piece from the top, so we hit play and keep on dancing.

Lured into Folklore

I began studying Arabic folkloric dance with Elysa last summer when the technique class was first offered at Sahara Dance. Learning about history and international cultures is fascinating to me, so I was eager to enhance my studies of modern belly dance by going back to its roots. During the summer semester our class covered folkloric dances from Egypt, the Saudi Arabian Gulf, Lebanon and North Africa. Some of these dances include Saiidi, which is from the Egyptian countryside, Khaleegy, which is from the Gulf, and Hagallah, which is from Western Egypt and Libya. I loved these earthy, folkloric dances right away because you can throw your whole body into them, often without worrying about having to keep your toes pointed.

I also appreciated how Elysa did more than just show her students how to dance—she made it a point to educate us. Before we began learning a new folkloric dance, Elysa brought out a map at the beginning of class and pointed out where the dance originated and explained its history. Elysa also showed us pictures of performers and what kinds of costumes we might wear if we were to participate in a folkloric performance.

Hip Scarves and Head Wraps

In December, I slipped on a vermilion one-piece dress, a short, ruffled white skirt made to accentuate the hips, and a headscarf that Elysa warned would make us look “nun-ish” if we weren’t careful about letting our hair show beneath it. I was a student in the fall semester Arabic Folkloric Performance Class and was about to perform in the Raqs Caravan student showcase.

Our class performed both a Hagallah and a Saiidi piece. Hagallah is a coming-of-age dance, so performers typically wear a fluffy white skirts over a modest one-piece dress in order to show off feminine curves. In the sea of bare bellies, glitter and intricate beadwork, the folkloric students definitely stood out! However, dancing in a costume inspired by tradition was something I loved about participating in an Arabic folkloric performance. Most of all, I loved how the performance was an opportunity to share what I had learned about history and customs with the audience.

This semester, many of my friends from the fall performance class are back to dance with the newly formed Raqs Caravan Folklore Company. We will be taking two new dances, Dhabke and Port Said (more on those two to come in my next posts), to the Greenberg Theatre.

“All of our dances are just plain fun to do,” says Um Noor, who has taken classes at Sahara Dance for the past four years. “I wonder if fun is inherent in folkloric dance. I like thinking of grandmas doing the ‘cat step’ in the Dhabke, and pretending that I’m at someone’s wedding,” she says, referring to some choreography that our class is beginning to learn.

I look forward to the adventures this semester will bring by studying two lively dances that beautifully reflect the spirit of Raqs Caravan Folklore.

By: Lauren

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