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Ba Olek Eh (tell you what)
Amina's Blog
Carnival of Stars Belly Dance Queen
November 30, 2011
101 years old and buried alive.
Getting ready for Shadia's visit was really an excuse
to move furniture and collections from one room to another. Susu was giving
me a chest of drawers that I wanted to put in what I call the Caribbean
room, aka the watermelon room, the blue room, the room with the tigre
masks or descriptively, the room between the kitchen and Bob's room. It's
a tiny room, about 8'x8 ', that at one time used to be known as an Italian
kitchen.
When I bought the house, the kitchen at the end of house had a door with
a glass pane on the top third and a double hung window that looked into
a shed room. This shed room with the "outdoor" wood stove"
on one end and an "outhouse" type room with a toilet at the
other end is what I now call the Caribbean room. The shed room originally
housed a stove which was not a gas stove but was a wood fueled stove used
exclusively for cooking. The kitchen also had a stove. It was a beautiful
gigantic deluxe model Wedgewood gas and wood burning stove complete with
storage drawers and all accessories that had never been used, only dusted.
This was to impress company only and it was really too large for the tiny
kitchen. These wood stoves debuted in 1910 when my house built in 1910
- 101 years ago - debuted as the "model" home for Sun Valley
Tract Homes. (But the neighborhood is actually called Noe Valley.)
Making room for the chest, Susu and I moved all my collections from the
Caribbean room into the kitchen onto every flat surface we could find.
Seashells and coral, calaveras, 1940's "African" ceramic figures,
about 50 different watermelons in varying sizes of wood, glass, papier
mache', plastic and stone, voodoo dolls, Marys and other saints, my Filipino
ashtray collection, my turtle and caribou collection, the stuffed toad
musicians, the carved tigers, an abacus, Balinese figurines, Mexican and
Hawaiian masks, miscellaneous shell and fish themed snow globes, the miniature
bolo knifes and other miscellaneous objects too numerous to remember.
We also emptied the wicker bin of various tools and art supplies and moved
chairs and tables and trays out of the way. Then we decided to measure
the space that the chest would take up. As I mentioned before, the room
is kind of tiny and this chest was kind of big. And it turned out that
if we put the chest in the room, there wouldn't be any room for the two
chairs and a table that were necessary to make the room work for me. What
to do? The chest was being delivered from Petaluma now - today. OK - the
only obvious solution - put it in the dance studio. It's the only room
in the house with any space. Luckily no dance class tonight - only drum
class. Deal with it later. So the chest arrived and we didn't have to
lug it up the stairs - only put it in the dance studio and then decide
what to do.
First thing was to put the Caribbean room back together again. Shadia
was arriving in the morning and the Caribbean room was upside down with
ladders and furniture and the kitchen was a mess of large and tiny collections.
No room to move or even space to put a glass or dish down. And to think
of it - no room to dance in the dance studio either. Buried Alive - Hoarders
- Do I qualify? Wonder if they pay? Why, I could be a TV star!
Home
November 29, 2011
Inspiration comes from Saharni nights
It's Tuesday night and that means Aswan practice. Sometimes
I don't know why we practice when there's no show scheduled in the near
future. But experience tells me that we always need to be rehearsed because
of last minute phone calls. They always seem to come up when least expected.
I sort of like these practices just to practice. We can work on new choreographies
or set new formations for old ones. But I really should start some new
choreographies right about now since next year I have a few shows in the
works. The choreographies have been rattling in my head for a few weeks
now, but until I really start listening seriously to the songs I want
to use, they just sort of sit there.
Lately I've been thinking about arjii ya alf
leila by Feiruz. Years ago I did a choreography to this piece along with
a Mahmoud Reda mawashshah and it always stuck with me. Maybe now is the
time to pull this song out and see if it really will work in a new context.
At this point I'm still trying to find muwashshah music that really speaks
to me and can be strung along with other songs. I found an old favorite
by the Nubian musician, Hamza el Din (1929-2006)
- lamma bada yetathana and it is a really nice arrangement. Feiruz also
sang this song, but it doesn't have the lamenting quality that Hamza's
has.
I remember when Susu was first learning the drum, she met Hamza el Din,
at a party that Mary Ellen had. A short time after at another event where
Hamza el Din was performing he invited her to perform. I believe it was
her debut drum performance. After that he would periodically drop by the
house to say hello to Susu or to drop off music for her. His music and
especially his tar playing influenced both Susu and me and we would often
use elements of it in our performances and choreographies. He was considered
to be the father of modern Nubian music. His music was certainly a wonderful
and magical fusion of Arabic and Nubian music and did indeed emotionally
affect many who listened to it.
It would be nice to add his music to my list when I make the CD of possibilities
for my next show. It is perfect music to listen to in a dark room. For
sure the music will start dancing and choreographies will appear. Well,
this sounds like time for another "saharni" night or two. Home
November 28, 2011
Having a lesson plan.
Before class I tried to get the studio looking like a
studio instead of a drop-off point for zeffa paraphernalia and other just
completed gigs. It's amazing what I found that didn't really belong in
the studio - a Halloween costume, a Palestinian dress, someone's bra,
a Moroccan necklace, someone's dance top, a black Fedora hat, miscellaneous
socks, a bag of dates, the padded top to a round table I no longer possess,
a couple of empty suitcases and ilhamduli'llah, the mic and cords that
I thought I lost. This was only the first layer of found and missing stuff.
But I had to stop organizing and get class started.
It was great to be in class again. I don't know how people can exist without
music and dancing. Staying true to my schedule. I thought about my plan
to concentrate on drum rhythms, chifte telli and drum solos. However,
during warm-up I played an old CD with a great Saidi song and that was
the end of my lesson plan. We instead concentrated on Saidi movements
and assaya "tricks". My mind went in a thousand different directions
thinking of costumes, new choreographies, both duet and group, and I finally
ended with Saidi tableaus - yes all in my head. Then class was over and
it was time to get back to reality and drum rhythms.
But in the next class I was reminded that I had promised to help someone
find music for a wedding performance. After trying to read her mind and
choose pop songs just like she said she wanted, I decided to just go in
another direction and choose some songs that I thought would work. And,
by class consensus, we decided to go with completely different music.
Music that she totally liked and was kind of sentimental and romantic.
She would just tag a pop song onto what we chose in class. Perfect - problem
solved, but then there was no time to get to my lesson plan.
Well - next class was drum class. So - obviously we would have to work
on drum rhythms in that class. Finally we would be able to get to drum
rhythms. We worked on technique and finger rolls and ended class playing
the rhythms for a song that Lilli would use in a future performance. Playing
along with the CD made us sound better than professional. Perfect. Drum
rhythms for dancing. We'll just put everything together in another class.
Tomorrow is another day and I'll have another chance to stay on track.
Home
November 27, 2011
Born before 1965
Got an email from Debbie saying that Yasser may go to
a conference in Las Vegas in May. That's a lot closer and nicer weather
than Chicago in March so they are weighing the two conferences. Debbie
plans on staying a little longer this time as her last visit seemed to
have been used up with the raqs Egypt seminar and we didn't get a chance
to work on any of our own projects.
It seems that Nile TV has now set up a few channels dedicated to belly
dance and also to shaabi music - both in Egypt and world-wide. Debbie
found some channels in Egypt and is trying to figure out how to copy them.
We can't seem to find them at all here and wonder how to get these channels.
Gregory thinks they may just be streaming on the Internet. If so - I'm
outta luck since my computer is so old it doesn't even get you tube clips.
I can only watch you tube on my phone - which is less than a year old
and already is starting to be out-of-date. The technology world is going
too fast for me.
So glad that dancing has to be done in person. But, according to some
teachers why waste time and energy in person when it can be done on the
Internet and through skype. Well - I prefer hands-on. Such as - would
rather fiddle with turning knobs manually than use remote control devices.
Is this what happens when one was born before 1965? Before ballpoint pens,
calculators, television, computers?
Am going to quit complaining and talk about the here and now. Right now
am thinking about the Giza films I'm showing on Saturday and realizing
that I need to organize my film library. I think I would like to get a
committee together to help me organize the films and schedule more proper
film screenings. Also am thinking about getting more serious about the
Giza Club in general. I've been pretty slack in arranging events and talks
and maybe this end of the year is time to start making new plans for the
next season. So, in a couple of weeks when there is a little downtime
in classes I think I will take the time to re-organize the Giza Club and
Giza Film Series. If anyone out there is interested in being part of this,
let me know.
Tonight I am going to continue to concentrate on drum rhythms in class
- as in rhythm changes within songs and the corresponding movements, dancing
to chifte telli - the layering and the dynamics. Will finish off with
cymbals and drum solo. Actually, that won't be just tonight, I think that
will be the theme for the entire rest of this year which really is only
a couple of more weeks before holiday break. I guess I will also look
for some good video examples to use for Thursday performance class.
I guess I seem like I'm all over the place today - I guess I am. It's
been too long since I had a dance class - last Tuesday was the last class
because of the Thanksgiving holiday. That's way too long. I guess I need
the classes for my meditation more than the girls need it for whatever
reason they come. It's not enough to just read about, listen to or do
music, watch dancing or dance and plan dances in my head - and the zeffa
certainly wasn't really about dancing - it's the physical act of moving
and dancing to the music. Sometimes when other events such as holiday
obligations get in the way, the dancing takes a back seat and it shouldn't.
Yes, am looking forward to tonight and getting back on track. Wonder what
track I'll take and where it will go.Home
November 26, 2011
Egyptian-Afghani Wedding
This morning I printed out cheat sheets of "du'ul
mazaher" and we taped them to the inside rims of our dufs and mazhars.
The zeffa gang met at my studio for a last minute practice before we caravanned
it to the Marriott Santa Clara.
This had to be one of the most remarkable weddings ever. For the most
part everything went entirely as planned - to the minute - and this was
without a hired wedding planner. The planners seemed to be Hanny, the
groom and Alia, his mom. Everything went according to plan with the exception
of a little 10-15 minute setback in the latter part of the party when
the bride needed to fix her wedding dress.
After setting up the band's sound system in the Grand Ballroom we changed
to our zeffa outfits and on schedule the limo arrived. Then the fun began!
Fifteen long, hard, loud minutes singing, zagharuting, yelling, screaming
and banging away on dufs and mazhars, cymbals and voices trying to compete
with the "irritating" sound of the extra loud mizmar endlessly
playing and looping "du'ul mazaher". I think we were all happy
to have our cheat sheets for security, but I doubt if anyone - except
maybe Husain - used them. It really was quite deafening and the mazhars
were getting heavier and heavier. But finally all the guests were escorted
into the Ballroom.
As this was an Egyptian-Afghani wedding, we were treated to new music
and traditions Afghani style. All was pretty similar but also different
enough to know that although countries are just lines on maps the cultures
and traditions do vary and change incrementally. One thing about an Egyptian-Afghani
wedding though is the use of color, sequins and glitter. This definitely
wasn't a wedding for the color-blind or the conservative. Although some
of the wedding guests including the groom's mother were dressed colorfully
yet conservatively and were veiled,
many of the guests were either in very high end long gowned couture or
in almost micro-mini sequined dresses wobbling in 6' platformed sequined
pencil thin heels. There were also many exotically colorful and wild sequined
and brocaded outfits with either an Egyptian or Afghani ethnic flare.
However, I think Hana and I found a likely wedding dress for a future
event. It was a strapless red silk pleated, rouched, draped full-length
gown with gigantic red silk fabric roses tuliping, cascading out and floating
down to the floor in a most dramatic fashion. Of course the woman in the
dress was equally stunning.
One of the highlights of my evening - besides the catered Egyptian-Afghani
dishes - was the Afghani folk dance performed by the bridesmaids and friends.
What was memorable about this was it brought back memories of my childhood.
In the middle of the dance floor filled with colorful spinning dancers,
suddenly there was a tremendous shower - a flash flood - of dollar bills.
And just as suddenly, there was a score of screaming exciting little children scrambling to the dance floor on their hands and knees gathering up the money while trying not to be trampled by the whirling bodies. Unfortunately I was so taken with the moment that I couldn't get to video mode fast enough to truly capture the moment. It really was a flash flood. As fast as it happened, it was over.
It seems every culture has a like custom for the little children. In Mexico,
it's the piñata. In my family after a baptism the family would
take a paper bag and canvass the guests for spare change - coins only.
When the bag was filled to the brim, it seemed like the tallest person
would stand on a chair and break the bag. Of course we didn't care if
we were rained on. They were only quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies
but they were ours. It's incredible how those memories stay and watching
the little children at the wedding was extremely moving. I hope those
traditions don't die out. But dollar bills?
It was kind of sad after we finished playing and started loading our cars.
When our cars were packed, we parted ways thinking we wouldn't see each
other again until next month - next year - at Aswat. But in the car I
remembered that most of us would be together again happily playing music
at Al Masri and/or Pachamama in a couple of weeks. Who knows, a lot can
happen between then and now so, we may be playing together even sooner.Home
November 25, 2011
I Loved You for Your Voice.
They call this Black Friday, the day people traditionally
start their holiday shopping. I had mentally written a note to go to Guitar
Center to shop for another mic or something that I didn't really need,
but that's as far as I got. Black Friday was kind of black - as in the
sky was dark today - no sun - so I didn't feel like going anywhere. It
was a good day to just stay home and curl up with leftover turkey and
pie and a good book. No Filipino desserts - my mother had eaten them all.
I've been slowly, very slowly, savoring this book not wanting it to end.
And a today while enjoying my leftovers seemed to be a perfect day to
add a few more pages to my mental visions. The book, written by Selim
Najib, translated from the French, is called "I Loved You for Your
Voice". It's a fake autobiography of Ahmad Rami who was one of Om
Kalthoum's poets - he wrote just about half of the almost 300 poems that
Om used in her songs.
I need to keep reminding myself that this is the author's imagined biography,
however factual it is, but it is wonderful in the same manner as Cairo
Trilogy" by Naguib Mahfouz. It allows the reader to imagine and live
Cairo in another time and age.
In this book - about the same time period as the last of the Trilogy,
we visit Cairo in its glorious years when the music that we listen to
and dance to now was being imagined, written, composed, and created and
it becomes so much more real. These songs didn't just appear from the
sky; they were the by-products of lives lived with pain, love, tragedy,
hope, ambition, jealousy, sacrifice, seemingly lots of gossip and ----
driving ambition. All these so real human emotions - strengths and weaknesses
- were behind the makings of some of our favorite listening and dance
music today.
So much has been written in books and also depicted on the silver screen
about the lives and loves and scandals of singers, composers and musicians
from Glen Miller, to Dexter Gordon, Elvis, Frankie Lymon, Little Richard,
Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious and ...and ...and. So many artists
that I couldn't possibly remember or name even a just a few. Care is taken
to not only telling of the artists and their associates, but also of the
life and the times during which they lived. The biographies, especially
the good ones, all transport you to another era and we see how and why
their music was created.
In "I Loved You for Your Voice", I'm taken to another Cairo
of another time and get to know the players as people, not as icons and
divas, and see how they interact and realize how, why, when their music
was created. In the book we see Ahmad Rami collaborating with and writing
the poetry for his close friend Mohamed Abdel Wehab in the film "White
Rose" (1933). Later Ahmad Rami tells of writing the poetry for the
film "Wedad" (1935) for Om Kalthoum.
In both instances we are treated to behind-the-scenes stories and the
players really become human (Arabic word of the day - adam =human- easy
to remember, a no-brainer - as in Adam and Eve). When I listen to a song
by and for Om Kalthoum or Mohamed Abdel Wahab, I can't help it - I have
to find out who wrote the lyrics and when it was written, so I can put
my story into context. It's kind of fun to piece all this together and
let my imagination run wild too as I start imagining love, intrigue and
other scenarios - real and in my dreams. Yes, even though I know this
book is a fictionalized autobiography, I can't help but live the life
that was during the time of Om Kalthoum's golden years. Home
November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a nice day being
thankful for all that we have. I feel thankful that when my parents and
I came to San Francisco from the Philippines on a troop ship at the end
of World War II that the ship landed in San Francisco and that my parents
didn't have enough money to go anywhere else. San Francisco became our
home by default and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Today, Thursday, is exactly one week before Shadia arrives for her visit.
I wonder how she will see San Francisco after having been away for over
fifteen years. A lot has happened in that time and it will be interesting
to see what changes she notices. Wonder what she has missed the most?
Usually I think about a certain food or smell. Will it be those chili
French fries from Clement Street or will it be the sight and smell of
the Pacific Ocean? We haven't worked out a party schedule yet, but I do
know for sure that she will be with us for Giza Club films on Saturday,
December 3 and then we will go to Adriana's showcase party later in the
evening. Also for sure she will be at the party we are having at Al Masri
on Sunday December 11. At that party she promised to dance. It's live
music too - Jalal, Husain, Susu and me. Insha'allah.
Since the holidays have officially begun, I have a feeling that the next
few weeks will go so fast that it will be 2012 before we realize it. Am
looking forward to our shows with Georges and wishing we were back on
a weekly schedule at Pachamama. Right now I have so many people clamoring
to dance that I can't satisfy everyone and feel bad that I have to put
some people on a list for "the next time". But, I remember when
we were performing every week. No one seemed to care and I would sometimes
have to literally beg some of my students to dance so we'd have a dancer.
It's really hard to reach the right balance. Probably twice a month at
Pachamama would be best but that's not what we're doing right now and
not in the foreseeable future.
Besides all the belly dance parties and shows, I am always thinking about
the logistics of my next show at the MCCLA. Not sure what the next show
will be as Dannhae and I have to agree, but for sure the show will be
happening sometime in 2012. It's already sort of in the works but it still
needs lots of Saharni nights for it to gel into exactly the right show.
But there's still time and, of course, there's still the matter of it
being with a grant or without a grant production. As in all things in
the future - insha'allah. Home
November 23, 2011
It's important to give back to the community.
I went to the Mission Cultural Center and picked up a
DVD copy of Tarabiya Part I. The Latin community has a lot in common with
the Arabic community. They were busy eating. Somehow I managed to arrive
in time for their potluck pre-thanksgiving meal and I couldn't manage
to get away without partaking of a few enchiladas, turkey, sweet and sour
Chinese, Southwestern corn bread, Southern fried chicken, baklava, apple
pie and lots of other goodies typical of a truly multicultural San Francisco
tradition. After grudgingly snacking I was given my DVD.
This is Wednesday before Thanksgiving so I had to go to Hilda's, a Filipino
shop that only sells desserts. I was to buy desserts for Thanksgiving
- bibinka and cochinta - coconut rice cake and rice cakes with coconut.
I got there too late for my new favorite salad - buko salad - young shredded
coconut in a sticky sweet green slime. The green slime makes it look like
salad. But it is extremely delicious. They did have macaroni fruit salad,
but I opted out as it looked too much like food. But when I got home,
I wished I had gotten some. Maybe I'll go back next week and get some
buko salad and macaroni salad too - just to buy healthy.
Of course when I got home I had to see Tarabiya Part I hoping it was as
good as Part II which I do not yet possess, but is on the internet and
soon (tomorrow) will be broadcast on cable. So Gregory and I sat down
together to watch it along with some bibinka and a few Mexican and Salvadorian
snacks (can't ever go to the Mission without stopping in a shop or two).
We realized that the DVD copy I got was edited for TV so it, too, was
the requisite 30 minutes just the same as Part II. The pair played back-to-back
makes a really nice show and with the use of the three cameras we were
able to see all angles plus close ups and long shots. The direction and
switching between cameras was pretty sensitive and made me hope that when
I do my next show at the MCCLA that they will want to video record it
too.
This was the nice thing about doing a collaboration with the Center. They
assumed the responsibility and the costs of recording the event. Since
they are non-profit and like to give back to the community, the entire
show eventually will be given to the community by way of free to air accessibility.
Yes, it is important to charge for shows and workshops - this is how artists
make a living and venues can be supported - but it is also important to
give back to the community and not always charge for everything. This
is my belief (and is the belief of the Giza Club) and I am happy that
I am working with a like-minded organization.
A while back, Jason of the MCCLA encouraged me to apply for a performance
grant. With letters of recommendation from various Arabic organizations,
help from Hana and Dannhae here and a lot of help from Debbie in Egypt
we met the deadline. Sometime in December we will hear if we get it. It
is a bit of a small-time grant but would enable us to produce a show where
I can actually guarantee the artists' money rather than "something
after expenses are paid". I really don't know if what I applied for
meets the guidelines, but we all (Hana and Dannhae) decided that we would
do it regardless of getting a grant. But then, of course, we would have
to do it on a more limited budget. It took so long to write the grant
that I don't know if I ever want to try again. But ----- if we do get
this grant, I will probably think differently. So - for the next couple
or three weeks I will be lighting a candle hoping for this little grant.
Dannhae and I already have met a couple of times and will meet next week
to get things started and agree on our themes. Tarabiya was sort of an
experiment to see if we could pull off something different than just a
regular run-of-the-mill belly dance show. I think we managed to make a
statement, so am encouraged that grant or no grant, our next one will
have some impact on the community. Home
November 22, 2011
Tarabiya on Cable TV
Today Jason from the Mission Cultural Center for Latino
Arts told me that my Tarabiya show would be on Cable Comcast channel 76
(San Francisco) on Thanksgiving. I knew that it would air sometime, but
didn't realize it would be this soon. I think that the best part is that
it will also be randomly broadcast at later dates. I remember years ago
I had danced for a show on Cable and then sort of forgot about it. It
was sort of neat to later have people come up to me even a year later
saying that they had just seen the show. I think that after people work
so hard for an event, that it is nice that the event is recorded and made
available for others to see and enjoy at a later date.
Here I'd like to quote Gregory regarding performance and video: "The
recorded performance well preserved and maintained is the key to continued
generations of dancers and the preservation and evolution of our art form...
With video we feel secure in the knowledge that the legacy of the past
will never abandon us." This was taken from an article we co-wrote
Articulating the Collective
Dream: The Giza Awards and why the legacy-making process is important
to you.
Yes, it is important to preserve our art, not just for
ourselves but also for others. It saddens me when I think of all the musicians
and dancers that I worked with before there was video. All that is left
of so many wonderful shows and performances pre-video is memories. zikrayati
- yes memories - and here's a great link to Mohamed al qasabji (composer
and Om Kalthoum's oud player) playing zikrayati.
This song has always had special memories for me. After I had come back
from a trip to Egypt I heard the song and felt compelled to choreograph
a piece to it based on my memories of Egypt. If I were more technological
or maybe if I had newer equipment maybe I could upload a video of the
dance I choreographed, but I'm not and my computer is old, so I will just
add the dance to my list of movies that I will be showing on Saturday
afternoon December 3. This Giza film screening will feature the Egyptian
movie that I recently saw at the Documentary Film Festival - "At
Night, They Dance". While this movie is feature length, the accompanying
film, a documentary of a dancer working in Egypt is short. So I think
this will be the perfect time to also show my dance, a real short - about
5 minutes.
Meanwhile, this Thursday, Nov. 24 at 10:25 pm Tarabiya will be on Cable
Comcast channel 76 (San Francisco). It will also air on Thursday Dec.
1 at 9:25 pm. and then will play randomly as broadcast space is available.
It's actually already on the internet (part II only - I guess part I will
air later) on http://www.bavc.org/node/105722 so if you didn't get to
the Tarabiya show, I hope you will enjoy this. Home
November 21, 2011
Need to start working on another show.
As what always happens after a big show, I wake up and first feel relieved that there's no deadline, but then it hits me - what next? No more stressing about the Aswat show. Well, we did play to a packed house and in spite of having no director, we really played well. This season quite a few singers and musicians took a break because we had no director and were only perfecting some of our favorite pieces. The ones who did stay for this season though, did manage to sneak in a few new songs - director or no director - we couldn't just do the same old pieces again without adding new songs. That wouldn't be very Aswat-like.
It's been eleven years since Aswat was formed and I've seen lots of changes.
I guess two of the main changes are that now all the singers can sing,
carry a tune and are quite good. In the beginning only a desire to sing
was necessary. The other change is that all the musicians who played this
season were professional.
It was such an honor to play with all of them. I guess Nabila's vision
of moving from amateur to profession group has really happened. Yes, it
still is a community choir - open to anyone - Arabs and Americans alike
- but the expectations and levels of commitment seem to have weeded out
the dabblers and the curious.
I'm really looking forward to working with Omar again. He was our director
last season. Since he is married with small children and lives and works
in Jordan, we need to share his time and know that he will only be with
us a few months.
But it will be exciting to have him back for those few months. I know
that he will be more demanding of our time and that there will be back-to-back
performances and lecture/demonstrations while he is with us.
But for now, there's no more big show to work on or to stress over. That
feels good, but also not. Oh well - at least I have another show - sort
of - next Saturday. We're going to do a zeffa. Hector on mizmar, and the
rest of us - Husain, Jalal, Sandy, Hana and me on dufs and muzhars AND
singing. I guess that's enough to stress about.
Sunday between eating and performing, Hector, Sandy and I managed to squeeze
in a few rounds of do'ol mazahers - we even managed to work out our choreography.
So while I am stressing about having to sing, I'm telling Jalal - "Sing,
it's a piece of cake, no problem". Sandy is stressing about her hair,
and Hector actually believes that Husain will play the songs from a set
list. After the zeffa we will become a band and play love songs. Because
Sandy and I will be the drummers, this is the part that I am looking forward
to the most or maybe the least. Well, whatever, it should be pretty exciting
to do this zeffa and music show for a mostly Egyptian group. I sure do
wish that I could have Saad el Soghayar here to whip us into shape, but
maybe I'll just channel him and try to turn our coed gang into dancing
drumming boys. Home
November 20, 2011
Eating my way through Aswat.
Today was a day devoted to Aswat. It's 10:30 a.m. and
in the car on the way to the ICCNC (Islamic Cultural Center of Northern
California), Husain was thinking of the great pizza we had at practice
yesterday. Practically salivating, he was wondering if there was still
pizza left over from yesterday's practice. I told him no, because we all
had little care packages to take home last night - pizza, baklava and
chocolates. I remember last night Husain and a couple of others enjoying
the sausage pizza and greedily downing it before questioning if it was
"halal". (See Oct. 8 "Riding in Style and Halal Pizza".)
Yes, it was good pizza and of course it was "halal". We were
at the ICCNC after all.
Today we got to the ICCNC by 11 a.m. The ICCNC is where we practice but
today it is also where we are performing. Before sound check we had to
help carry in the food - breakfast. With Aswat, this is very important.
So while the sound guys were setting up we were feasting on bagels, cream
cheese, apples, oranges, dried fruit and nuts and various different fruit
juices. What no coffee? OK - it was time for sound check anyway. That
took a little bit of time - about an hour - because we also used the time
to go over a few of the songs that still had shaky transitions.
After we finished sound check, Nabila announced that lunch was served.
Since it had to be portable we were treated to shawerma and falafel wraps,
salad and peanut butter stuffed pretzels. Also somebody must have heard
our complaint - so there was great coffee and sodas.
By the time we finished eating - we barely had time to digest our food
- we had to put on our costumes. Since this show was a benefit for clean
water systems for the little children in Gaza - we wore Palestinian costumes
rather than Arab world costumes. However, Najwa didn't want to wear her
Palestinian dress because it was too exotic - it smelled like all the
exotic spices of the Middle East - must have come in a box too close to
the food. Since I had brought Sandy an Egyptian dance dress to try on
for our upcoming zeffa, Najwa borrowed it and wore it. Little Lebanese
drummer girl trying to convince the audience that this Egyptian dress
was Palestinian. Well - at least it was black but the embroidery wasn't
cross-stitch, it was gold threads and sequins.
OK, time to perform. We go on stage and all went pretty well. I told Sandy
that I felt pretty good about all the songs except one - the Egyptian
medley. It just didn't feel comfortable or as easy as some of the other
pieces. She told me that was because I was playing the wrong instrument.
She told me that previously I had played duf in that piece while she played
riq. I asked her why she didn't say something before hand. She just shrugged.
Well- here we were on stage and the show is in progress and we have to
make a decision. We made a good one - we switched instruments for the
Egyptian medley and when she played the riq and I played the duf - the
piece suddenly made sense.
After the medley, it was time for intermission. They were passing out
dessert in the lobby. Baklava and other honey cakes go perfectly with
the coffee. The coffee is still warm. We had just enough time to enjoy
the coffee and cakes and wash our hands of all the sticky sweets before
we went back on stage.
The second act went off just as well as the first act. It really is amazing
that some of our best shows have been done with no director - only Younes'
eyebrow cues.
After the show we get the directions for the after party. But first, Nabila
wants us all to take a bag of food so she doesn't have to deal with it.
You can't imagine how much left over food we had and now I won't have
to shop for a week.
The after party is held in a little Arabic cafe in Berkeley. We get the
entire place.
Before we can party we have to eat. It's buffet style - all you can eat
- a vegetable and rice dish, chicken, meatballs in a tomato sauce, little
wrapped mini-meat sandwiches, little meat pies and salad. Of course later
there is also basbussa and a variety of cookies.
After eating everyone brings out their instruments and it's time to sing
and dance. Sandy had a sick cat so she had left early. Well, we called
her to come back and bring drums and dufs. Since she only lived a couple
of blocks away, she came back with more musical instruments.
After a couple of hours of playing and singing I start worrying a bit
because Husain, the musician who is also a limo driver has an SFO airport
pickup. But as if on cue, probably because tomorrow is a workday, everyone
just started to leave one by one. Within 10 minutes the place had cleared
out giving Husain and me sufficient time for him to get his limo and get
to the airport and pick up his client who just happened to be Georges
Lammam.
As we leave the cafe and wish Nabila well until next Aswat season, we
are reminded that she will be spending the three weeks working on three
grants. After all, it does take money to feed all of us.
We bid our goodbyes and are out the door, walking down the street and
Nabila is running after all of us with a bowl of apples and oranges that
she wants us to stuff in our pockets.
Yes, I really won't have to shop this week. I'll miss Aswat. But maybe
now I can think about that diet I want to go on. Home
November 19, 2011
Carnival of Stars Side Show
The next couple of months are usually pretty deceiving.
It may seem like there is nothing happening but after checking my calendar
and knowing that it is the beginning of the holiday season, I know that
it will go so fast that 2012 will be here before I know it.
One big priority is to find out exactly when Shadia is arriving. A few
months ago Shadia told us that she would be visiting from Egypt and we
agreed that she would spend the first 2 or 3 weeks with me. Well - that
should be in a couple of weeks and I still don't know when she's arriving.
Outside of planning a reunion party at al Masri, I haven't done a thing-
yet. Not really sure what I should do but I think I should do something.
I know it will be all left to the last minute as usual.
I talked to Pepper about Carnival of Stars 2012. It may have just happened
a couple of months ago, but unless we start planning now, it will be here
before we know it and we'll have a real last minute rush. I sure don't
want this event left to last minute preparations. I will take care of
the Side Show again. We plan on a panel discussion, more mini-classes,
live music and dancing. Also I hope to start a couple of other traditions
for the Side Show. One will be a zeffa and another will be a moulid. I
already talked to Susu about helping with the zeffa and it's in the planning
stages. About the moulid - if a moulid is to celebrate a saint's birthday
-then this will be a moulid to celebrate the birthday of the Stars as
in COS. I hope to make this the most exciting addition of the whole weekend.
Yes, I know, there's plenty of time to plan - almost a whole year - but
sometimes plans need to sit in the brain and cook until the right spices
and recipes appear.
And that is what Debbie and I have planned to do with her next trip out.
Yes - she didn't even leave the States yet and already we're planning
on her return. Today she called me from the airport on her way back to
Cairo and we discussed a forthcoming workshop. She will be returning with
Yasser in the spring. He has a conference in Chicago and they will ease
in a San Francisco detour. We've given ourselves 10 days to figure out
what exactly we will be teaching. At this point, I'm kind of at a blank
but there seem to be ideas hiding in the back of my mind that are trying
to pop out. I just don't know quite how to pull them out and make the
connections needed for a workshop.
Yes, what to plan for a workshop. In class today Asima brought in a CD
of Pakistani music and we played part of it for warm up. It was Ghazal
or poetry recitations and we discussed the difference between that and
qawwali, which is musical expression of the Sufi tradition. It seems that
all signs are pointing me to doing more work on Sufi music and trancing
and possibly researching how or if Zar may have a remote connection. There
must be some reason why Zar musicians also sometimes double as Sufi musicians.
Wonder if this is something that I can persuade Debbie to look into. Or
do I just want to find something there that doesn't really exist. We'll
see. This is a good project to work on. But probably not a good one for
a workshop.
Today I went to Aswat rehearsal. We are performing our last show of the
year tomorrow. The practice before this - last week - was panic mode but
today's practice actually was pretty good. It seems that everyone got
it together this last week and all - or almost all - the loose ends went
together. Najwa decided that she would play bongos for the show so we
have Faisal on tabla, Najwa on bongos, Sandy on duf and me on riq. Here's
hoping that tomorrow's show goes as good as our rehearsal. After sound
check tomorrow - if we have time - we will rehearse for our zeffa that
we're doing next week. But today while Aswat was trying on costumes, Hector
played while Sandy and I practiced singing du'ul mazaher while playing
the duf. I guess if Hector plays loud enough, if won't matter if Sandy
and I are in tune.
When I got back from rehearsal Gregory told me that he was channel surfing
on the TV and discovered on the Tarab channel that the Islamists in Egypt
are really acting out yet again and there seems to be a repeat of the
clashes that went on at the January 25 revolution. He said he heard that
they are now going to ban women singing Om Kalthoum. He watched a 2-hour
program on her life that also included men in competition singing Om's
songs. Now Gregory speaks way less Arabic than me - actually none at all
- so maybe he was reading something into the program that wasn't but who
knows - maybe this is a prediction of the future of Egyptian music. In
the meantime, I'm gonna stay tuned to the Tarab channel.
Home
November 18, 2011
Giza Film
Tonight I showed a movie for the Giza Film Series called
"Kabareh". It was a movie that was only in Arabic with no subtitles.
I had mentioned it at the last Giza Film showing and said that it was
only for the "hard-core"...meaning I guess I knew that not too
many people would be showing up for a movie with no subtitles. Well, that
is exactly what happened. Not too many people showed up. But then I knew
it. I have quite a few movies that really are culturally significant but
unfortunately they are only in Arabic. This is a dilemma I have always
faced. I want to share but then who really cares?
Before there was a Giza Club there was only me, my classes and The Aswan
Dancers. And then I formed the Giza Club. Here's about the Giza Club:
The Giza Club, in existence since 1990, began because when The Aswan Dancers
performed we wanted people to know more of the cultural background behind
the music and the dance. Well, who are The Aswan Dancers? The Aswan Dancers
(since 1976) are a San Francisco troupe dedicated to entertaining and
educating the public about Middle Eastern, Arabic and Egyptian culture
through music and dance. OK, I can't lie - I'm the only original Aswan
Dancer left and that's because I'm a turtle. But we are still here - continuously
performing since 1976. Dancers come and go and some of the original members
may not be performing with me anymore. But they are still around - popping
in and out of the scene as Giza Club members and as friends. That's a
lot of years, if you think about it.
Yes, over the years I have had quite a few movies that were culturally
significant and educational - but what to do - they were only in Arabic.
I enjoy watching them, being entertained and also learning from them.
It's amazing how much cultural stuff is transmitted in regular movies
- it's amazing how just watching regular movies can help in understanding
how to interpret the music and the dance even when the movie isn't about
dance. Hanging around with Arabs here in the States really isn't enough
because the Middle Eastern environment here is often replaced with and
mixed with American ideals and as in many immigrant cultures - saved for
family situations only. Moving to and living in the Middle East isn't
always a reality. Going for a vacation or dance/study tour doesn't always
quite make it because there usually isn't enough time to be exposed to
much intimate cultural details. It's a start, but it does take time to
get into a culture. Usually that's more than a 2-week dance-cation. Besides
- it can be quite costly. Dance-cations usually are in globalized hotels
and other interactions are mostly with tourist-savvy people. Therefore,
how about culture on a budget? How about a movie. This is not an answer
but it can be a bit of an eye-opener.
As I said before, before there was the Giza Club, there was the Aswan
Dancers. Besides learning the dance and the music we tried to learn about
the culture on a shoestring budget. So - there was Samiramis our local
Arabic music and movie rental store. Way back when the only media available
to us in San Francisco came from Samiramis on Mission Street, there were
a few "hard-core" idiots like me who wondered and believed that
in order to dance this dance properly that we needed to be exposed to
real cultural activities and adventures - even if only on film in a language
we couldn't understand. And we idiots were the Aswans who would get together
on weekends to discover the culture of Egypt and the Middle East watching
movies and listening to a language we only knew through song. It's really
amazing what you can learn about a culture from body language, mannerisms
and interactions. I'm not talking about watching dance movies, I talking
about just regular movies. That was one of the reasons why we formed The
Giza Club. We wanted to share our quest for cultural knowledge.
And tonight The Giza Club showed one of those types of movies - but this
one - "Kabareh" had extra bonuses and pluses. It is a fairly
recent (2008) film and addresses many of the social, economic and religious
issues that Egypt is cursed with - pre and post revolution. The bonuses
and pluses are in the extra added attraction of singing and dancing sections.
If you are curious about "Kabareh"
you can watch it on your computer. It is free to air. But, before you
do, check out this article
first. It'll make more sense that way. Then make some popcorn and invite
a friend over to view it with you and have fun with the movie.
Home
November 17 2011
Feed my ZAR
On Thursday nights lately I've been showing a lot of film
footage on Zar - everything from the real deal to "Moscow on the
Nile" type choreographies. It's been kind of fun seeing the differences
- BIG differences - and seeing how Egyptian folkloric groups from the
70's totally influenced how we see Zar. First of all - Zar is not a dance
- the zar is used to heal through singing, drumming and dancing. The drumming
may be set patterns, the singing may be generic songs or songs specific
to a woman's needs but the dancing is entirely free-form and comes from
within and in no way is there "technique" or a choreography.
About twenty years ago - my god, time flies when you're having fun -I
attended a Zar in Egypt. It was in a small room in a little house in old
Cairo. The floor appeared to be packed dirt with straw mats covering it
and it was four walls of women and babies sitting cross-legged on the
floor. Above the women, the blue washed walls were marked with bloody
handprints and pictures covered by fabric. I, and a couple of my friends
had been invited to attend by a dear friend Ahmed Khalil (may his soul
rest in peace) because he knew that I was curious about this ritual. An
Egyptian friend of ours also wanted to attend but, because the Egyptian
government not exactly condones the zar and Ahmed did not know her, he
conveniently couldn't find her at the assigned meeting place.
At the Zar the room is filled with cigarette smoke and incense and I recognize
some of the men. I had just seen them at the dervish show at Al Ghouria
near the Khan al Khalili. It's a small world in a city of close to 17
million. Are some of the musicians who performed for the government sponsored
Sufi tannoura show in reality part of the fast shrinking family of Zar
musicians? You can now see some of them at Makan.
While almost choking from the smog in the room, a woman approaches me
with a tray of incense and covers my head and the incense with a cloth.
It is intense and I feel like I am going to choke in the fumes. I am then
offered tea and a chance to give a donation. To appease my zar or just
to pay the musicians and shaykha for being present in their sacred space?
In the middle of the room are men - some of the men whom I had previously
seen in a different context - chanting and playing drums, dufs and cymbals
and circling around a woman whose head is covered by a cloth is standing
and swaying from side to side. The repetitious sounds aided in giving
not only this woman, but also each individual person in the room, a personal
space to think, to remember, and, if so desired, to release.
I am uncomfortable, an outsider, being in such a private ceremony. But,
then, I did pay to feed my Zar.
This Zar had been going on for some time, at least a whole day, but I
had just arrived. I am witnessing a woman dancing and making herself vulnerable
and open to her personal spirit. She has a scarf covering her head and
is completely oblivious to the presence of her friends who are supporting
her and to us, strangers, who have come to view this very personal ritual.
Feeling intrusive of being in this private ceremony, I try not to stare
and so, let my mind wander and I travel to another world helped by the
chanting and the drumming.
It is Saturday, not quite summer of 1957 and I told my parents that I
was going the library to study. Instead I left my San Francisco neighborhood
and took a dance class paid for with my allowance. I had found a dance
style and a teacher who called to all the inhibitions and suppressed energies
in my body. I followed my teacher, Zack Thompson (who had danced with
dancer/anthropologist, Katherine Dunham), from storefront to storefront
on Divisadero Street and finally to Jimbo's Bop City in the Western Addition.
Always accompanied by a minimum of 4 or 5 drummers, we danced. Afro Cuban,
Afro Hatian or just plain "Afro. We danced to many rhythms, but mostly
we danced for Damballah, the benevolent serpent of the sky. I learned
to arch, to contract, to writhe and to undulate. It was the beginning
of learning to dance for the gods, learning to call the spirits and learning
to soothe the soul.
Now it's winter 1958 and I have rheumatic fever with a heart murmur and
the doctor had prescribed at least 6 months' complete bed rest, which
also included home schooling and monthly shots in the butt. This kind
of cramped the lifestyle of a dance-crazy teenager. But my music called
to me. I played my LP's "Voodoo Suite" by Perez Prado and "Drums
on Fire" with "Caravan" by Art Blakey. Alone in the house
after my parents were at work, my brother and sisters at school and my
grandmother at church, I played my records as loud as I could and was
transported to another land. I communed with other beings as I was called
out of bed and I moved, swayed, danced and left my worries behind.
Murmurs of the heart. This music saved my life or at least my sanity.
The chanting and drumming has stopped momentarily and I am brought back
to the present. No longer a sick teenager in a past world I am once again
in the present 1990 and in Cairo. I am in a room filled with women and
the music is saving their sanity. I still feel slightly ill at ease being
here, but also privileged that they have allowed me to be audience to
their very personal private world.
The woman who had been swaying and rhythmically twisting her torso to
and fro while standing in one spot with a veil over her head has now danced
it off and is jumping up and down and throwing her arms overhead with
abandon. I noticed that the chanting has become more frenetic and that
the rhythm has changed. The woman is no longer alone. There are some women
standing near her. One, the shaykha, mistress of the house, and a couple
of the woman's friends seem to be protectively hovering around her. A
short while later, again the rhythm and chanting change as if calling
yet another demon or spirit and, what seemed to be on cue, the woman throws
herself to the ground and is flailing and tossing her head, hair and arms.
Shortly after that, abruptly, she stops. Prone on the floor. Spent! And
the chanting and drumming simultaneously stop.
The very name Zar has always sparked the interest of those involved in
Middle Eastern dance - especially women who enjoy dancing and just "trancing
out". In order to "trance-out" in a Zar, one must be willing
to release or to let go. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, the Zar
spirit possesses a woman (oddly most Zar spirits hang out in the bathroom)
and then she will usually take on a persona quite unlike herself. She
has become the woman possessed. Many times the Zar spirit is a man or
is a more free or licentious type person. In this way, the woman who may
be alone and head of household (because her husband is off working in
a foreign land - such as the Arabian Peninsula - or may as well be) and
has too much stress in her life, can then account for her behavior. No,
it's not her acting out- it's her Zar talking. It's her Zar giving her
permission to do X, X or X.
Why just tonight, after only watching a Zar ritual, one of the women (a
non-smoker) in class said - I need a cigarette. Our Zars will let us or
tell us to do things we don't normally do.
So - friends or relatives may encourage the woman possessed by a Zar to
host a Zar ritual. In this manner she can let her Zar come out while working
out all her stress and problems. However, Nadia Hamdi once told me: "Once
a spirit is called, it must be appeased. Then it will always be there."
And then, it will have to be periodically dealt with. Yes, great! Periodically
deal with it! Better to have a Zar party once a week. Once a month, once
a year or whenever than pay a shrink. And it is a lot more fulfilling.
We call our gatherings belly dance showcases or even use the Arabic word
hafla (party) but in Zar talk, it would be called a hadra - presence.
(Also the same word the Sufis use for their Zikrs. But that will be another
story - another time.) Ha ha - Why, if I were really business-minded I
could hold a Zar in my studio and then make everyone obligated to feed
their Zar once a week. Well, too bad...I don't hold Zars but you can feed
me. (I like chocolate.)
p.s. Check out our Tarabiya show. Home
November 16, 2011
The Streets of San Francisco
Tonight I begged Susu to drill and review what we have
been working on for the past couple of weeks. She has been working on
teaching us drum techniques that she learned from past teachers - namely
Egyptian drummer Yousef Mustapha and Tunisian drummer Nagib Bahri. Both
of them worked a lot with syncopation. Yikes! I used to tap and there
is syncopation for sure in tap dancing, but drumming? Yes - there's syncopation
there too, but not in my hands.
I thought if we drilled and drilled, quite possibly someday, somehow I
might be able to make some of that syncopation part of me rather than
just be numbers and beats in my head. I think I temporarily kind of gave
up on Yousef's technique - way over my head - for the moment, but there
was something that Nagib had taught Susu so many years ago that always
stuck in my head. As in - this kind of makes sense and I'd sure like to
learn how to do it. Well - Susu's the kind of teacher that makes it all
so easy - kind of - in class. After class trying to recall it all though
is quite a different matter. I was hoping that if we repeated the SAME
EXACT class for a few weeks, then maybe, just maybe, something would stick.
So tønight we got her to repeat the drills again and again and
again. Of course she kept throwing in a little extra stuff - but I managed
to get her to keep going back to the basic drill.
Playing Nagib's technique reminded me a lot of when I was studying timbales.
The technique's the same - except instead of using drum sticks, we use
our hands. It's all about splitting the brain and making the hands do
two different things - simultaneously. The easy one was together slap
tek together together slap tek. Well- maybe that wasn't how it went but
it was sort of like that. Try combining that with another combination
and then doubling the teks and then doing some of the teks or dums or
slaps in your head instead of on the drum. COMPLICATED!! Then play maqsoum
on the right hand while playing malfoof with the left and then add the
togethers. No way. It's impossible - but by the end of class Susu had
us doing it - but now class is over and I can't remember to do it anymore.
I remember when Najib used to live here in San Francisco and he was teaching
Susu - I think she was just out of high school - I was so in awe of what
he taught her. Never did I ever believe that years and years later I,
too, would learn a little of this - if only for a few minutes before forgetting
again.
Today many of my musician friends are limo drivers to pay the rent, then,
drummer Najib also had a supplemental job on wheels. But in those days
limos weren't the rage as they are now. But bicycle messenger boys were.
It was a perfect job for someone who needed to have a flexible schedule
and who was also into physical fitness. As I had a part-time job working
in the Embarcadero downtown area I would often -almost literally- run
into Najib on the street. He was very buffed and knew it and would wear
almost next to nothing on the job. Usually it was a skimpy tank top T-shirt
and bike shorts. Here's a little clip I found
of Najib now. This was done in the streets of New York. Along with the
clip I found a short bio. In it he mentions some of his past students.
Susu Pampanin of the U.S. is mentioned along with Basem Yazbeck of Lebanon.
I always knew there was a drum connection.
While I was thinking of Najib and what a character he was and probably
still is, I started thinking of another character, another musician who
I had the opportunity to know. That was S.K.
Thoth who lived in his own fantasy world in the San Francisco BART stations.
Performing in either a pleated mini skirt or a gold loin cloth and not
much else except maybe some low heels he would play the violin and dance
while chanting and singing his own version of opera in a language known
only to himself. He later moved to New York where he would perform in
the park and subways and became the subject of an Oscar award-winning
documentary. Before he moved to New York, Thoth performed in one of my
shows and was quite a hit. In fact I think more people talked about him
than our Egyptian guest dancer Nadia Hamdi. Quite possibly it was because
of his Egyptian costume - the gold loin cloth and nothing else? Is he
or isn't he...?
Whatever it was - on the streets of San Francisco there were a couple
of guys who really had style. Next time you see a character in the streets,
why it may only be just another musician.
Home
November 15, 2011
Where was Badia when I needed her?
One of the subjects of the raqs Egypt workshop with Karim
Nagi was about how Egyptian dance is ever evolving. I often wonder how
much of that rubs off on us and how much we take advantage of our American-ness
and fuse the dance with other styles or cultures.
It seems that even our beloved fathers of modern Egyptian music Sayed
Darwish and Mohamed Abdel Wahab wanted to fuse Egyptian music with the
West. They were in love with anything European and Latin and their music
reflected this love. This early fusion went on to influence the dance
as well.
Badia Masabni was instrumental in introducing Egyptian music and dance
in a new and modern way. Her visionary dreams that became realities helped
to change the format of Egyptian music and dance.
Badia was born in Damascus, Syria in 1894. (To put things in perspective,
my grandmother was born in1890.) When Badia was a child of about 7 she
was raped and true to Arabic mentality she was shamed and became an outcast.
The man who committed this crime was rumored to have been a relative.
While he returned to the normal life of a typical Arab macho male, Badia
and family lived in shame. Seeking to erase the memories of this incident
Badia's family moved briefly to South America - Argentina - where she
was introduced to singing, dancing and the acting element connected with
Latin dance.
Her family eventually moved back to Syria when it was time for her family
to arrange a marriage. However her reputation preceded her and the people
still remembered her "shame". So she suffered repercussions
from the "scandal" and there seemed to be no chance that marriage
was in her future.
I was raised by my grandmother and growing up I remember how "old
fashioned", conservative and narrow-minded women and people of that
generation could be and in fact, were. It wasn't just an Arab thing.
Badia saw no life or happiness in Syria and being a precocious teen she
ran off and moved to Beirut where she hooked up with a "seemingly
decent" woman. Well, this decent woman, as it turned out, was a madam
in a brothel. From the frying pan into the fire. As she was not about
to sell her body but she needed to do something, she turned to what she
felt she thought she knew and that was entertaining as in singing and
dancing.
Her mother searched for her and found her in Beirut and was convinced
that Badia needed to keep moving on and away from the "nass"...
the people, the stories, and the gossip that the people loved to tell.
I know the word "nass" means people but it means much more.
In this context it was the gossip - "telephone, telegraph, tell an
Arab." So they kept moving and ended up in Cairo because it was the
largest most cosmopolitan city at that time and thus easier to lose yourself
within it. For Badia, Cairo really was el Qahira, the victorious city
that allowed her to escape the malicious sideways glance.
She worked in musical comedy theater in Cairo and also occasionally in
Beirut. She was doing what she loved - acting, singing, dancing, playing
the sagat, playing music - whatever she could do to survive while also
fulfilling her artistic needs. In the 1920's she met and hooked up with
Naguib el Rihani and his ensemble. Naguib was an Egyptian actor. He and
Badia eventually married. Their love story might be like an Elizabeth
Taylor/Richard Burton love story. There was much passion, fighting, reconciliation,
marriages, divorces and true to the entertainment industry, money problems.
Even when they were apart, Naguib el Rihani stayed true to her till her
death. (or so it seems from the biographical movie "Badia Masabni".)
Badia left him in 1926 to open her famous salah "Casino Badia "
on Emad el Din Street that was close to Mohamed Ali Street. (Nightclubs
are called casinos and salahs. In this context casino does not necessarily
mean gambling. In Italian the word sala means room and in Spanish, sala
means living room. Cabaret means something else - not as upscale - not
how we know the word cabaret.) This new casino was a sensation primarily
because of the introduction of a redesigned and Europeanized look.
I believe that Naguib later took part in her casino where they collaborated
and he staged plays, primarily comedies. At this time Naguib el Rihani,
was known as "The Father of Comedy" in Egypt and he also began
to make the transition into the motion pictures. His last film "Ghazal
al Banat " is considered a classic. It is on the list of the best
100 Egyptian films and features much dancing.
Between loving and fighting Badia and Naguib finally separated again and
Badia actually moved her casino concept and entertainment intact to another
location. Her new casino, entirely influenced by her ideas was quite a
hit appealing to Europeans and upper class Egyptians as she featured local
dancers, regional singers, musicians and comedians and imported European
acts. She even had a women's only matinee - I'd love to know what the
entertainment was there.
This was precisely the time when the dance started making the transition
from raqs baladi to raqs sharqi. Since Badia also featured European acts
with conflicting costume ideas, she needed to distinguish between the
different themes - the western and the more eastern style of dancing.
But because she wanted to reach out to the Europeans and the upper class
Egyptians she wanted to headline and feature dancing that was not just
from the countryside. This was what we would call the beginning of Orientale
or Sharqi with the dance of the "ladies". This attempt at a
style of restrained and choreographed dancing - attempting to elevate
the dance - was called "Raqs el Hawanim ". She used European
choreographers such as Kristo Klaadex to bring the supposed "lady-like"
western element into the dance. Also the costuming started changing and
readily inspired by Hollywood and Europe, the one piece dresses started
to be replaced by the two-piece bedlah.
Badia, the emerging visionary, changed the format of the dance and its
accompanying music from solo dancing in small intimate settings to something
more modern and westernized - just like they had in Europe - unique and
specialized skits involving comedy, romantic singing and of course lots
of pretty girls all on the stage at one time and all dancing in unison.
She made the skits little pieces of theater kind of like mini-burlesque.
She involved choreographies - European and western staging and movement,
western costuming and when musical entertainment was introduced to the
general public in the movies, she was the first to allow her club, her
dancers, her singers and her musicians to be filmed for the cinema. This
was at the same time as Busby Berkley's depression era - pre war (world
war II) dance extravaganza movies in the U.S. And Busby Berkley's movies
were also a hit worldwide.
With her revues being filmed, Badia was looking directly into the future.
In the entertainment world all of this was later to be known as The Golden
Age of Egypt. In this emerging entertainment world with the convergence
of live performance, naturalistic photography, talking and musical motion
pictures, audio recordings (records) and as important then as the internet
is today, the radio, Badia help usher in a sensational new era.
And this coincidentally was the time that Mohamed Ali Street bisected
the old medieval Cairo with the new - with new buildings that ended in
the Park - the Europeanized Ezbekiya Park and the downtown Ataba area.
It was at the end of this grand avenue - Mohamed Ali Street that Badia
would start her premiere clubs. Her last club, Casino Opera, was in the
upscale Royal Opera Square near the Park. At this time Badia's chief protégée
was Beba Ezzadine and the Casino Opera was to be the club that Beba would
eventually buy.
During the period of the 1930's Badia introduced many future stars who
we still remember fondly today. Among them were singers/composers Mohamed
Abdel Wahab, Farid el Atrache, Mohammed Abdel Mottaleb, Mohamed Fawzi
and dancers Taheyya Karioka, Samia Gamal, Katie, Hoda Shamsadine, Naima
Akef and of course her soon to be arch rival Beba Ezzadine.
It was rumored that Beba and Badia's nephew Antoine embezzled or cheated
Badia out of her money and ended up buying her club. If you saw the biographical
movie Badia Masabni, Beba had an affair with Badia's nephew Antoine who
was married to Badia's adopted daughter Juliette. Beba, keeping it in
the family - Egyptian style - embezzled the available cash from Badia
and ran off with Antoine. (Indeed if this was in a movie called Badia
Masabni - it must be true - if you believe all you see and hear. Of course
movies do help to change history - but this was for the most part, mostly
true.)
Later the Egyptian choreographer Ibrahim Akef worked for Badia while his
niece Naima Akef left Badia and ended up working for Beba, who was now
Badia's first and foremost, competition. Naima's sister Fatma and dance
partner was Ibrahim Akef's other niece. She was my teacher and influence
here in San Francisco. We met while working together at the Bagdad. When
Naima moved on to the movies, her sister Fatma traveled the world and
eventually settled in San Francisco where I was fortunate enough to meet
and study with her.
Coincidentally - to make history even more real - I used to work with
a singer named Kamellia. She lived in Sacramento and would come to the
Bagdad to sing. I did not know then that she also danced. I believe that
she only sang at the Bagdad as she was still recovering from a serious
car accident. Kamellia used to live and work in the movies in Cairo during
Badia's time. In fact - she knew and hung out with Badia and many of her
dancers who also became well known dancers in the movies. This included
dancers such as Taheyya and Samia. Kamellia's real name is Jodette and
Sausan; owner of El Masri restaurant was Jodette's dance student. Imagine
that - two dancers from Badia's generation actually lived, danced and
taught in California and passed on the dance style, ethic and ethos of
those times right here in California. This is indeed a small world.
In the 1950's, just about the time that I started studying jazz dance
and wondering about which middle school I would attend, Badia was in big
trouble with the Egyptian government for Back Taxes. This was an incredible
period of upheaval in Egypt probably eclipsing the revolution that we
have just witnessed. This was the time of the changeover from King Farouk
who promoted the love of "belly" dancing and the regime of Gamal
Abdel Nasser who frowned on it. It was no wonder that Badia was in trouble.
As Nasser was the first native-born Egyptian since the last Pharoah of
Egypt, he ushered in an era of fervent nationalism. In this semi-militarized
environment, Egypt had jumped years forward into the very modern world
of hazard while in fact, jumping backward into the false pride of the
mamelukes. That year, 1951 was just about the time that Badia decided
it was time to leave for a better and a more welcoming land. She fortunately
left just before the Cairo Fire known as Black Saturday. Black Saturday
which smoked the entire city of Cairo took place January 26, 1952 and
marked the burning and looting of over 750 buildings - shops, cafes, cinemas,
hotels, restaurants, theaters, nightclubs and the Opera House in Opera
Square. Was her club Casino Opera - now belonging to Beba -one of the
clubs burned? I don't know but I sure think so. Coincidentally January
25, 2011 - just one year short of 60 years later - Cairo witnessed what
is now known as the second revolution. Badia, perpetually the visionary,
left Egypt behind her and just in time. She returned to the relative calm
of Lebanon where she bought a chicken farm. She lived there quietly until
her death in 1975.
Meanwhile back on my farm, it was 1975 and I was debuting my new dance
group the Aswan Dancers...where was Badia when I needed her?
Well, tonight was just another Tuesday night and we reviewed some old
dances - thanks to Susan they're still remembered. And now I'm threatening
to start work on the next Tarabiya show. Let's see if I can get it together
and actually come up with some new choreography by next Tuesday. In the
meantime - check my new "Tarabiya"page.
FLASH!! Gregory just found this on the web. Apparently worldwide interest. Check this out. This is new - first posting. Home
November 14, 2011
My Way
Tonight we talked about trance dancing Egyptian style and baladi taqsim and somehow ended up with drum solo, libi rhythm and Azza Sharif. I mentioned that there was a video of Azza in a green costume that was considered a classic. I didn't want to stop class to find the video so I suggested you tube. Well, here it is - in 2 parts. Part One and Part Two. This is better resolution than the one part longer version. When a dancer performs for a long period of time with a band, especially if the music is repetitive, it can be easy to get into a semi-trancelike state - if one chooses to. Maybe not totally losing oneself in the trance but enough to give the audience a little voyeuristic rush into your soul. This is how you can control the emotions of your audience.
I think that in this video that is how Azza controlled her audience. It's all about the repetition and getting lost in it - but still staying totally aware that there is an audience and allowing the audience to share in the emotions. Just as an aside -when I first viewed this video - way back when - I never realized that one day I would be watching Azza in Egypt AND be there with Reda Darwish who is the bongo player in the video. It's a small world - a really small world as Reda eventually moved to San Francisco where we worked together at the Bagdad. He later he went to Egypt to visit his mom at the same time I went and we went to a dance show and saw Azza together.
Later I started thinking more about Egyptian music and about some of the
long-lasting pieces, the music that has endured. If used as dance pieces,
these compositions actually cry out for a performance executed in a hypnotic
trancelike state. I don't mean the pop dance songs or mergences - I mean
some of the epic length songs written for Om Kalthoum or even Abdel Halim.
Then I thought of one of my latest favorite dance songs -Ya MSaharni (1972).
This song has been with me for quite a while in performance and also in
my somnambulant state when dreaming of and planning future events.
Ya MSaharni - You who keeps me from sleeping - Ya MSaharni - you who puts all my dreams together and solves all my problems. Ya MSaharni was written by Shaykh Sayed Makawi for Om Kalthoum. He was well known for his fondness of hashish. It's no wonder that this song conjures up such trancelike images.
I talked to Husain about using this song as an introductory song for a
Sufi piece I am working on for my next Tarabiya show. We discussed whether
or not it would be proper to use in a Sufi-type dance piece. He never
thought of it this way, but since it would be performed for a predominantly
American crowd - why not. I also feel that since he was best known for
his religious inspired songs and, as he was a professional reciter of
the Koran - why not.
Thanks to my Saharni nights I have my next Tarabiya show completely mapped
out. It sort of took a few "U-Turns" and detours along the way
and may be considered by some (like my musicians) a little unethical or
maybe weird, but I think I need to go with my Saharni nights and do it
my way. by Frankie and by
The Sex Pistols.
Here's to next year's Tarabiya show. Home
November 13, 2011
Tomorrow will be another day.
After practicing and messing up choreographies during rehearsals somehow,
miraculously, we all spontaneously remembered the sequences and did them
correctly at the show. The crafts fair was fun...easy...stress-free and
on time. We got there, checked in, changed, performed and left with lots
of time left over for me to even have lunch before leaving for Aswat practice.
Of course there were no major problems before hand - except that Kim's
car wouldn't start and at 11:00 a.m. she was in Richmond and we were in
San Francisco waiting for her. After desperately begging and pleading
while batting her 2' long eyelashes she convinced her neighbors to give
her a ride to the BART station where we were to pick her up and rush over
for our 12:30 check-in. It would be no problem finding her at noon at
the BART station in San Francisco. She would be easy to find at the crowded
intersection of 24th and Mission. Just look for a tall (almost 6' - her
husband is 6'6") blonde with long Shirley Temple curly ringlets,
standing on a corner filled with short dark Latino, almost Mayan type,
street vendors, mothers with strollers and toddlers and evangelists on
a soap box with a bull horn screaming out why Jesus loves us or why it's
the end of the world. Zahma dunya Zahma. This could be Cairo without the
women in black on black on black. Well Kim was wearing black - but they
were black tight pants, black lace up combat boots and black eye make-up
with black long false lashes. Of course she balanced all this with huge
red glossy garnet lips. Easy to find. And so we found her and got to our
gig on time - totally stress-free except that we didn't get to do that
last minute practice. But it didn't matter because ilhamduli'llah, we
performed even better than our practices. In fact, someone at the show
asked if she could audition for our group.
Going to pick up Husain for Aswat practice was another matter. He lives
on a quiet residential street with virtually no pedestrian or street traffic.
When I got there at the appointed time I called him on my cell. NO ANSWER.
OK, he's on the phone and he'll be out in a second. So I busied myself
with my email for a bit and then decided to call again. Still NO ANSWER.
Should I bang on his door? We're going to be late for practice. Then my
phone rang. It was Husain. "Where are you?" I politely asked.
He replied that he was in front of his house and he was wondering when
I was coming because we were going to be late. Huh? I looked up and there
he was standing in the street with his phone to his ear. Absolutely no
one on the street and there I was - 10 minutes - in front of his house
and we couldn't find each other.
Aswat practice was a little frantic today. Second to last practice before
our Big Show next Sunday. Each piece went off exactly as scheduled except
that we were progressively messing up more and more. It's a pretty big
feat being a directorless group this season, trying to coordinate about
20 singing Arabs and about 15 musicians and trying to be on the same page,
maqam and tempo. I kept hearing these words - Ajam do (as in do re me
fa sol) Nahawand sika, Hijaz kurd. (OK, I'm making up some of the maqams,
but that's kind of what was spewing out of our violinists' mouths) and
we drummers were sitting there wondering if we should tune our drums.
Yes - but what iqa (rhythm), what tempo? If in doubt - just follow Younes'
hands beating on his leg or chest or watch Husain's eyebrow (they lift
when he changes maqams). Or listen to cute little Rana with the Feiruz
soprano voice deciding that she will sing with the boys for this concert.
Well, we'll just follow Faisal who decided that he wanted to change the
drum arrangements because he didn't like Dr. Sary's arrangements. Dr.
Sary was our Egyptian director a couple of years back and he had drastically
changed some classic song arrangements to include unusual drum breaks
and harmony (previously unknown in traditional Arabic music). This is
OK, but Sandy and I are on automatic hands with Dr. Sary's arrangements.
So whenever Faisal imposed a change for us, we just smiled, said yes and
hoped for the best. I guess professional musicians can change old habits
"just like that". Well, this will be the test to see if we're
the professional musicians that we wannabe.
Practice lasted longer than usual because of our last minute pre-show
panic. Or rather because there was another event at the center and "the
boys" were busy eating molokheyya or something dark and green and
slimey. I was trying to convince Husain that we needed to get going. It
was 7:20 and we were in Oakland and our show at Pachamama was supposed
to start at 8 in North Beach. Husain said, "No problem. You go ahead
on your own, and I'll catch a ride with Jalal and get there before you."
So I left trying to figure out how to make excuses to Georges for Husain's
tardiness.
After finally finding a parking place on Broadway, I got to Pachamama
to find Jalal opening the door for me. He said that Husain was in the
back at the bar having a drink. Yes, I guess I do drive rather slow.
Pachamama was fun tonight - as usual. Among our out-of-towners we had
Debora from Fresno (She had come to our last show after Tito's workshop.
She lives in Fresno and told me then that she liked our show and would
be back. I was pretty impressed that she came up again for this.) Also
Sinda, who is a flight attendant living in Seattle showed up. Whenever
she is in town, she tries to come to class. I don't want to say how long
I've known her - I don't think she would want me to say -but I've known
her since she was 18 and studying with someone else - maybe Rhea (who
moved to Greece over 30 years ago). She was pretty excited to see Susu.
The last time she saw Susu was when Susu was first learning how to play
the drum and would play for my classes in my studio on 24th Street (in
the 70's).
The stage was particularly full tonight. It was a good thing that not
all our regular musicians were there. I had invited Sandy to sit in (she
used to play with Susu at Amira). And Husain asked Jalal to come. I think
that's why he was taking a ride over with Jalal. So there were eight (8)
of us. Fernando on set drum, Husain on vocals and bass, Jalal on kanun,
Khader on keyboard, Sandy on duf, me on riq, Susu on tabla and Georges,
our singing M.C. on violin. (The C. of M.C. = comedian) We were pretty
crowded on stage. But it was a fun night.
Terri Anne had brought some of her students from Petaluma and we ended
up with eight (8) dancers and about 3 more on a wait-list (but we ran
out of time and/or energy). We had Terri Anne, Nicole, Angelika and Radha
from Petaluma, three sort of regulars - Rebecca, Judi and Hana and also
Sausan. Sausan who owns al Masri was on Karim's Sunday raqs Egypt panel
and had heard Georges and gang last Sunday. She asked - last minute -
if she could dance last night. How could we refuse when she said she would
end her dancers' night (with Dhyanis and students) early so she could
come down to Pachamama and dance.
I ended the day giving Husain a ride home being serenaded on his new phone
with You Tube clips of Adaweya singing. Husain - who hates shaabi music
as much as Ayman - confessed (just like Ayman) that he loves Adaweya.
What can I say. I love Adaweya too. And when he was young, he was soooo
cute!
Jalal has been nagging me about another Tarabiya. He took me aside at
Aswat and told me I should bring in guest musicians from the Middle East.
I don't know who he thinks I am. I think I need to just deal with reality
and talk to Georges about our next Pachamama night. Between Giza Club,
Pachamama, the Seahorse in Sausalito and al Masri that's already 3 weekends
in December. First, however, I need to get through with November. There's
still our Aswat concert , the zeffa and Giza Club. Yes, this week I'll
get on the zeffa choreography and maybe think about, dream about what
Jalal suggested. Tomorrow will be another day. bukra fil mish mish
Home
November 12, 2011
A little bit goes a long way.
The phone rang a little after 7 a.m. this morning. It
was Debbie. What? Couldn't leave San Francisco without one last goodbye?
Oh no. Nothing so sentimental like that. More like - Did Yasser leave
his backpack with his passport? After a short hunt, there it was - I found
it - in the black hole called my house. Some people only lose flourescent
colored socks or even shoes and bras, but a passport? Glad I found it.
Now how to hook up. The shuttle was picking them up in 5 minutes so I
was to meet them at the airport with the passport. No problem.
There usually isn't traffic on Sunday mornings at 7:30. Well, first I
had to coffee up and then had to stop to get gas - don't know why, but
I always seem to run around on empty. So, listening to some trance music
from Makan in Egypt (by the guys related to the zar group) and enjoying
my coffee, I'm on the freeway to do my little errand. Only had one short
detour when I took the wrong exit - love that hynotic trance music - that's
one reason why I don't like freeways - I just follow the signs and when
they say exit, why, that's what I do. Even when I don't have to. Just
love that hynotic music.So here I am on El Camino
Real trying to figure out which way is north or is the airport south?
No problem - maalesh - plenty of time - this is only a domestic flight
to Austin. OK - we made the connection and got home in time to relax and
have more coffee before my class.
So, for the past 2 or 3 weeks I've been on a zar - trance - zikr roll
and today was no different. It's not that we do any of that in class -
really - but it's just that I'm finding different pieces of music that
seem to call on that type of dancing. All of this is in the Egyptian tradition,
but we need to figure out how to use it in our dance performance.
Last Thursday in class I showed a Shu Shu
Amin video where she performed a zar in her act. She used real zar musicans
and singers. I remember being in Egypt and seeing this exact same show.
It was pretty extraordinary.
So today I played some other music that I had labeled "trancey beledy"
and we had a great time. It was a real cathartic experience. Well, it
was great for those of us who were there from the beginning. Lilli, however,
came towards the end of our music and just couldn't figure out what we
were doing. She just couldn't relate. So she sat it out. I hope we were
able to bring her in with us on the next "trancey" journey.
Nadia Hamdi told me that once you have a zar and you "feed"
your zar that you are obligated to always feed your zar on a regular basis.
Therefore it was better to just leave things alone and keep the zar below
the surface. I sort of agree with that. And I am not really into letting
our zars come out. Although our zars can be a good excuse for questionable
behavior. No, we weren't doing a zar. I am not talking about a zar. But
I am talking about the emotional and spiritual experiences that can take
possession when being intensely and physically involved with the music.
When I used to dance in my other life as a dancer only and not as a dancer/teacher,
I recall several instances when I did not/could not control my emotions
or remember or even know where I was. Often the music would just carry
me to another world and I would get lost in it. This doesn't happen any
more as I won't allow it to happen. Now when I dance, I choose to keep
the control. In order to really trance, you need to allow yourself to
let another force enter and take you somewhere. I don't know if this is
good or not. But it certainly allows for a memorable performance. I can't
really recall too many dancers who have actually possessed this possession.
Sometimes it is real and sometimes it is almost. Elena Lentini from New
York was one dancer who allowed it to happen. And here in the West Coast
a few years back, I recall that Atlantis Long allowed it. In all instances,
mine, Elena's and Atlantis' it involved time, specific repetitive and
escalating music and/or rhythms and surrender was the catalyst.
As in the movie I mentioned a couple of days ago ("Satin Rouge")
you have to decide whether the dance is for your own personal spiritual
release or for your audience's viewing pleasure. It is possible to combine
both, if you can combine acting with vulnerability. But you need to remember
that a little bit goes a long way. Home
November 11, 2011
Assuit
Something was going to happen at 11:11 pm on 11/11/11
or so we thought. But nothing happened and we forgot to notice. We were
too busy eating or talking or something else. We were hanging out with
Debbie and Yasser saying our goodbyes before they left for Austin (to
visit Debbie's mom) and then to continue on to Egypt. It was a nice group
of people including Mila and Bill, two old friends from Debbie's life
in Austin who now live in San Jose, Debbie and Yasser were busy entertaining
us with stories of their long distance courtship and I was busy comparing
pieces of assuit.
Debbie gave me a beautiful new but soft assuit neck scarf with crocheted
bead fringe and Farah brought out a gorgeous antique assuit piece that
she "just happened" to have in her purse. Wonder what other
treasures she keeps in her bag. Debbie told us that the new assuit is
made in Sohag. It was originally made in the predominantly Christian city
of Assuit in upper Egypt and is really called "tulli bi telli"
(net with metal). The new stuff now comes from Sohag which is also another
Christian city in upper Egypt south of Assuit. Usually Islamic art focuses
on patterns and calligraphy and not on the human form as that can be considered
idolatry and therefore a sin against God. So, if you have a piece of assuit
or "tulli bi telli" and you see camels, horses or stick figures
of people, chances are it was made by a Christian. I have quite a few
pieces of assuit that seem to tell a story with houses, palm trees, animals
and people and therefore were most probably made in upper Egypt, Most
of my pieces are old and very fragile and were probably made in Assuit.
Back in the day you could find assuit in junk, second-hand or "antique"
stores. Except for my solid silver dress that I bought from Zoraida (more
on her another day), I got all my old assuit from second hand stores.
The average price then was probably $20 plus having to listen to the shop
keeper volunteer some history. The best story was how one piece came across
the country in a covered wagon and was used as a lap robe. Since the silver
acts as a conductor, I don't think I would get very warm using the assuit
on a cold day as it would just get colder. And fyi, don't ever wear a
solid silver assuit dress and stand over a floor heater. You'll feel like
the teaspoon in the glass of boiling hot tea. Hot, Hot, Hot!
Amina and Fatma Akef at the Bagdad -
This dress was given to me by Siranouch who was Yousef Koyoumjian's (owner of Bagdad) sister. Fatma told me that I needed to show my legs in order to look Egyptian. If you check old b&w movies and check out the dancers, you'll see that they all wore pretty sheer see-through outfits.
After Debbie tried to set me up with skype and realized she was unable
to do that with me because I'm not connected to anything and don't even
have itunes on my phone, she decided to give up. My marching orders were
to get it together and take advantage of the technology I don't know how
to get or how to use. OK - one of these days, I'll get it together. It'll
go on my list of things to do. By now it was pretty late and Debbie and
Yasser had an early flight to catch. We were sorry to see those two love-birds
go but they promised we'd see them real soon - like maybe in March. Yasser
will be back for some Dr. convention in Chicago and, of course, Chicago's
only a few hours away from San Francisco.
Home
November 10, 2011
"Don't play the shy virgin...He pays well."
Talked to Pepper Alexandria today about her newletter The Ghazwazee Gazette. This is something that she has had up on her Carnival of Stars site for a while. I wrote something for the Gazette a few weeks ago and will occasionally contribute to it from time to time. We talked about the Carnival of Stars event that just happened last August. It may have just happened, but it will be happening again before we realize it. I guess I will again be the person in charge of The Side Show.
It was a lot of fun organizing it and I have a few ideas to make it even better and more fun for next year. The Side Show had solo dancing, group dancing, live music with Sahara Sands and Arcane Dimension, dance classes with me, Cory Zamora from Fresno, Mahsati from North Carolina and Susu teaching drum.
Rebecca
Andrea, Carolina and Claudia
Arcane Dimension
Next year we will have more activities including the use of the grand
staircase - zeffa style - and a mini-mulid experience. I know there is
still a lot of time to organize this - it is next year, after all - but
time flies and 2012 will be here before I know it. Then I'll start wondering
why I didn't have it more organized. ---kind of like when Karim asked
me to do raqs Egypt---. I was mentally prepared way in advancae, sort
of prepared way in advance and then procrastinated until the very last
minute. I wonder - I guess there's a rush - a high - in gathering all
the loose ends at the last minute. Well, I don't want The Side Show to
be like that - but then it probably will be. Everything will be organized
-almost- and then left for the final exciting hours.
I'm starting to feel that way about the Crafts Show we're doing at Fort
Mason on Sunday. Everything's done, almost packed but I still haven't
made the CD, picked my music for my solo or perfected the group dances.
There's always tomorrow. And - about the zeffa which is coming up in a
couple of weeks...Well, I did talk to Hector about the music and he suggested
that I get on Husain's case and start choosing the songs that we will
play after the zeffa during the reception. I guess since we are all going
to be at Aswat practice on Sunday, I will make a list of songs and finalize
our set list. And then there is the issue of the choreography for the
zeffa. Husain dance? I don't think so. But the rest of us should - including
Jalal - and that means setting a choreography. hmmmm - I'll work on that
next Tuesday.
Tonight at class we worked on zikr and zar and the idea of trancing while dancing and bringing your audience into it. I recall this Tunisian film "Satin Rouge" (2003) and remember a couple of scenes in the movie that are especially relevant to our attitudes as dancers and performers. I am listing two links from the movie. They have really great lines in them.
" Don't play the shy virgin...He
pays well."
"I am an artist."
So in class we worked with the dizzyingly trancey music of Abdel Wahab.
In the song, Cleopatra, Abdel Wahab sings of wine and song - khamron
- toghani - and we discussed the elements of zikr dancing, hyperventilating
and losing ourselves in music and movement. Later our performance song
was Ya Msaharni and we applied some of our internal trancing outwardly
working on reaching our audience. I felt it was a great exercise. But
this is not over. We've actually been working on these themes for a few
weeks and will continue until everyone "gets it". Home
November 9, 2011
Mohammed Abdel Wahab
At the raqs Egypt seminar Karim mentioned that Mohammed Abdel Wahab was his favorite composer. I think he is a lot of people's favorite composer. For sure he wrote many of my favorite songs. In fact, in 1990 I produced a dancing fashion show - it was my second one - and in it I used only music written by Mohammed Abdel Wahab. It was a tribute to his music. Besides it being a fashion show, it was also a short history of belly dance from the days of Mohammed Ali to today. It was quite fun to research the music and then the dancing and costumes just naturally followed. He was still alive and composing then. He died a year after the dancing fashion show.
Besides being a composer, Abdel Wahab was also a singer. He sang hundreds
of his more than 1000 songs that he composed. I remember seeing the movie
"The White Rose" (1934), his first, which broke box office records.
It is a black and white film about an impoverished aristocrat who is forced
to find employment as a clerk but later finds success as a singer. Many
of the songs in this post talky film are still my favorites and they show
how he was using Latin rhythms in his music. He had visited Europe and
was greatly influenced by Western music traditions. In his films and musicals
he broke with the Arabic traditions of pain and suffering and introduced
light hearted songs in Westernized upper class social conditions. In real
life I heard that he was quite the dandy and was very conscious of his
appearance and attire. Mohammed Abdel Wahab
in "White Rose"
Whenever I see Husain now he usually greets me by saying "Tarabiya,
next time let's do Abdel Wahab". It has gotten me thinking. It would
make a wonderful show. Besides being such a prolific composer, his songs
are so diverse that a show featuring Abdel Wahab's music could encompass
just about any style or mood that I would want to create.
Here is Fantasy Nahawand. It
was the first musical composition and was also in the movie "The
White Rose". A slightly shorter version of this song is one of the
first songs I ever danced to at the The Bagdad. Of course then I didn't
know who composed the songs I was dancing to. Later I learned that many
of my favorites and unfavorites were composed by him. One song that I
danced to quite often was one that I didn't particularly like. It was
called "The Wheat Song". It too was in "The White Rose".
I would request "Wheat Song" often because when a new musician
would ask me what song I wanted, this was the only song I could remember
or pronounce as it was in English. I felt it was better to know the name
of a song, any song, rather than confess "I don't know" any
names or worse yet. tell the musician to "Play anything". The
"I don't know" wasn't good because it just showed ignorance
and the "Play anything" not only showed ignorance, it was an
invitation to disaster as the musician would then play something really
hard or really boring. For sure it would never be anything good.
I've worked with quite a few musicians who really loved Abdel Wahab and
would even would make and give away - as presents to their friends - cassette
recordings of them singing Abdel Wahab songs. My friend Issa Sweidan would
sometimes wear a tarboosh when he sang Abdel Wahab songs, clearing his
throat too - just like Abdel Wahab. He used to work at Amira Restaurant
on Valencia Street and I used to like working with him as he would play
a lot of the Abdel Wahab songs that I liked.
In my dance classes we don't usually dance to just Abdel Wahab songs -
except maybe "Aziza" but we sure do dance to a lot of Om Kalthoum
songs that were composed by Abdel Wahab. They were contemporaries and
also sort of rivals. But there was a time when they finally decided to
collaborate. I think that was when Abdel Wahab wrote "Enta Omri"
for her in 1965. He only composed for her for about ten years as she died
in 1975, but they sure collaborated and made wonderful music together
for those ten years. Enta Omri
Home
November 8, 2011
Dancing in a tent - "less is more"
Today I decided to pack the costumes we chose for the
Crafts Fair Show at Fort Mason. I want to be well organized on Sunday
because I have the Crafts Fair Show, Aswat in Oakland and then Pena Pachamama
in North Beach. No big deal except for remembering to bring everything
for all three events.
I took out the purple dress that one of the girls was going to wear and
found the gold chain had caught in the threads of the dress in a hundred
different places. It was so tangled that the only solution was to break
the threads, lose some sequins, beads and chains and hope that there were
no huge gaping holes and that it still looked like a dress in the end.
OR I could just forget about it and find other costumes for us to wear.
Well - two dresses were already reserved and the other non-tangled matching
dresses were black and the other dancer hadn't liked them - too black
-- too baggy. So, what to do. Just find other costumes. This is a dilemma
I have had quite often when costuming the Aswan Dancers. Many of the girls
- and there have been MANY - are very picky about what they wear. They
are more concerned with looking good - as in showing off their figures
- than looking folkloric. Unfortunately as in this case, the dresses were
from Egypt and were meant to be worn loose fitting. That is the style.
As it was, already I was going to make one of the red dresses more fitted
with pins. I can't always sew them more fitted as they need to fit various
different dancers at different times.
Well, I went through my mental list of costumes (usually each "costume"
needs to be six (6) each) and tried to figure out what would make the
dancers happy. I have lots of sets of costumes from Egypt but in Egypt,
folkloric is synonymous with "tent". And this would not make
these dancers happy.
Over the years I have had two types of dancers in my group: those who
only dance "folkloric" Aswan Dancer style and those who are
primarily "cabaret" dancers who are also dancing my style of
"folkloric". Being used to dancing in the two piece bedlah makes
dancing in my bought in Egypt costumes feel like dancing in an Egyptian
tent. It may be Egyptian but it certainly is not glamorous. And who wants
to dance in a tent, anyway? What to do?
It seems that the trend - in the past few years - is changing and gone
are the "folkloric troupes" as I have known them in the past
(including my "folkloric" dancers). Gone are the big baggy costumes
- they now seem to be reserved for the bigger dancers and the petite,
trim dancers are opting for the tighter fitted more modern look. This
is the "less is more" style of costuming. Even the big name
dancers in Egypt are doing it. A few years back, I remember seeing Randa
do a folkloric assaya dance with globalized fusion music (I think I even
might have heard a Saidi beat in the background - or maybe I just wanted
to hear it) and she was wearing very tight pants (with lots of holes)
with a bra. VERY FOLKLORIC!
OK, if you can't fight 'em, join 'em. And I pulled out one of my attempts
at group choreography folkloric costumes that I had made for one of the
other times that I had faced the dilemma of how to outfit cabaret dancers
in folkloric costumes. This is America, after all. But - we do want to
look Egyptian, after all. So the best way to look Egyptian is to wear
what the Egyptians wear.
2001
Of course, for this gig we need to have a little semblance of Egyptian since we are supposed to be doing Egyptian dances - well that can be the "turban" head bands
SO - problem solved. Let's just wear the
type of costumes that really remind me of Egypt. The type of costumes
that I really do like my group wearing and forget about how we're supposed
to look National Geographic. That's not my thing anyway. I remember way
back when....I was in Luxor and visited the Banat Maazin (Ghawazee family)
and showed them my version of their costume. Where their costumes were
large, mid-calf length, loose, kind of baggy, mine were skimpy, tight,
mini, "less is more". They asked for a photo of my girls. I
always hoped they would use my costumes as a template for their future
costumes.
This was our original length (1978) before we got the scissors to them (1980) and made them minis..
Yes, if the Egyptian name dancers such as Randa and Dina choose to change
the folkloric look, why can't we?
Home
November 7, 2011
Life is a Kabareh
Didn't have time to get depressed that raqs Egypt is over.
Had lunch with Georges, Karim, Susu, Linda, Diana and Tim and Laura who
were visiting from Minneapolis, then went straight to work and then it
was classes as usual. Sometime towards the end of the second dance class,
Lilli arrived. She had been m.i.a. for the last couple of weeks as she
was in Switzerland and Italy. We were happy to have her back dancing and
drumming. We quit drum class pretty much on time tonight not because she
was jetlagged and had been up since 4 a.m. but more because I was jetlagged
from raqs Egypt and the one hour time change. hmmm - am I slowing down?
Do I need more of a sugar fix or was it a sugar crash from all that Halloween
candy and bassbussa this past weekend?
The last time I had a "sugar crash" was after the Tarabiya show.
In many ways the Tarabiya show is still with us as I am still receiving
email comments, reviews and photos. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino
Arts is almost finished editing the show for cable TV and soon I will
have copies to give to all the wonderful artists who participated in the
show. I hope to also have a small get-together with everyone to watch
the show together and eat, drink, laugh and reminisce. Everytime I see
"the boys" they say "Tarabiya" and ask when we will
do the next one. Maybe the band should be called "Tarabiya".
In the meantime I am working on a page on my web that will include comments,
reviews and clips from Tarabiya. It was an important show for many reasons
and it marked the beginning of what I predict will be a new trend.
Tarabiya with Om was a one-time event and the next performance featuring
the "Tarabiya Ensemble" will be something else. I am in the
process of planning something different with Dannhae at the MCCLA plus,
if the angels are good, insha'allah, there will be a grant coming to help
out with yet another project. If the grant doesn't happen, heaven knows
we worked hard enough to get it, we'll just do it anyway but on the artist's
shoestring budget.
Meanwhile - the Giza Club is open for business as usual. After a very
interesting screening of "Rakasa", we decided that our next
showing Friday, November 18 will be Kabareh (2008). Written by Sameh Abdel-Aziz
"The film is set in a Cairo nightclub over the course of one night
and highlights the lives and stories of the employees and customers of
this venue. In one sub-plot, a pious Muslim waiter – Ali ‘Allam
– succeeds in dissuading an Islamist ‘extremist’ from carrying
out a bomb attack on the club. Generally, the film offers insight into
life in contemporary Cairo and highlights the economic and social hardships
endured by people of all classes. It also reveals the religious contradictions
in this society. Thus, the voice of moderate, peaceful Islam is contrasted
with ‘extremism’ and ‘terrorism’ in the name of Islam."
If you plan on attending know that it is rsvp and potluck. Plus it is
in Arabic and there are NO subtitles. See
trailer here
Hope to see you at the Giza Club - but first - come to Pachamama this
Sunday for a great night of music and singing with Georges, Khader, Susu
and me (plus more) and dancing by Terri Anne, Nicteha, Nicole, Rahda,
Rebecca, Kim, Hana, Judi and Sausan. Home
November 4, 5 and 6, 2011
An Egyptian experience in San Francisco
Friday
It went so fast. Just like being on a vacation. Time stands
still for all your friends who aren't on the trip with you, but when on
vacation, you manage to pack so much - a lifetime - into just a few short
days. For me this vacation started about midnight on Thursday right after
my class. After class which ended at it's usual time of around 9:45 or
10, I had dinner and did my blog for the day. That took a couple of hours
and then the fun and excitement began.
First I ran around like crazy trying to make mental notes of what to have
ready for Friday's seminar. It was with great relief that I realized that
I didn't have to have my choreography ready yet - that would be for Saturday's
class. I only had to have my DVDs and papers ready for the Mohammed Ali
Street talk - Debbie and I had an hour presentation - and then my paper
- a famous dancer - an Egyptian historical figure. OK, kind of easy -
piece of cake - I'd already done the Mohammed Ali Street workshop with
Debbie last February (that class was 6 + hours) and the piece on Badia
was already written and rehearsed till I could do it in my sleep.
So, after I committed my mental notes to paper - what to bring on what
day to what workshop, I reread my notes - decided I would pack, find the
DVDs in the morning and go to bed. By this time, I had already wasted
a couple of more hours stressing so I decided I needed to decompress and
be fresh for the morning. It's a terrible thing to have a TV in the bedroom
because I decided to turn on the TV and zone out a bit. Sometime after
4:30 a.m, one and a half movies later, I decided I needed to turn off
the TV and go to sleep. This is the same kind of stupid ritual I go through
when going on a trip and the shuttle bus is to arrive at dawn.
Meanwhile, Gregory was pulling a real all-nighter on my behalf. In February,
when Debbie and I had taught our Mohammed Ali class, neither of us wanted
to touch on the history of Mohammed Ali, the famous figure the street
was named after. So I conscripted Gregory to do it. At that time we allowed
him an hour for his talk. Well, his talk took an hour and a half. Now,
for our raqs Egypt talk, we were allowing 10 minutes on the guy. We had
an hour total for a Mo. Ali Street workshop that lasted more than six
hours. OK, for Karim, we would compress each hour into 10 minutes. So
I gave Gregory 10 minutes for my paper on Mohammed Ali. He was going to
turn the history into 10 minutes that I would then read/deliver to the
workshop.
So while I simultaneously was cozily sleeping and listening
for the alarm to go off, Gregory was writing my last paper. Leave everything
to the last minute - it's ok - it was being done while I slept and besides,
"You can always buy what you forget to pack." Maybe that's why
I don't travel that much.
The alarm went off at 7:30 and barefoot, wearing an old T shirt and elastic
pants, I sleepily rolled down to the dance studio with my coffee. Having
my dance studio in my home is the greatest. I started looking for DVDs
to show at the workshop. Of course technical difficulties and bras break
during most important shows and since this was something important, my
DVD recorder decided to act up and not even turn on.
I started watching DVD clips trying to see what would work most efficiently
without having to do any cutting and then it was 9 a.m. and Debbie and
Yasser arrived ready to work. We were going to organize our talk while
Yasser translated Debbie's song for her dance portion of her workshop.
Time flies when you're having fun and by 11:30, I still wasn't dressed
and Debbie still hadn't practiced her choreography in front of a mirror.
So I left to give her some space and I got dressed and gathered all my
workshop stuff together - drum, maps, papers and DVDs including Gregory's
Mohammed Ali paper that was sitting on my stack of notes and papers with
a yellow marker. Finally Gregory could sleep and sometime later I could
study the hour and half talk that he had condensed to 10 minutes. Yes,
Amina, Just talk fast!
We had a date at noon to visit with Georges Lammam's father from Santa
Rosa before meeting Karim Nagi for a teacher bonding lunch. So - exactly
at 5 minutes to 12, Georges called asking where we were. Luckily Georges
literally lives 2 minutes from me, so with the help of the parking fairy
we arrived on time. We visited for almost an hour and at ten minutes to
one we left for our one o'clock lunch date. Again the parking fairy was
watching over us and we found a place within a block of the restaurant.
We were even a few minutes early - but Karim was earlier and already there.
In fact -Karim is always on time. After all he's a drummer. This weekend
Karim was to teach us that being on time means being earlier than the
appointed time.
After lunch it was a short stroll to the studio and the official beginning
of raqs Egypt.
Everything went according to schedule. Karim's music and singing class,
the Mohammed Ali talk by Debbie and me including my requisite laughing
attack and our panel discussion on Egyptian dance.
Although I had played with Karim at Pachamama, and have taken privates
with him (riq mostly) and love how he teaches, I had never taken a workshop
from him. Well, he's great. He doesn't just teach, he entertains and is
fun, fun, funny while delivering whatever it is that he is teaching. Music
- drumming - culture - language - dancing - you name it; if it is Egyptian
(or Arabic) he's there knowing and teaching it. All weekend long I kept
wondering where he finds his non-stop energy and good humor. And it was
non-stop from 1 pm Friday to 6 pm Sunday.
Saturday
After endlessly driving around the same blocks like an idiot who doesn't
want to pay for parking, I found a great spot (in a 2 hour zone - so what
if I had to move my car later) and arrived with one minute to kill before
the first workshop. This workshop was mine and started with me showing
a couple of clips of shaabi style dancing. This was great for all the
girls to see and also gave me time to put on some makeup. The two hours
went by incredibly fast and before I could play any of the music on my
back-up shaabi music CD, it was over. I hope that I was able to give everyone
a taste of shaabi.
After me, we had Aisha teaching Ghawazee, Hala teaching Melayya lef, Karim
teaching a man's assaya (stick) dance and leading a zikr (sacred mass
enchantment and trance), and finished off with Debbie teaching a very
"Southern belle" style Oriental dance. Saturday was pretty intense
and with the exception of a lunch break it was non-stop dancing from 9
a.m. to 8 p.m. All the classes were great and fun and energetic. But I
have a special place in my heart for man's stick dancing and Karim's class
was the best and was so much fun and funny. You'd have to have been there
to understand what I mean. Imagine over forty women in a room each dancing
a man's martial arts stick dance holding a killer stick. Lots of whirling
and twirling, tossing and hitting and singing and no one was even injured.
My dance partner was Rose. She didn't have a stick, she had crutches.
Wonder who had the advantage.
Sunday
This was the last day and aside from having to pack my paper to present,
pack make-up, costume, the butt, my Egyptian tent for a back-drop, musical
instruments, mikes and cords and those beloved heavy mike stands, there
was nothing to worry about. This was to be a pretty easy day. Karim started
off with talking about the Egyptian evil eye, the hand of Fatima, Egyptian
culture and the Saidi tahteeb. We then presented our talks on the Americanization
of Egyptian dance.
Our lunch break was also time to change the room from a dance studio to
a performance space. Georges Lammam arrived with his entourage - Khader
Keileh, Husain Resan, Susu Pampanin and Gabriel Navia. Karim and I were
also going to play along with the band. After a warm-up song the dance
show began. I barely had time to be nervous as I was first on. It was
fun. I wish I could dance all the time. As much as I like teaching dance,
I really LOVE performing dance! But...,,,,,,,,gotta remember to leave
that for the next generation. Or maybe until next week when we dance at
the crafts fair.
All the other performances were fun to watch, but I especially liked Karim's
cymbal exchange with Susu. Could it be because it was Susu, or the added
other dimension of the dancer being a musician, or just because as, Georges
said "Amina loves percussion." After the performances Georges
played music for everyone to dance to, including a great energetic debke
line. We ended the day with Karim and Georges leading another zikr . It
was meditative, it was wild, it was all inclusive and it was a great way
to end an incredible weekend. il hamduli'llah! Home
November 3, 2011
Om Kalthoum
A musician/singer friend of mine asked me if I had any
karaoke music. He especially wanted music for the classic singer Om Kalthoum.
He wanted music to practice to - to accompany himself playing various
musical instruments but especially he wanted to sing-along with the songs.
Now there are a lot of instrumental versions of music for Om Kalthoum.
These can vary from just the 5-7 minute instrumental overtures to the
orchestral type classic instrumentals featuring a single instrument such
as the violin or kanun playing the part of the voice, or the lyrical virtuosity
of the less traditional sounds of Samir Srour's saxophone or Omar Khorshid's
electric guitar. To go even beyond that would be, "ya rab",
our Lady rolling or gyrating in her grave to the pulsating remix versions
of her songs.
With so much music to choose from, one would think I'd have a hard time
picking an album for his karaoke needs. Well, I didn't even hesitate.
The Oriental Fantasy albums produced by Horacio and Beata Cifuentes would
certainly be the ones to use. They have several choices and each Om choice
has two versions - one with vocals and one without. When teaching in class
I like to use both versions - but if performing I would rather use the
vocal version.
After telling my friend of his choices, I became more aware of just how
many versions of music for Om Kalsoum there are available. Most of these,
I believe, have been made expressly for the belly dance community. The
Arabic community is less inclined to want only 5-7 minute blips of the
music and usually they need the music with the accompanying poetry. Therefore,
Om Kalthoum's music has been covered in the Arab world by not just musicians,
but by popular singers such as Taher Mustafa (aka little Stevie), George
Wasoof (also young), Nur Mhana, Nancy Ajram (winner of leb. song contests
and singing since the age of 8) and Fadl Shaker.
And there are also the Om versions that some Egyptians like to listen
to that are strictly fun, different, outrageous. These are the shaabi
versions. I have been making a collection of these songs 1. because I
like them and 2. because they are crazy - but like crazy fun. I think
the first one I became aware of was in the movie "Lemby" by
Mohamed Saad. In it he sings Hobi Eh. He starts with a mawal - katakeet
(little chick), cluck cluck cluck and continues to sing and dance. The
clip from this movie has become a hit favorite in my classes. I myself
never tire of seeing it. If you like Egypt and want to be entertained
and learn a little about Egyptian shaabi culture - you should try to find
this movie. It's not hard to find. Lemby is such a likeable character
that they've named DJs and muleds after him.
This weekend at raqs Egypt I will be teaching a dance workshop called
Shaabi Sharqi. In it I will teach Om Kalthoum songs that are sung by Om,
by other popular singers and also by shaabi singers. The shaabi singers
are starting to become great favorites of mine. They usually start the
songs in a recognizable Om fashion and then veer off into I don't know
what - something odd. It can be a crazy keyboard sound, it can be just
a loop of a word "'oolu 'oolu 'oolu" tell him tell him tell
him, it can be weird sounds with the DJ advertising himself, or it can
be a message - such as I woke up this morning and someone gave me something
to smoke and then I got wasted. I saw double and then I saw the devil.
I don't think I'll smoke anymore.
I hope I'll remember the choreography. But then, it really doesn't matter.
There's too much choreography out there in the streets and I don't want
to be a litter bug. Home
November 2, 2011
Get a manicure
.
Tonight Susu taught yet another incredible drum class.
She was teaching riffs that she had learned from Yousef Mustafa. Yousef
was one of Susu's teachers in the early 80's. He had come from Egypt with
the King Tut exhibit and true to many musicians at the time, ended up
working at the Bagdad. Since I worked at the Bagdad and Susu, the teenager
sometimes did too, it was inevitable that they would meet. Susu had already
trained with Vince Delgado and George Dabai and was on her way to being
a pretty good player. But she was lacking a little something. What? We
couldn't put our fingers on it.
Vince had taught her all the rhythms she needed to know - plus the speed.
He kind of looked like a young Tito Puente when he played. Well, actually,
Vince was young then and so, actually, was Tito, so of course he looked
like a young Tito - they both had black hair then. If any of you have
seen or remember Tito, he had a special stage presence and mannerisms
that showed in his face. It wasn't like Abdel Halim's face slowly moving
side to side in a dreamy way (or Elias Lammam for that matter) - but most
like that side to side look except instead of the longing, pleading eyes,
Tito exuded the passion and fire of a volcanic drummer spurting and spewing
explosive drum riffs. This fit Vince's and Tito's M.O., but somehow it
didn't make it to Susu's shy demeanor.
George, on the other hand was Mr. Cool. Nothing moved him including his
fingers. He had a style of playing that I've never seen since on any other
drummer - except sometimes, Faisal Zedan - sort of. When George played,
his hands and fingers were close to the drum - kind of like how Faisal
uses his energy. But that is where the similarity stopped. In drum class
George taught us to minimize the energy - do half slaps, thicks, sticks
and one finger tricks. He played with his left hand holding a cigarette
between the index and middle finger. No need to use those fingers as there
was conserved power in the ring finger and also when doing finger rolls
he could still hold onto the cigarette. And his right hand - the dum and
slap hand... Well, he had developed a technique of doing a lot of dums
and slaps with just his right index finger. Who really needed the other
fingers? Not George - he was Mr. Minimalism. In reality, he was a big
guy with large hands and there was power behind them. In drum class we
worked at getting the same sounds and eventually we did but we also had
skinned knuckles, blood blisters galore, bleeding finger tips and I had
to make the choice between beautifully manicured long fingernails or being
able to make certain scratchy sounds on the drum. I opted out for the
long manicured Christian Dior #357 burgundy red nails and Susu learned
the tricks. What can I say, George really was an amazing drummer and we
both learned a lot from him - including how to have a "stone-face"
while playing. This was not cool - but then I guess it looked cool. But
not exciting.
Then Yousef came to the Bagdad. Now, the late 70's - 80's was the time
of change in Arabic music at the Bagdad. This was when "The Egyptians"
came to town. They really did make a statement and revamped our entire
American-style fusion - Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Greek, American hippy,
Turkish style of music (and along with that - the dancing that accompanied
it at that time had to be fusion also). Yousef didn't come with the black
tuxedoed Egyptian band - he seemed to arrive solo - drumming as part of
the entertainment for the King Tut exhibit. Since King Tut was staying
for a while, I guess he decided to also. And he fit right in with the
Egyptian antiquities. Like the Sphinx! In fact, he looked like a Sphinx
- or should I say like the Sphinx with the head of one of the pyramids.
His hair was long - almost shoulder length - not quite Afro in texture
- but definitely not treated straight and it was styled or shaped like
a pyramid. Almost a point at the tip of his head and then it flared out
like a pyramid. (If you've seen old time dervish - Egyptian, not Turkish
- dancers, you might understand what I am describing.) He also wore colorful
shirts and tight pants that flared at the bottom - they were called bell-bottoms
- and "elevator" shoes or boots - his shoes were sort of platformed
with a good sized heel to them.
Unlike the serious formal penguin look of "the Egyptians", Yousef
arrived in style! He was the epitome of all the Egyptian characters I
had seen in the Arabic movies. And his style of drumming matched. He was
all personality on stage. In fact, he sort of danced and moved with a
dynamism I haven't seen since. And his fingers - all of them - were taped
with glow-in-the dark white adhesive tape from a rolled tape dispenser.
This, I don't believe was really to protect his fingers from splitting
and blisters, I think they were more for drum effect. They helped the
drum make louder popping and slapping sounds. As a dancer, if you didn't
respond to these pops and slaps, why, you could just look at him rocking
and dancing and kicking his legs in the air and you would understand what
to do. It turned out that Yousef was a dancer's drummer. He worked with
many name dancers in Egypt - Hallah Safi, Hanan, Zizi Mustafa - and his
style of drumming was meant to draw, accent and emphasize the dancers'
movements. In Egypt also, it was quite common to have a huge percussion
section with more than one tabla player. It was quite common to have one
drummer dedicated to just playing accents (often times following the dancer's
hips) while another drummer played the ard or basic beat. Yousef wasn't
your basic beat type of drummer, he was special - he was all accents and
syncopation - and he was the complete showman. So, while I decided to
keep my manicure and work on my dancing with Yousef, Susu decided to continue
her drum studies solo and apprenticed herself to Yousef. The sad truth
is that Yousef only taught privates to qualified drummers and I was just
a dancer.
Well, last night Susu taught us drum riffs that she learned from Yousef
because she is working on a new drum solo. (She hopes to record a new
CD by the end of the year.) This drum solo is going to be called "Tribute
to Yousef #1". She's only doing the tip of the iceberg at this point
and really is just drilling us on certain syncopation concepts that she
learned from Yousef way back when. When she taught the drills, I sawYousef
in her. Well, she's really her own drummer with her own style, but when
she was teaching, she started using her head, her body, her hands and
arms and was moving and dancing with the rhythm. She wasn't just teaching
us rhythm and syncopation, she was teaching us to internalize and become
the rhythm - just like Yousef did. Yes, that was what she was lacking
as a teenager - the dynamism. She may not realize it, but her "Tribute
to Yousef #1" drum solo is not just about the syncopation and the
riffs - it is about the creative energy that explodes and exudes rhythmically
from within and travels through the body, the face, the feet, the hands
and fingertips reaching out to the audience and beyond.
This weekend Susu will be playing tabla with Karim Nagi on the riq for
the raqs Egypt seminar. It will be fun watching Susu and Karim play together.
Karim is another one who dances when he plays. He has a more subdued style
of playing but there will definitely be a lot of dancing and rocking on
the stage and it won't just be by the dancers. Yes, Since I will be one
of the dancers, I better remind myself that I need to work on my manicure.
If I had learned Yousef's syncopation patterns years ago, like Susu did,
why maybe, just maybe, I might be a better...but, actually I wouldn't
have, I couldn't have, the ideas were beyond my abilities and my perception.
But now, maybe, just maybe, finally I'll get it. Well, actually, I love
practicing and learning the patterns and trying to understand the concepts.
But the sad truth is - I'm too chicken to risk trying to solo - to improvise
- to make a mistake - and to take that chance. I like being the back-up
for drummer with a manicure.* I'm happy to leave the serious drumming
to people like Susu.
*Grow those nails, get a manicure. Home
November 1,
2011
"X" rated song for the birds!
It's hard to concentrate today. I think I had too much
Halloween candy. But I am FINALLY working on my papers for the raqs Egypt
seminar this weekend. However - it is time tor a break. After all, all
work and no fun can play havoc to the mind and body.
Stasha sent me a fun email today and I would love to share it. Thank you,
Stasha. She must have known I had Stasha on the brain. When I was at Jannah,
that Iraqi restauranton on Fulton St. on Sunday I noticed a bunch of cards
on the bar counter. They were pr cards for Stasha. She works at Jannah
on Saturday nights. And now today I get this neat email from her.
Well, here it is. It is so great that I need to get it burned to DVD and
show at my next Giza film showing. Seriously - it will win prizes. Gregory
and I vote it as
Best of festival! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Last Saturday in class I was thinking of the various categories of shaabi
songs. One of my favorite categories is exampled in the above you tube
clip. It is especially relevant when I haven't eaten. This is the shaabi
food category. How many songs can I think of - off the top of my head
- that deal with food? Starting with Ahmed Adaweya's Sittu Bess Basbusa
and going on to Saad el Soghayar's El Einab, there must be hundreds. Or
so it seems. To name just a few of my favorites - Shokolata, Sami Ali;
Mahalabeya, Hakim; Khokha, Riko; Koskosi, Essam Shabula; Koshary, Barur?;
Eshta, Said el Artiste; Khamra ya 'uta,?; Vitaminak, Hari Kari; Manga,
?... all those have food in the titles. Plus there are so many other shaabi
songs with references to food within the songs such as El Hantour and
Dinga Dinga. I guess I need to start writing these down in a list rather
than trying to pull them out of my brain at a moment's notice.
I know there are many more if I just sat still long enough to think about
it. But, I think you get what I mean. Well the best thing about this is
that these words are readily available in Arabic phrase books named Lonely
Planet or Rough Guide etc. Just look in the grocery or shopping section.
Soon, you too, can listen to a shaabi song and understand the words. Of
course, many of these food references really reference other things that
may be "X" rated for "G" rated dance audiences. So
then --- it's really good that we can apply our common sense and decide
what is and what is not an appropriate song for an appropriate audience.
Well, if it isn't good enough for them, maybe it just for "the birds".
OK - back to Halloween candy and the raqs Egypt nightmare. Home
December Blogs: Arabian Knights Band, Lebanese dancers Nadia Gamal, Amani, Nabila Metwalli, Zar, Mohamed Fawzi, Ismail Yasin, Taheyya Karioka, Leila Murad, Sabah, Badia Masabni, Shadia, Adriana, Dina, Do'a, Fifi, Lucy, Angelica's Bistro, Sabriye Tekbilek, "At Night they dance", Husain Resan, Ahmed Adaweya, Jalal Takeh, Younes el Maqboul, Susu Pampanin, Faisal Zeidan, Sami Aly, Abdel Basit Hamouda, Kulu aal Kulu, Samiramis, Naz Minassian, Zildjians, Georges Lammam, Bagdad, Casbah, Al Masri, SFSU, Pasha, Soheir Zaki, Hossam Ramzy, Capp Street Music Cener, Hoda el Artiste, Jad Elias, Cairo Cats, Daria, Gregangelo, Dalal, El Valenciano, Soraiya Zaied, Mohamed Abdel Wehab, Ya Msafer Wahedek, Om Kalthoum, Pachamama, Pak Oriental Rugs, SOMA, MCCLA, Tarabiya, Dance Brigade, Brava Theater, York Theater, Tony Lammam, Dannhae, Kim, Hana, ART, Grapeleaf, Powell Station, King Tut, Ramadan, Sherihan, Mohamed Ali Street, Fawazeer, Sharia al Fan, Omar Khorshid, Firsan al Kurdi, Michael Jackson, Reda Darwish, MultiKulti, Sausan, Mohamed Amin, Nieman Marcus, Saks, Designer Consigner, PETA, Shik Shak Shok, Lessa Faker, Nagwa Fouad, Merryland, Seahorse, Rebecca, Sherry Brier, Arab Cultural Center, Elias Lammam, Linda,Walgreen's, Angela Ramzy, Arab Film Festival, Khader Keileh, Vince Delgado,Coralee, Shaabi, Andak Albi, Nass el Ghiwane, Gnawa, Djemaa el Fna, Rolling Stones, Sufi, Karim Nagi, Debbie Smith, raqs Egypt, BDUC, Chakib, Rachid Halihal, Deborah Kapchan, Rai, Maha Marouan, University of Alabama, lila, Museum of the African Diaspora, Michael Frishkopf, "Music and Media in the Arab World, "Traveling Spirit Masters", Mitchell's Ice Cream, Blum's, Atlantis, "Wahedeh we Noss" , Aswan Dancers
November Blogs: Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Saad el Soghayar, El Einab, Sittu Bess Basbusa, Ahmed Adaweya, Shokolata, Sami Ali, Mahalabeya, Hakim, Khokha, Riko, Koskosi, Essam Shabula, Koshary, Barur, Eshta, Said el Artiste, Khamra ya 'uta, Vitaminak, Hari Kari, Manga, El Hantour, Dinga, Giza Films, Gregory Burke, Jannah,Stasha, Karim Nagi, Susu Pampanin, King Tut, Sphinx, Yousef Mustapha, Hallah Safi, Hanan, Zizi Mustafa, Bagdad, Om Kalthoum, George Dabai, Hobi Eh, Lemby, Mohamed Saad, Fadil Shaker, George Wasoof, Nur Mhana, Nancy Ajram, Georges Lammam, Khader Keileh, Husain Resan, Gabriel Navia, Hala, Aisha Ali, Debbie Smith,Ghawazee, Rose, Pachamama, Mohamed Ali, Nicteha, Nicole, Rahda, Reabecca, Kim, Hana, Judi, Sausan, Giza Club, Terri Anne, "Rakasa", Sameh Abdl Aziz, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, Tarabiya, raqs Egypt, Randa, Dina, National Geographic, Banat Maazin, Aswan Dancers, Aswat, Fort Mason, North Beach, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Aziza, Amira Restaurant, Enta Omri, Fantasy Nahawand, "The White Rose", "Wheat Song", "Satin Rouge", Zikr, Zar, Aswat, Arcane Dimension, Pepper Alexandria, The Ghawazee Gazette, Carnival of Stars, Sahara Sands, Cory Zamora, Mahsati, Susu Pampanin, Yousef Koyoumjian, Fatma Akef, Elena Lentini, Atlantis Long, Shu Shu Amin, Seahorse, Al Masri, Sinda, Rhea, Rana, Dr. Sary Dowidar, "Zahma dunya Zahma", Jesus, Tarabiya, Shaykh Sayed Makawi, Ya Msarahni, Koran, Sex Pistols, Frank Sinatra, Reda Darwish, Azza Sharif, Casino Opera, Badi Masabni, Farid el Atrache, Mohammed Abdel Mottaleb, Mohamed Fawzi, Taheyya karioka, Samia Gamal, Katie, Hoda Shamsadine, Naima Akef, Beba Ezzadine, Ibrahim Akef, Jodette, Kamellia, Busby Berkley, "Raqs el Hawanim", Kristo Klaadex, Naguib el Rihani, Sayed Darwish, S.K.Thoth, Nadia Hamdi, Najib Bahri, Basem Yazbeck, Katherine Dunham, Zack Thompson, Jimbo's Bob City, Perez Prado, "Drums on Fire", "Caravan", Art Blakey, Ahmed Khalil, "Kabareh", Samiramis, Nabila Mango, ICCNC, "Zikrayati", Hilda's, Mohamed el Qasbji, "Wedad", "I Loved you for your voice", Ahmad Rami, Glen Miller, Dexter Gordon, Elvis, Frankie Lymon, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Janis Jopliln, Sid Vicious, Selim Najib, Guitar Center, Marriott Santa Clara, "Du'ul Mazaher", Hamza el Din, Feiruz, "Arjii ya alf leila", "lamma bada yetathana", Mary Ellen Donald, Mahmoud Reda
October Blogs:Arab Film Festival, "Hawi", Mohamed Ali, Karim Nagi, "Hobi Eh", "Ghanilli Shwaya Shway", George Wasoof, Farma Sirhan, Om Kalsoum, Ibrahim el Batout, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, Dannhae, Hana, Fairmont Hotel, Faisal Zeidan, Jalal Takesh, Husain Resan, Younes el Maqboul, Abdel Halim Hafez, Mohamed Abdel Wehab, Nadia Hamdi, Marcela, "Fakkarooni", Abdel Wehab Mohamed, Raqs Egypt, Georges Lammam, Steve Jobs, Debbie Smith, Khader Keileh, Skyline College, Vince Delgado, Coralie, Loay Dahbour, Ozlem, Real Doner, Susu Pampanin, Georges and Tony Lammam, Leyla Lanty, Carnival of Star, Mahmoud Reda, Nabila Mango, SF City Hall, Hassania, Skyline College, "Ana Hurrah", Kan Zaman, Aswat, DJ Raffy, Mina House, Nadia Lutfi, "Abi foq il shagara", "Ganal Hawa", Nicole Ibrahim, Kim, Al Masri, Sausan, Bagdad, Aswan Dancers, Firqet Aswan, Devi Ja, Aswan Cultural Center, Jazayer, Mimi Spencer, "Lailet Hob", "Alf Leila wa Leila", Gawaher al Fan, Ahmad Rami, Tarabiya, "Zahma Dunya Zahma", "Du'ul Mazaher", Mahmoud el Leithy, "Eh il Hakaya", ART, "Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt", Ahmed Adaweya, Michael Jackson, Cassanova, Travolta, Pasha Restaurant, Arabian Knights, Jacques al Asmar, Reda Darwish, El Valenciano, Cairo Cats, George Dabai, Fadil Shahin, Yousef Kouyoumjian, The Farm, Sir Lawrence Washington, Tropical Heat Wave, Tropical Outer Space, Sunset Scavengers, Carnaval, El Faro Taqueria, Marlene, Cole Valley Gym, Karem Mahmoud, Adela Chu, Tower Market, "Habibi Lasmar", Fee Youm we Leila", Hossam Ramzy, Chalo Eduardo, Jacque Barnes, Jose Lorenzo, Laura, Amr Diab, "Habibi Nur el Ain", Aisha Ali, "Procrastination", Zawaya, Omar Abbad, Curves, Hakim, Saad el Soghayer, Edwina aka Qamar el Moulouk, Habibi, Santa Fe Folklore Museum, SF Free Folk Festival, SF City Hall, Mayor Ed Lee, "Ya Zalemni", Riad al Sombati, "Salama", Munira al Mahdiya, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Dancing Drums - Live at the Giza Club, Sahar Hamdi, "Daret el Ayam", Samir Sumaidaiie Iraqi Ambassador, "Secret Ballot", gildedserpent.com, Faruk Sarsa, Naemet
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