Authentic Egyptian Dance, and the “It” of It.
Identifying what makes Egyptian dancers look Egyptian,
and why Western dancers look Western
Contributed By Sausan
Egyptian-born
performing dancers have it. But Western belly dancers seem to lack it.
What exactly is it?
Every
culture has its own unique way of expressing itself. Egypt is no
different. Let’s examine some of these differences.
• Egyptians write from right to left;
Americans write from left to right.
• The Arabic alphabet contains only
three long vowels and three short vowels; the English alphabet contains five
vowels which when spoken are either short or long, and sometimes naught.
• The Arabic language is spoken with
glottal stops, a vowel-like consonant “ein”, and about four forms of our letter
“h”; the English language has neither a glottal stop nor an “ein” consonant,
and the only “h” letter is spoken in many ways.
• The Arabic alphabet is wavy and
curly; the English alphabet is straight and linear.
• When an Egyptian feels pain, the
universal Arabic form of expression is “aaiiiiiiii!”; in the West, the
universal form of expression is “oowwwww!”
• Egyptian women will pat or slap
their faces and raise their arms and scream if faced with a tragic
circumstance; Americans will bow their heads and sob and lament.
• Egyptians will produce ululations
in the form of what is known as a “zaghareet” in a celebratory event or in a
greeting; Americans will contain themselves and shake hands in a meeting or
scream at the tops of their lungs in a concert.
• Egyptians tap the beat on their
heel; Americans tap the beat on the balls of their feet.
• Egyptians clap to the beat up high;
Americans clap to the beat toward the ground.
Festival of Cultures Performance at
I-House UC Berkeley 4/2011
photo by Arthur Glanoukos
L-R: Melinda, Fayruz, Andrea, Monica, Naiya
The
simplest things that stare us right in the face are usually what seem to be
hardest to see. Speak the words, “Ahlan Wa Sahlan”, a greeting spoken by
one Egyptian to another, and compare them to our own American greeting of “Good
Morning”. Notice how the Egyptian greeting, even when spoken by an
American, is much more breathy than the American “Good Morning” greeting.
Notice how it is expressed more through the chest and shoulders while the
American greeting is more nasal and throaty and contained within the body.
This most trivial difference, in how we greet others in our own language,
is the first clue into why Egyptian dancers seem to have “it” while Western
dancers seem to lack “it”.
“It” may
be described -- specifically while belly dancing to Egyptian music -- as having
or expressing “feeling”. “It” may also be described as having spirit,
soul, essence, or the “thing” that makes a belly dancer look authentic.
“It” is what makes Egyptian dancers look Egyptian, and the “thing” that
Western dancers have been trying to figure out since the beginning of belly
dance time in the West.
This
“it” factor is known as “nephis” in the Arabic language. “Nephis” is not
a word found in the English language, and according to Egypt’s Suhair Zaki, who
once danced before former United States President, Richard Nixon, the West will
never produce great belly dancers; we just don’t have “it” or “nephis” and [we]
never will.
Festival of Cultures Performance at
I-House UC Berkeley 4/2011
Photo by Arthur Glanoukos
L-R: Amany, Najma, Valentina, Serafina
Even as
we speak in our day-to-day lives, we dance a little as we communicate vocally.
We wave our arms around, toss our head from side to side, perhaps lean on
one leg and then on the other, fold our arms, touch our foreheads, and so on.
It’s a kind of cultural thing we do as we communicate our feelings and
stories to interested listeners -- a sort of cultural expression code.
These day-to-day cultural expressions are transferred into the cultural
dance. For Raqs Sharqi, or Egyptian style belly dance, I’ve coined this
expressive cultural code as the “Egyptian Dance Code®”, now registered with the
United States Trademark and Patent Office.
As in
all cultural dances, including ballet, Raqs Sharqi has a fundamental core to
it, born out of the breathy and expressive dialogue of the Egyptian people,
which resonates mostly through the chest and the shoulders and reveals itself
in the way Egyptians hear and keep the beat of the music. It is intrinsic
to their day-to-day experience and is not consciously made aware of so much as
to be able to describe it in words. We Westerners, albeit Americans,
don’t have this fundamental core in our expression. It is simply not in
our experience. It is not a part of our culture. Ours is altogether
different from the Egyptian fundamental core expression, and therefore this
Egyptian fundamental core expression is non-existent to us. We explain
this difference away as “foreign-looking”.
Weddings of the South (Al Afrah al Saeed)
Egyptian Operetta Performance at
I-House UC Berkeley 2/2011
Photo of Sausan by David Klein
In Raqs
Sharqi, through our limited knowledge of this “foreign-looking” Egyptian
cultural expression, we have come to see and accept it with its dance movement
primarily as a series of isolations, and we call it as such. And, when
the Egyptians try to teach what they see we are having trouble learning, and
when we try to learn what we can’t see -- although we do notice something
different and unusual in the movement instruction -- we come out looking less
like Egyptian dancers and more like American belly dancers.
Pop in a
video of Suhair Zaki, or any other well-known celebrated Egyptian dancer, and
in no instance can one detect any kind of isolation. In fact, in
characterizing Raqs Sharqi, much less teaching it, using the word “isolation”
to describe Egyptian dance movement and then implementing this technique as a
teaching technique from a country that celebrates everything and anything with
dance at the drop of a hat, makes absolutely no sense. Is it really
correct to say that an over zealous excitedly rejoicing Egyptian who, on a
celebratory reflex, jumps up to dance his heart out will suddenly stop and
remember to isolate his/her movements?
We dance
the way we communicate; so, when we take on a foreign dance form for our own,
like belly dance, we dance it with our own American accent. If Egyptians
have so much that is not in common with American cultural expression, it
should stand to reason that dance movement can be included in this
non-commonality. And that’s why, although we may dance it well, we
seemingly don’t have the “it” of it when we dance this dance.
"They
will never be up to the Egyptian standards, the Egyptian belly dancers'
standards," Suhair Zaki says of Western belly dancers. "They don't
have the lively spirit, they don't have the sense of humor and they don't have
the musical ear. They only perform steps that they learn - 1,2,3,4.
But they don't have the spirit. They will never, never match
us." I beg to differ. I’m here to say that, yes, we can.
And, I can prove it with tangible proof. It is as simple as knowing
and understanding the way Egyptians hear and keep the beat of the music and how
they move between these beats.
Diagram of finger cymbal patterns
using the Egyptian Dance Code®
Yes,
there is a fundamental core to this dance. It is not isolations. It
is not ballet technique. It is not locks or pops, or knee-producing
shimmies. It is not strut-and-pose or subtle movement. There are no snake
arms in Raqs Sharqi, no Maya hips, no camel walks, and no fractional shimmies.
What there is, as danced to Egyptian music, is the Egyptian dance Code®.
Know what that is, and the elements surrounding that which make up the
dance, and you’ll be dancing just like an Egyptian.
(Suhair
Zaki quote: see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1373029.stm, BBC News 6/6/2001)
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