Mellilah’s Belly Dance Blog

Khaliji Dance by Mellilah

Belly dancers use the term “khaliji” to refer to the style of dance and music from the Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf region, the “Khalig,” including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The dance is largely improvisational, performed by pairs or groups of women for their own entertainment at special celebrations, such as weddings. The dance is most commonly performed to a hypnotic 2/4 rhythm with two heavy beats and a pause, called the saudi, khaliji, or adany rhythm (from Yemen). It should be noted that there is not one khaliji rhythm but hundreds, as this dance represents many countries of the Gulf area. The khaliji rhythm most commonly used by belly dancers is similar to the ayoub rhythm except it has a more lighthearted feel with accents on the upbeat. Additionally, it is different from the fellahi rhythm in that it is characterized by two heavy distinctive dums surrounded by lots of fast taks.

In Saudi Arabia and Qatar the dance is called Raqs Khaliji (Dance of the Gulf); in Kuwait it is called Samri (Saumri); and in the UAE it is called Raks Al Nasha’ar (pronounced “rocks all nuh SHAH ar”), used in reference to the woman tossing their hair to the rhythm. As the word Khaliji is not an English word, you will find various spellings of the word, including khaliji. khaligi, khaleegi, khaleeji, and khaleegy, (pronounced “kuh LEE jee”).

Dancers wear bright, oversized overdresses called the thobe or thobe nasha’ar, worn without a hip belt. The dress is used as a prop, too, held up in front like an apron to catch the wind while the dancer dances to a R-L-R, L-R-L floor pattern. Also, the sleeves are often used flirtatiously as a veil or held up like a hood to frame head slides.

As noted above, the dance features a R-L-R, L-R-L stepping pattern with a gliding, limping feel, one foot on the ball, the other foot flat; but without the bouncing found in Nubian style dance, which has a similar stepping pattern. The flat foot falls on the heavy beat, with the other foot on the ball, slightly behind the leading flat foot, moving in the direction of the flat foot.

The women are very proud of their long hair and the khaliji dance includes the tossing of loose, long hair from side-to-side, like the “shaking of water out of the ear.” In performance, when the music reaches a climax, the hair tosses are usually performed in a kneeling position and can build up to the point that the dancer’s hair creates figure eights.

Besides footwork and hair tosses, chest and shoulder movements are highlights of this dance, as well as lots of spinning, head slides, soft hand movements and shoulder and hand shimmies. The index finger is sometimes placed on the nose, with palm of hand towards the nose.

One anthropologist who married into a Kuwaiti family, Melinda Smith, believes that the movements and gestures of the dance may have originally represented the Arab pearl divers in their everyday activities. The floating, rolling motions of the dress imitated the action of the waves. The dancers touched their finger to the side of their nose to mock the pearl divers decompressing, and their hair was tossed to mirror the seaweed floating on moving water. This may especially be true of the tribes that originally lived along the Eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. In contrast, the Central area (Saudi Arabia) would most likely have had different traditional movements.

Khaliji Video Example
Another Video Example

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Right now I’m currently in love with the baladi style of belly dance. I’ve talked to many people and seem to get a lot of different perspectives. For my own benefit, I’m going to attempt to put it all together. Please feel free to comment if you disagree or think I’m missing a major point.

Raqs Baladi
The Arabic term baladi (beledi) means “of the people.” It represents the everyday life of the people, their culture. The term itself is quite confusing as there are several contexts in which this word is used, including:

1. To represent a particular rhythm found in almost all oriental music, recognized by the structure of accents, the “dums” played on the tabla. However, it should be noted that it’s purely an American practice to associate the term baladi with a specific rhythm, the masmoudi sagheer. In other words, if you went to Egypt and asked the band to play a baladi rhythm, they probably wouldn’t know what you were talking about. Variations of the baladi rhythm include maksoum and saidi.

2. To represent a central part of the oriental dance routine known as the taqsim baladi or baladi awadi, which includes a “call & answer” on the tabla and baladi and fellahy rhythms.

3. To loosely label what is currently popular (of the people)

4. To represent a common style of dance found in Egypt today. It’s the style of dance people use at haflas, weddings, at home and in dance clubs. The Egyptian people use this style when dancing to all sorts of music, including Al Jeer (pop) and Western music.

5. Raqs baladi (baladi dance) is used to represent a folkloric style of Egyptian dance, which is very grounded and earthy. Raqs baladi includes saidi, fellahin and bambootia dance. Baladi dancers wear an ankle length, baladi dress with a hip scarf.

Baladi is the most ancient form of Egyptian solo dance. Raqs sharki or oriental dance, more commonly known as belly dance, is a by-product of this original style of Eyptian dance.

Video footage of taqsim baladi:
Fifi Abdo
Fifi Abdo
Orit Maftsir
Orit Maftsir
Najla from Bratislava

For more info about the author, visit www.mellilah.com

Dances of Tunisia: Written by Mellilah

The traditional dance of Tunisia is characterized by sharp, horizontal twisting movements of the hips with flowing upper bodies, danced almost entirely on demi-point (on the toes) with arms held in a “w” shape. This dance is seen at weddings and parties, and in the southern islands of Kerkennah and Djerba, the dance is often performed with a clay water pot balanced on the head.

These dancers wear a blouse, a “khamisa,” underneath a large rectangular wrap, a “melia,” fastened at the shoulder with two large pins, with a belt of woollen yard around their waists. Additionally, married women wear a “khul-khal,” a famous Tunisian ankle bracelet, to ward off snakes with its rattle-like noise. (Unmarried virgins are believed to have inherent protection from snake bites.)

The Tunisians have another dance called the Stambali, a true trance dance, which is performed in sanctuaries and in people’s homes as a therapeutic remedy. This dance accompanies the sacrifice of an animal and is performed in regard to Sidi Saad, their patron saint.

Video Example

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AMERICAN RESTAURANT / AMERICAN CABARET / EGYPTIAN CABARET
Video Example
Video Example

CLASSICAL EGYPTIAN / EGYPTIAN ORIENTAL
Video Example
Video Example

U.S. TRIBAL
Video Example

For more info, here’s the best Online resource on this topic: Shira.net

And this one is really awesome! It takes you on a video journey through the evolution of belly dance and its various styles! Video Clip Guide by Hannan Sultan-

For more info about the author, visit www.mellilah.com