Karim Nagi

Pirika Repun

Pirika Repun

New member
I saw him "dance" was saidi (assaya) and debke (not on stage, but as social dance). I've never seen he perform sharki, tanoura or any other dance form. I don't think he teaches dance in his WS. I only see him teach rhythms, finger cymbals, and music structure or some thing like that, but not dance. So, I think he is musician can dance. Like many dancers can play tabla. ;)

PS. I look at his web site, and he teaches Debke and Saidi (assaya), but I just haven't seen him teach dance. Also he said in his web site, and facebook he is musician and "Drummer, DJ and Composer, Saidi & Dabka Folk Dancer"
 
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Ariella

Ariella

New member
I've taken workshops with Karim Nagi! He's a very good drummer, and is good at helping us dancers understand rhythm. He does folk dances, like tahteeb and debke. He has excellent stage presence, and is totally worth seeing live if you ever have the opportunity.
 
PracticalDancer

PracticalDancer

New member
I had the pleasure of studying with him in 2008; I believe the course was his "Rhythms for Dancers." In the class, he would teach rhythmic patterns (such as masmoudi) in several ways: first with a count, then a call (dum/tek method), then by having the students clap it, then he would offer a "suggested" movement to accompany it and play the rhythm while we danced it. It was a nice blend of lecture and dance, and was VERY informative. (Keep in mind that he offers his workshops at colleges, so he has a rather academic approach.)

It was his performance that blew me away, though. He did not come across as a "male belly dancer" --rather, as an Arabic musician who also performed Arabic dance. That is, no pops, locks, shimmies, and moves that we think of as "belly" dance. There were hops, postures, and musicality that we associate with folkloric or male social dancing. (This is completely my semi-educated western impression, tempered by almost exactly two years of lapsed memory.)

But the man can PLAY that drum, and dance while he does it. He was a completely engaging performer. He presented a taktib number (no playing, just dancing), danced a debke while he played drum, played a very complex zill number where I think he may have danced, too. But, the best one was when he played the drum and danced through the audience. It was a small, intimate space, and he started to lead our rather timid audience out the door (as a whole, we did not cooperate -- but, I was about to follow him like the pied piper across the campus.)

If you study with him, you will learn. If you see him perform, you may be quite impressed. I hope to study with him again soon!

Regards,

Anala
 
Salome

Salome

Administrator
I saw him dance tahtib live and it was enjoyable. And drum. Not affliated, just saying that Karim is going to be doing a show and workshop in Eugene, Oregon this next weekend I believe. Any interested go to medge.org
 
Jeanne

Jeanne

Member
I've been to one of Karim's workshops. In the first half of the day he taught men's-style tahtib and explained how it differs from the assaya with crooked-handle cane that most of us are used to. The second half was titled something like "musicality for dancers," in which he gave advice on different aspects of understanding and dancing to your music.

The show the night before was fairly impressive. He does a thing sometimes where he dances with four sticks, which is pretty amazing.
 
X

xtaaxt

New member
Is him a better drum dancers than Doudou Huang? Drum dancing is also important in playing and I have been learning it for five years.
 
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lizaj

lizaj

New member
xtaaxt said:
Is him a better drum dancers than Doudou Huang? Drum dancing is also important in playing and I have been learning it for five years.
Click to expand...

Dragon dancing is spectacular and entertaining but this post is hardly relevant to the discussion or this forum.
 
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