That was "A Thing" in Egypt earlier this year. No, make that "The Thing" in Egypt earlier this year. Believe it or not, that was appropriate.
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I enjoyed all of it.
That was "A Thing" in Egypt earlier this year. ...
(I was actually toying with the idea of doing a Halloween hafla performance to this song because that's the sort of place where it belongs outside of the context of a party where everybody wants to dance to it. It's a novelty, but it's also authentic. I get so tired of Halloween haflas where it's an endless evening of weird goth belly dancing.)
I'll be back with a few more thoughts later...
This does absolutely nothing for me. I know Tito can dance, but this ain't it. This comes under the category of "stupid male tricks", something I see all too often with male dancers - but never with Tito before this. But then again, I haven't seen all of his performances either.Okay, the babies are in the air. :clap:
It's not just that Tito can do this stuff, but that he makes it look so effortless.
Perhaps my law enforcement family background is showing, but glorifying organized crime in any size, form, or description is never appropriate. This is not cute, it is not funny, and it is not clever, whether it was invented by Egyptians or the Atlanta Ballet Company. I will, however, grant that it is authentically in bad taste.
That could make a good Halloween performance, I can see why you would want to.
There is a lot of hair flinging though. A LOT. It mostly seems to be khaleegy influenced. I wonder how many even know that though?
That would explain why her performance stood out to me among all the hair flinging; it was the only one that felt stylized. It's been a long time since I've watched any Zaar performances. I'll have to reacquaint myself with it. I also wouldn't mind seeing more of the Iraqi style. Is there a name for it?Some of the hair work looks more Zaar-influenced than Khaleegi to me, and the Simona clip is Iraqi.
Simona has her video tagged as "Basrawi" (from the city of Basra/Basrah in SE Iraq). This is one of the areas where the Kawliya (also sometimes spelled with a Q in English) settled. The Kawliya were Domari people originally from India, with an experience somewhat parallel to the Roma Ghawazee in Egypt in that as an ethnic minority, they lived on the margins of society and sometimes built reputations as entertainers. There are Domari in other parts of Iraq and some intersection with the Kurds, but I don't know enough to go into more detail.I also wouldn't mind seeing more of the Iraqi style. Is there a name for it?
Last thoughts...
I guess you either like Sadie's style or you don't, but I don't know how much you can fault her for that video. Part of the problem with that clip is the construction of the drum solo itself. From the standpoint of musical composition, there are a lot of sequences that are not much more than drum riffs followed by rests over and over. You can't get much musicality out of that.
Very true about the drum solo itself, and a large part of the problem with a fair number of drum solos. The difference between playing for live dancers and learning a song to play for dancers in the quiet of one's own living room are substantial.
Several years ago, we were lucky enough to have a drummer who came and played for my class just for the experience and for an occasional dinner out with us after class. I gave him one of Raquy's drum dvds and he was well on his way to picking up some excellent ME drum chops when he decamped for a four year university some distance from here. It was as interesting to watch him learn what dancers needed for a varied performance as it was watching my students learn to perform to improvisational drum.