Amanda (was Aziyade)
Well-known member
Old School versus New School American Cabaret (long!)
I think Kharmine pretty much summed it up, but I want to address the difference in MUSIC.
If you look at Turkish pop AND folk music, and you look at Egyptian music, you'll notice a substantial difference. It's not surprising that Turkish and Egyptian dance looks so much different. If the dance is truly an expression of the music, then 2 different kinds of music would denote 2 different kinds of dance. (To put it REALLY simply!)
Old school Am Cab dance music was typified by the 5- and 7-part routine. The dancers used a variety of music -- Turkish, Lebanese debke, Greek, Egyptian folk, and don't forget Armenian Kef! Much of the early Am Cab music was recorded by fusion artists like Eddie Kochak, Chris Kalogerson, and although definately more Lebanese, the still fusion George Abdo and Mohammed el Bakkar.
If you pick up any of Eddie's albums, it's not surprising to find a fast Kef piece followed by a slow Rhumba (!) with a fast 9/8 following, and ending with the Egyptian classics Aziza or Zeina.
I guess something happened in around the 80's, (maybe it was the advent of the tap cassette?) when American dancers started abandoning Eddie Kochak in favor of New Age music like the stylings of Light Rain, and that New-Age jazz stuff that you never hear anymore (thank G-D) but used to be all the rage at local haflas. Personally I think the new age music helped out the popularity of cape, wing, and double veil work, which hadn't really been in the 60s and 70s (in my limited video experience!)
By the 90s, the Egyptian craze had spread and it's my guess that dancers maybe started incorporating Egyptian music in order to "legitimize" Am Cab as an authentic Middle Eastern dance. In any case, you started to see a lot of people (Fathiem, Dahlena) go totally Egyptian, and you started seeing more Egyptian Sharqi music (instead of just the folk stuff) in the catalogs. Egyptian music typically has a lot of varied rhythms and tempo changes, and by then we were getting more and more video from "over there" so we could see what the dancers "over there" were doing, and the 5- and 7-part routine started to fade out, as Egyptian music and Egyptian style became more and more popular.
Turkish Orientale at this time was rudely accused of being the "bad girl" style (in many newsletters and magazines of the period) and was considered to be less refined than Egyptian, and thus less desireable. Greek style bellydance had almost faded out completely, with the demise of many of the ethnic nightclubs and the trend toward recorded music.
The mid-late 90's and early 2000's introduced techno music and Arabic pop music which sounded suspiciously like American pop music) and that much required a different dance approach. Instead of dancing entirely to the heavy underlying techno beat, dancers started picking up the percussion embellishments, and of course, with memories of Breakdancing still fresh in everyone's head, the pop and lock became synonymous with Am Cab of the new millennium. (actually it started before that, but I think that phrase is poetic. lol)
From the late 80's on, you have a gradual introduction of the athleticism mentioned earlier, the influence of ATS, and Rachel Brice's Tribal Fusion (limited movement vocabulary with deliberately drawn out and precise isolations). All of which help to give modern Am Cab a distinct look to go with its increasingly distinct sound: with influences from Industrial, techno pop, Goth, Darkwave music, and Hossam Ramzy's jazzy/tribal "Derwood Green" style music.
Nowadays you have a kind of "Egyptified American Cabaret" or American Egyptian style, which blends the American athleticism and focus on deliberate isolations, with Egyptian technique and styling -- and really moves farther and farther away from the "Turkified" and "Armenianified" dancing of the 60s and 70s.
BTW:
Two of my favorite "Egyptified American Cabaret" dancers are Oreet from New York, and Shabnam Pena from California. I think both these ladies really represent the SPIRIT of Am Cab, without a lot of Tribal or Tribal Fusion involved. (Well, Shabnam USED to be without a lot of fusion. I haven't seen her dance in a couple of years, though.)
I think Kharmine pretty much summed it up, but I want to address the difference in MUSIC.
If you look at Turkish pop AND folk music, and you look at Egyptian music, you'll notice a substantial difference. It's not surprising that Turkish and Egyptian dance looks so much different. If the dance is truly an expression of the music, then 2 different kinds of music would denote 2 different kinds of dance. (To put it REALLY simply!)
Old school Am Cab dance music was typified by the 5- and 7-part routine. The dancers used a variety of music -- Turkish, Lebanese debke, Greek, Egyptian folk, and don't forget Armenian Kef! Much of the early Am Cab music was recorded by fusion artists like Eddie Kochak, Chris Kalogerson, and although definately more Lebanese, the still fusion George Abdo and Mohammed el Bakkar.
If you pick up any of Eddie's albums, it's not surprising to find a fast Kef piece followed by a slow Rhumba (!) with a fast 9/8 following, and ending with the Egyptian classics Aziza or Zeina.
I guess something happened in around the 80's, (maybe it was the advent of the tap cassette?) when American dancers started abandoning Eddie Kochak in favor of New Age music like the stylings of Light Rain, and that New-Age jazz stuff that you never hear anymore (thank G-D) but used to be all the rage at local haflas. Personally I think the new age music helped out the popularity of cape, wing, and double veil work, which hadn't really been in the 60s and 70s (in my limited video experience!)
By the 90s, the Egyptian craze had spread and it's my guess that dancers maybe started incorporating Egyptian music in order to "legitimize" Am Cab as an authentic Middle Eastern dance. In any case, you started to see a lot of people (Fathiem, Dahlena) go totally Egyptian, and you started seeing more Egyptian Sharqi music (instead of just the folk stuff) in the catalogs. Egyptian music typically has a lot of varied rhythms and tempo changes, and by then we were getting more and more video from "over there" so we could see what the dancers "over there" were doing, and the 5- and 7-part routine started to fade out, as Egyptian music and Egyptian style became more and more popular.
Turkish Orientale at this time was rudely accused of being the "bad girl" style (in many newsletters and magazines of the period) and was considered to be less refined than Egyptian, and thus less desireable. Greek style bellydance had almost faded out completely, with the demise of many of the ethnic nightclubs and the trend toward recorded music.
The mid-late 90's and early 2000's introduced techno music and Arabic pop music which sounded suspiciously like American pop music) and that much required a different dance approach. Instead of dancing entirely to the heavy underlying techno beat, dancers started picking up the percussion embellishments, and of course, with memories of Breakdancing still fresh in everyone's head, the pop and lock became synonymous with Am Cab of the new millennium. (actually it started before that, but I think that phrase is poetic. lol)
From the late 80's on, you have a gradual introduction of the athleticism mentioned earlier, the influence of ATS, and Rachel Brice's Tribal Fusion (limited movement vocabulary with deliberately drawn out and precise isolations). All of which help to give modern Am Cab a distinct look to go with its increasingly distinct sound: with influences from Industrial, techno pop, Goth, Darkwave music, and Hossam Ramzy's jazzy/tribal "Derwood Green" style music.
Nowadays you have a kind of "Egyptified American Cabaret" or American Egyptian style, which blends the American athleticism and focus on deliberate isolations, with Egyptian technique and styling -- and really moves farther and farther away from the "Turkified" and "Armenianified" dancing of the 60s and 70s.
BTW:
Two of my favorite "Egyptified American Cabaret" dancers are Oreet from New York, and Shabnam Pena from California. I think both these ladies really represent the SPIRIT of Am Cab, without a lot of Tribal or Tribal Fusion involved. (Well, Shabnam USED to be without a lot of fusion. I haven't seen her dance in a couple of years, though.)
