Thread: meleya leff questions

I have been reading up on this style of dance and it has peaked my interest. Where does one learn this? Are their dvds out there? I do have an Egyptian Folklore dancing background so I think I could transition well into this.

Any ideas/tips you have would be appreciated :-)

Ravena

I don't know of any DVDs - perhaps someone else has a lead on that - but it's a dance created just for the stage and therefore there is much room for creative license. It's all made up, so anything flies, but the original version from Reda I believe is about an Alexandrian shopping girl that pretends to be modest while flirting with potential husbands. There are lots of clips on YouTube...most often dancers wear an Alexandrian ruffled dress (though any beledi dress will do), healed slings (which can be kick off on stage) and a head covering with poms. I've seen it done to pop or beledi songs; it's the country-girl-attempts-posh attitude (think the Nanny) that makes it work.

Maybe fellow Bhuzzers will share their clips?

Questions on milaya lef come up so often I added a page to my website -
Milaya Lef

Basically it is a theatre tableau based around the bint el beled. She doesn't have to be young - she definitely isn't a prostitute - but she does need to have a certain attitude; a confidence, knowing, street smart but chaste. (She might tease but she doesn't intend to follow through and the guys know that)

Recently, the asymmetrical ruffled dress has been used a lot - but it wasn't the original style used by Reda nor was it ever the fashion in Alexandrai/Cairo.

Raqia's 1996 tour video has her teaching milaya. The Brisbane Winter Warmup has had both Aida Nour and Denise Enan teach milaya several years - and some years there were videos/dvds for sale of the workshops. You could check if Maria has any left for sale - About the Annual Winter Warmup

[QUOTE=kashmir;190518]Recently, the asymmetrical ruffled dress has been used a lot - but it wasn't the original style used by Reda nor was it ever the fashion in Alexandrai/Cairo.
QUOTE]

I've often wondered about that dress style, since it does seem like it's become so specific to this particular dance. If it was not ever a typical fashion, where does it come from?

[quote=JeanneLF;190555]

Originally Posted by kashmir

Recently, the asymmetrical ruffled dress has been used a lot - but it wasn't the original style used by Reda nor was it ever the fashion in Alexandrai/Cairo.
/QUOTE]

I've often wondered about that dress style, since it does seem like it's become so specific to this particular dance. If it was not ever a typical fashion, where does it come from?

I suspect it was a purely staging consideration. You need something to distinguish the urban bint from the rural one - so you need a different style of dress. (Reda was big into the one red, one green , one yellow style of costuming) Further, you want swish but not something to interfer with the milaya - ruffles work. Off the shoulder gives a saucy flavour. Also, asymmetry was all the range for a while in Egypt.

Anyone got any early photos of this style of dress being used?

Melaya Leff I took a few workshops and perfomed it.(its so much fun) My Melaya is playful and a bit saucy but not in a way that strays from the formula. youtube has several clips. And Kashmir pretty much answered how i would explain it.

Alrana

I am going to a Melaya Leff workshop this weekend and was just researching other melaya leff dvds. I know from friends or the internet that the other people that have dvds for melaya are Faten Salama, Mohammed Shahin, and I think Dr. Mo Geddawi? someone on Little Egypt's page of dvds for sure.

Also I have a youtube playlist - good, bad, or indifferent - I haven't seen a lot of melaya leff in real life so I don't know how good these are, but I just try to watch a lot until my eye becomes educated.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Raqia Hassan's #7 has Meleya some instruction on it.

What was most helpful to me was a combination of private lessons and workshops (I was lucky enough to have one with Aida Nour), and watching as many performances on DVDs and YouTube as I could.

Faten Salama has a DVD dedicated to Melaya Leff. The first part is Melaya, but she also throws in Raks Sharqi in the second. I have it, and I love it. Raqia Hassan's vol. 7 addresses Melaya also (have that one too). That one explains the wrapping and everything. Faten's is mostly choreo, but you're learning at the same time. That's her teaching style. Here's Faten's website. It will cost you $45 for the DVD, though.

::::::: FATEN SALAMA - MASTER INSTRUCTOR :::::::

Faten - yes!

BTW - do you attend her classes? She has not updated her website and I would be interested in dropping in on a few of her classes. LMK

My first milaya dress was patterned after a Reda company costume that I was lucky enough to borrow. This costume was a real group effort! I borrowed the Reda dress from Habiba and took it to Alia Michele Tilford, who made a pattern. We shopped for fabric together but couldn't do fittings, since she was living in Astoria at the time and I was in MD. So she took a bunch of measurements, made the dress, and sent it to me. Dahlena happened to be staying with me at the time, and she insisted in fitting the dress for me, since it was a little big. I haven't worn it in a while because I want to add another ruffle to the bottom to make it a little longer.



The first time I wore this dress, I was dancing in a Nadia Hamdi show in Richmond VA. When I unwrapped the milaya, I think everyone there took a picture of the dress. On the video, you can see one big cumulative flash. ..l;, The dance I was doing was one I learned from Zahra Zuhair and I think was based on a Raqia choreography. It certainly was Raqia's milaya technique.

Right before I went on, Nadia came by and told me I had my milaya wrapped wrong. She re-wrapped it in a way that totally would not work with my choreography. Then she noticed that I wasn't wearing my khul khaal and ran to her room to get her pair for me to wear. It's weird to wear alien khul khaal during a performance!

OK, end of threadjack...

Virginia of Miami also has taught a Melaya workshop. All the suggestions regarding the appropriate attitude mirror what she taught as well.

[ame=http://youtube.com/watch?v=R4ZrXUkeKag]YouTube - Melaya Leff/Iskanderani-Alexandria Duet with Mohamed Shahin[/ame]

Here's a clip of my friend Katya doing a duet with Mohammed Shahin. They will also be performing it this weekend in Chicago at Alhambra Palace.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

I am going to a Melaya Leff workshop this weekend and was just researching other melaya leff dvds. I know from friends or the internet that the other people that have dvds for melaya are Faten Salama, Mohammed Shahin, and I think Dr. Mo Geddawi? someone on Little Egypt's page of dvds for sure.

Magdy al-Leisy has one as well.

Originally Posted by ravenadesigns

Faten - yes!

BTW - do you attend her classes? She has not updated her website and I would be interested in dropping in on a few of her classes. LMK

Hey Ravena,

She currently has classes in Manassas from 1-2 pm on Sundays, and in Arlington at Saffron on Friday evenings (times are on their website). I think the one in Arlington is closest to you. She's in Egypt right now, and classes will resume the second week in July.

Hope that helps!

BDF

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Right before I went on, Nadia came by and told me I had my milaya wrapped wrong. She re-wrapped it in a way that totally would not work with my choreography.

Although it is entirely possible you were wrongly, wrapped with three teachers I have learnt 5 wraps (one from Raqia, two each from Denise Enan and Aida Nour) - that's without changing sides! Basically if your wrap covers you, can be maintained while dancing and rewrapped elegantly you are rightly wrapped

Originally Posted by kashmir

Although it is entirely possible you were wrongly, wrapped with three teachers I have learnt 5 wraps (one from Raqia, two each from Denise Enan and Aida Nour) - that's without changing sides! Basically if your wrap covers you, can be maintained while dancing and rewrapped elegantly you are rightly wrapped

Yup, it was "wrong" because it wasn't wrapped Nadia-style. ;-)

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

Magdy al-Leisy has one as well.

I love this one. I think the actual title is Eskandarani.

Melaya is way more complicated than it looks. I decided to see what I could do with it prior to Sunday's workshop and I have no idea how they get to wrap so nicely, or that move where they spin it around. It all looks easy, just like everything else in bellydance.

Originally Posted by Mohamedshahin

Hey, My name is Mohamed Shahin, I have a melaya Laff choreography DVD,
if you want just e-mail me I can send it to you, it $45.

Thank you
Mohamed Shahin
347 720 3689
Mohamed Shahin Native Egyptian Master Instructor, Performer & Choreographer of Egyptian Dance
mokha28@yahoo.com

It's a very nice choreography, too! One of my students performed it at our recent recital.

Latifa

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

Melaya is way more complicated than it looks. I decided to see what I could do with it prior to Sunday's workshop and I have no idea how they get to wrap so nicely, or that move where they spin it around. It all looks easy, just like everything else in bellydance.

I know what you mean! I first thought, easy peasy, right? No way. I look like such a doofus trying to wrap that melaya. I'm dying for a workshop here in my area! So lucky.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

Melaya is way more complicated than it looks. I decided to see what I could do with it prior to Sunday's workshop and I have no idea how they get to wrap so nicely, or that move where they spin it around. It all looks easy, just like everything else in bellydance.

I totally agree - the melaya wrap is pretty heavy and long, especially when you are a vertically challenged person like myself. It takes lot and lots of practice to get control of where it is and where it's going.

Where has every one bought their melaya from?

Originally Posted by atareen

Where has every one bought their melaya from?

I got mine from Dahlal.

Originally Posted by atareen

Where has every one bought their melaya from?

i got one from diamond pyramid imports. the "traditional" stage version with tons of multicolored paillettes and the crocheted center split filled with paillettes. they always have them at great prices
diamondpyramid.com

my other one was made by hallah moustapha. she makes really cute custom ones with giant designs in the center
Hallah Moustafa - Custom Costumes for Belly Dancers & more.

Originally Posted by laura 2

I got mine from Dahlal.

I got mine from Dahlal, but it's quite wide, even for me at 5'6". In Faten Salama's meleya workshop up here a while back, she kept hers folded in half the long way, and I generally follow her cue. Obviously it covers less of you when wrapped, but it sure beats tripping and falling flat on your face ,r:;

Mohamed, I'm one of the people who bought your meleya DVD in Boston--I love it! ..g.:

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

In Faten Salama's meleya workshop up here a while back, she kept hers folded in half the long way, and I generally follow her cue. Obviously it covers less of you when wrapped, but it sure beats tripping and falling flat on your face ,r:;

That's what I do as well. I didn't realize it was "allowed" until I saw some other dancers doing it. At 5'2", the meleya was very hard for me to manipulate completely unfolded.

I have:

Faten Salama: Melaya 2006
MagdyEl-Leisy: Malaya Laff (Eskandarani)
Mohamed Shahin's Melaya laff

They are all good and Mohamed I studied it with in person as well. He does a very nice job with it!

Lisa

Good tip on folding it in half. Even after the workshop, I still feel like it's the most slippery yet heavy difficult thing I've ever had to manage. If I had to wear that around in real life, well let's just say I'd be revealing more than concealing...I'd never manage it.

I figured it would be similar to a veil; I never imagined learning it would be like learning a whole new prop skill - in terms of being a physical challenge as opposed just learning a new style.

Out of all the DVDs mentioned here on melaya, can anyone elaborate on their contents (i.e. is it only choreography, or also technique or lecture?)