Thread: Do you have any suggestions for ME sounding "secular" music?

I didn't know which forum to post this but I figured as instructors you are exposed to many music types.

My instructor puts on alternative haflas and we have to pick a non ME piece for our solo (though I disagree, I understand her reasoning for this, but that's a whole other thread). I am having a disconnect trying to pair ME dance with western music. It sort of seems hokey to me, well at least at my experience level..l;, I love moving to ME music during bellydancing so trying to put together something Gwen Stefani is just NOT working for me.

I have scannned my music library but don't have anything that fits what I would like. I am looking for an up tempo, playful song. I know there is music out there that sounds ME but is done by a non ME band or singer. I have tried Gypsy Kings (latin is good) but what I have of Gypsy Kings isn't quite there. Dead Can Dance is good, but too slow. I figure this would be a comprise....

help..g.:

What do you all suggest?

Does Israel count as the Middle East? You could try that. Or Balkan music?

How about Twelve Girls Band (Chinese) doing their versions of popular ME songs like Shenaz Longa?

I've always thought a lovely veil dance to Il Volo (Italian) would be nice.

Led Zepplin? Wait, wait...how about a beledi to a good juicy blues song?

Good old Rock'n'Roll, I'd say - the Blues Brothers soundtrack is a lot of fun. Or very seriously tacky disco ;-)

I Will Survive - in Turkish. I have it.

Originally Posted by anala

I Will Survive - in Turkish. I have it.

I would go with the original for that particular assignment, even though the Turkish one is awesome. Fun stuff ;-)

I recently danced to music by Faun, from their album Licht. I danced to track 2 "Andro" , track 6 "Deva" and part of track 7 "Punagra" (faded it out). I really enjoyed dancing to it. It is a modern take on medieval music with lots of threads from different cultures in it. Track 5 Ne Aludj El is set to a 7 rhythm, and sounds kind of like Greek music to me.

Licht mp3s, Licht music downloads, Licht songs from eMusic.com

the string quartet "bond" has some nice stuff. i once danced to their cover of the James Bond theme (bond on bond it as at the end of a set after a few ME songs) but they also have Space, Sahara, and Gypsy Rhapsody which all sound somewhat ME.
u could dance to something from Aladin, or the sound track from Laurence of Arabia, all western music. but it might come off as spiteful, so see if your teacher would appreciate the joke ^_^

Zydeco music is great to dance to! ...very high energy. Buckwheat zydeco is a good artist. You could also try eastern european music. The song amari szi amari is a good hungarian song that is fun to dance to. You could also do Gogol Bordello. They are a "gypsy punk" band.

You could also do Dick Dale's version of Misirlou... it's actually a Greek song, but he popularized it as a western surf song. You'll recognize it when you listen to it!

Scarecrow by Beck is another song I've always thought would be fun to do for a hafla... might do it for our spring picnic. But anyway, it's another good one I think.

I second the recommendation for Dick Dale - a lot of his surf music has a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor.

The local troupe (nayastrance, here on bhuz) puts on an alternative hafla regularly. It's fun, and it's cheeky, and lets us all get our ya-yas out in a dancer-oriented atmosphere.

I have used James Brown and Aretha Franklin. GP love it, easy to dance to - and it has a fun, earthy feel not unlike baladi to me.

You know, I can see a teacher telling everybody that the hafla theme is going to require everybody to dance to a classic by the Big Four, or that everybody has to dance to ME pop songs, but to tell students that they must pick something intentionally inappropriate? Sigh. I suppose your teacher would consider it cheating to use ME covers of Western songs or Arabic rap, so the next logical guess is Western dance music--80's new wave, 70's disco and funk, 60's go-go music, and so on. If you really want to be "alternative," pick something completely insane from much earlier. Okay, here you go...I dare you to dance to this:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Three-Little-Fishes/dp/B001TOBOMO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1267281172&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Three Little Fishes: Kay Kyser And His Orchestra: MP3 Downloads[/ame]

Yeah. Get out there and show those slackers that Gwen Stefani is for amateurs. Hardcore alternative belly dancing rises to the challenge of Ish Kabibble!

Light Rain produced music for Bellydancers of original pieces by American musicians, and is not M.E. music. Would that count for the necessary parameters? 1st & last albums (out of 4), Dream Dancer & Dark Fire have the best picks for dance. Itunes has them.

You could go several ways on this:

1. ME flavor on purpose: check out Kahol's album "Celtic Camel"; middle eastern on top of classic Celtic music. Great fun! Also Afro-Celt Sound System (which I may have spelled wrong!), Zulu Leprechauns, Beat Root.

2. World music that is closely related in some way; lot of Irish fit here. How's your 9/8? In Irish it's called a slipjig and it's a classic! Look for a version of The Butterfly or for a real challenge the offbeat,fast "The Rocky Road to Dublin". Also a number of Shane MacGowan's songs: "Turkish Song of the Damned" (I dance pirate to this!)

3. Outside the box and fun! "Walk Like an Egyptian" (there's a version that includes Arabic lyrics!), "Rock the Casbah" (also in Arabic or the original Clash), "Istanbul not Constantinople"-love this one but the song DOES get stuck in your head!.

Originally Posted by anala

Led Zepplin? Wait, wait...how about a beledi to a good juicy blues song?

ugh. I love blues, and Zep is among my top two favorite bands, but how can you MOVE to that? Remember I am a beginner and I just look plain silly with my meager repetoire of moves. I can barely layer stuff yet..l;, My instructor got up last hafla dressed in silk ivy leaves (tatefully-it's a family event) and danced the cutest piece to the 1960's song poison ivy, it was great, but again she can pull that off)

Originally Posted by Lesedi

You could also do Dick Dale's version of Misirlou... it's actually a Greek song, but he popularized it as a western surf song. You'll recognize it when you listen to it!

This is the song I came up with and have been practicing too (other bonus is that it is SHORT) but it's just plain too fast.

I am off to run but will check out some of the suggestions listed above. Thanks guys!

Some of the more interesting rock from the 1970s - Led Zep is definitely in there. A dancer staying with me had recently had to dance to "Smoke on teh Water" - and I an se that working. Saffire - the women's blues group could be good for squishy beledi - or milama.

At the end though (and I suspect you already know this) the result is more likely to be ajazz dance piece than belly dance ..g.:

Non Middle Eastern doesn't have to mean Western pop music!
There's a lot of music out there in the world that would fit belly dancing a lot better than Western pop music, although never as well as the Arabic music that belly dance evolved to compliment.

For one, you can use non-ME orchestral music. The classical music from the Middle East we often use to belly dance was influenced by Western classical music so this should not be *completely* alien to you if you can find the right song, one that doesn't get boring quickly *yawn*
I supposed you could avoid this problem by selecting a modern rendition of a classical song... preferably one with drums! Or, to follow on this train of thought, you could use a cover of a famous recent song that is done by classical instruments. Something like this [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IliwQImJrYE]YouTube - Final Countdown cello and orchestra[/ame], or this [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JjQGt7WjK0]YouTube - One - Apocalyptica[/ame].

You can use cultural music from a part of the world that isn't the Middle East. If you use something heavy on percussion it wouldn't be awfully different from dancing to a darbuka solo. Something like batucada de samba could work [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ndhHHHS_q4]YouTube - Samba Batucada 2006[/ame]

For me personally, the logical thing to do if I had to dance to non-ME music would be to dance to metal. There's so much variety within metal that you could probably find something you can belly dance to that won't be too harsh on most people's ears. There is metal that takes from classical music, Celtic music, Nordic folk music, even Middle Eastern music. Although I suspect this would be cheating, you could use this song by Orphaned Land [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZUcWngEtcM]YouTube - ORPHANED LAND - Norra El Norra (OFFICIAL VIDEO)[/ame]. It's metal with a heavy Middle Eastern (mostly Israeli) influence. If you pay attention, you will notice this specific song was composed on the melody of a very famous song us belly dancers often use. Can you name which? ;) Despite this fact and the fact that the band is Israeli (therefore Middle Eastern), maybe it'll be acceptable for this occasion because metal isn't considered Middle Eastern music?

Dum Dum, DaDa Dum. Cut it to 3-4 minutes.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73dvrir5kig]YouTube - Led Zeppelin-kashmir...the real video[/ame]

Aerosmith..Sweet Taste of India- Ithink it was Aerosmith, could be Robert Platt of Led Zeplin but Im leaning towards Aerosmith.
Oldie but a goodie with good words, Hollies...Stop all the Dancing (its about a bellydancer with a fan that gets thrown out of the club she is working at)
Steve Martin...King Tut
Mysterious Ways/Cant recall the group on this one

Oh yeah, check out Raquy and the Cavemen... awesome sounds!

Originally Posted by HOOKEDNOVICE

[Miserlu] is the song I came up with and have been practicing too (other bonus is that it is SHORT) but it's just plain too fast.

Yup. That version runs at ludicrous speed! You can do alot of it at 1/2 tempo, but you've gotta have the 'nads to pull it off. And as Kashmir points out, "At the end ... (and I suspect you already know this) the result is more likely to be a jazz dance piece than belly dance."

Deborah

I have done that song a couple of times, and I love it...but it does require a fierce layered shimmy.

I hate to sound argumentative, but Miserlou is based on a traditional ME tune: Dinosaur Gardens » The Mysteries of “Misirlou”

See.. I am confused. Is the OP supposed to use non traditional music only, or is traditional music played in an unconventional way allowed? Or a well known disco song sung in another language...would that be ok?

Hm, my reading was that it should be a non-ME tune (i.e., rock, polka, classical, ambient, samba, throat singing), and I'd interpret that task as a challenge to one's musical interpretation, and not as a challenge to one's music library ;-) The latter is the much more fun and educational task, of course.

Tuvan throat singing, brilliant!

I suggest finding a new instructor! Bell dancing should be done to ME music. Of course belly dance moves translate to other music forms it belongs to ME. Any instructor that forces you to chose a non ME song to perform too, I have to question.

Well, I can see that as an exercise, choreographing a piece to something completely different may have pedagogical benefits. It could be interesting to analyze non-ME music using criteria like - does the piece have rhythm changes, changes in tempo, breaks, instrumental solo improv by musicians, how does the mood or energy develop throughout the piece, etc. and then apply that to one's dance piece. As a classroom exercise!!!

In general, I firmly believe that it is good to limit the use of non-ME music in belly dance to the exceptional piece that engages the audience, like a sports team's fight song or a movie theme.