Thread: Beledi Arms

When doing beledi syle and/or dancing to a beledi progression, how do you adjust your hands and arms?

I know they should be relatively low (as raising the arms above the head too much could be construed as disgraceful in some areas), casual, a steady frame. Any other tips for transitioning from a big Oriental diva to a bint el balad? Do you change your posture and upper carriage also?

I struggle with this and am looking forward to seeing some answers! The keyword for arms is simplicity, but I know that's not very specific. I try to keep my very lifted upper-body carriage because it's easy for me to curve forward and look schlumpy if I'm not careful, but my hips and legs are definitely more relaxed and weighted.

Energy is lower. In second the elbows are low and the arms aren't held so much by the upper back as in orientale. Arms are neither held rock solid nor are they used much to dance - rather they frame and accentuate the hips and torso.

Movement from one position to the next is fluid and appears natural - but takes a lot of work to make it look natural and graceful! Wrists soft, lower arms counter point the legs.

Something I notice both Denise Enan and Aida Nour do when dancing beledi is the arm position sometimes changes continuously over 3-5 bars of music (while the hips fit measur eto measure). At no time do they have a fixed position but every snapshot is beautiful.

I think in terms of arms that are graceful, but more "along for the ride" rather than balletic looking. Not that that really says anything helpful! I think they are little more coy too--like the hand to the forehead (Egyptian headache/swoon sort of thing) and the hand behind the ear or framing the hips playfully. It's a little earthier and less airy-fairy ballerina-ish.

I agree with the framing and also the hands can be used to mime words from the song.

Originally Posted by mish_mish

I think they are little more coy too--like the hand to the forehead (Egyptian headache/swoon sort of thing) and the hand behind the ear or framing the hips playfully. It's a little earthier and less airy-fairy ballerina-ish.

No so much coy. Hand to forehead - is a greeting; to ear "I'm listening" ..g.:

This is not my strong area but my teacher is *absolutely awesome* at beledi and I have the pleasure of watching her regularly

She is (quite rightly) a terror about our arms on this and she says that beledi arms can be saying 'look, this is fun' or 'Hey, that's cute' but they are never doing a big attention-drawing 'me, me, me' thing.

She says that they are characterised by being slow (like even sloooooower than you would normally do - she always shouts '10 times slower' at us), simple and graceful.

She also says that they are much less extended , more gooey and more fun and cheeky - a lot of its in the attitude.

She truly blows me away when she does Beledi - there is nothing remotely contrived when she does it - its all warm and fuzzy and deeply sexy but in that woman-having-fun-but-in-complete-control sort of way.

Wish I could show you a YouTube or something of her. She's got it going on!

Shadia of Boston had a workshop recently about the difference between Oriental arms and Baladi arm positions. I missed it unfortunately because I was in NY. I too wish I had a video to show you. She and her late husband Ibrahim both had folk troups and traveled doing shows. She teaches me a lot about Lebanese folk dance, etc. If you find yourself in MA, definitely look her up.

Nasila, I'm not sure if this answers your question about going from an Oriental diva to bint el balad but...I went to a recent workshop by Nourhan Sharif and we went over saidi movements and she stressed the importance of grounding yourself. She suggested taking a class in ethnic dance. Shadia, my teacher, suggested taking a Middle Eastern folk dance to help become grounded.