Thread: Khaleeji drum solo

I'm working on a drum solo with a big khaleeji section and wondering exactly what to do with it. I know a few very basic khaleeji steps but not enough to fill the section. I've been scouring the internet for video clips that show khaleeji dancing, under every spelling variant I can think of, to no real avail. I've found clips of men dancing, but it seems pretty different from what the women do, or at least those particular clips are pretty different. So I thought I'd check here--anybody know of any clips online, or have any general advice?

I'm also going to check out that BDSS performance where Jillina goes through a bunch of different styles in the space of one drum solo. I know there's some khaleeji in that, but I think it might be mostly the background dancers and she keeps doing "regular" drum solo stuff. For all I know, that's entirely appropriate...

there's also the Jillina performance in one of the more recent dvd's... trying to think of the title, where she does a pretty large section of khaleegy, I think it's Bellydance Live! She has a number of performances on that one, but she does a full Khaleegy with the Sahlala dancers, then she does a solo drum including the khaleegy bit.

You are doing an oriental/raqs sharqi style drum solo, yes? Then just acknowledge the rhythm by doing a few khaleegi steps at the beginning of the rhythm section and then go on to other drum solo type stuff. You don't have to do only authentic traditional folkloric khaleegi steps in this particular context, any more than you have to do only folkloric saiidi steps if the rhythm is saiidi.

Sedonia

Originally Posted by ssipes

You are doing an oriental/raqs sharqi style drum solo, yes? Then just acknowledge the rhythm by doing a few khaleegi steps at the beginning of the rhythm section and then go on to other drum solo type stuff. You don't have to do only authentic traditional folkloric khaleegi steps in this particular context, any more than you have to do only folkloric saiidi steps if the rhythm is saiidi.

Sedonia

That's what I was hoping I'd hear--for some reason I had it in my head that you *had* to do nothing but khaleegi movement to khaleegi music, but the saiidi comparison makes perfect sense. I know enough steps to be able to communicate "hey, I know what this is!" and then continue on, probably with a little hair tossing at the end when the rhythm comes back after the body of the solo. The drum solo would indeed be part of a raqs sharqi routine, so it's not like I'd be dressed remotely khaleegi anyway ,r:;

Hadia has a section on khaleegi dancing on her VHS tape series. There is also a segment of khaleegi on one of the Raqia Hassan videos, I am thinking #5. And Nourhan Sharif's Hazer Fazer choreography video/dvd includes instruction for the khaleegi portion of that music.

The videos of men dancing will give you the overall feel for the rolling movement. In addition to hair tossing there would be head slides, hand shimmies, head bobs, shoulder accents that follow that rolling beat.

Souzan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z-vY5Ap7UI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0UCQmzEhGM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5vJXcaSJKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4vhuzSeE2w

(sorry for the weird selection of the clips, but you know what we're dealing with here. Please note that the people who titled some of them were idiots.)

Khaliji dancing has gone through so many changes now that if you make a concerted effort to understand the "feel" of it, it should be fine.

For example, if you look at the crazy hair tosses (not all of the hair moves, just the psycho ones), most of them seem to have migrated with North African women who moved to or worked in the Gulf. More traditional moves really just consist of swinging the hair more gently, and they can be omitted entirely if you wish.

It's very hard to find material on how the women actually dance it since they're not really allowed to...so we do get a lot of material from the men (and little girls before they're considered whores for dancing). You can use mens' steps, but just daintify it: make the steps smaller, wiggle the butt more, make the head slides cuter, etc.

If I had to name the most important components to Khaliji, I would say IMHO: constant bouncing/rocking, little steps, showing off the butt ;), loose hips, and an eternally sliding head.

I agree with the previous thread: you don't have to fill the whole thing with traditional moves, since it IS a raqs sharqi drum solo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lI1v7HSD4E

Here is Mona a-Said dancing to Iba3ad (starts around 3 minutes). She takes some traditional moves and adds her own flavor to it to make it palatable for raqs sharqi. I really think she keeps the feel of the dance in the modified steps (though I hate that hand quivering thing, it looks like she's rating a guy's performance...eh!)

how do I get my grubby little hands on that Mona footage! I luv her.

Thanks, Kamilia, that was really helpful! Mona Said plus the closer shots of the guys gives me a good sense of how to put it together. And that little girl is adorable--I hope she can grow up somewhere/sometime when she can keep on dancing...

I'm so glad that you found that helpful! I hate referencing to a bootleg video of the great Mona aSaid, but...what to do??

That girl is precious, but if she keeps dancing after puberty, WHORE!!

Arabesque Dance Company from Toronto just released a DVD of their performance of Asala. There's a great khaleegy piece on there. You can also see a bit of it on this clip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SRS6cDF9OM
information on the dvd is on their website http://www.arabesquedance.ca

i know this piece of music!

Khaled Mahmoud gave choreography to this tabla solo on his workshop in Moscow recently
I'll post a video with one of my students doing this tabla soon on youtube - will post a link here

Hope it'll help

wow i'm an Official Bhuzzer :)))) joined in 2002!!! amazing :)

i love new Bhuz look - great job! wish i had some more time to read it these days :)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3BXSqRw5zB4

here it comes but - this is Natalya's first try on this dance now she's doing it way better but it gives the idea on Khaled's cute choreo ! :)

Unfortunately, I don't think any of her clips are up on YouTube - there was one but it was pulled down.

But, if you can get your hands on Leila's DVD - I think it's well worth it for this reason alone - you get to see her do traditional dances in a Sharqi show.

Why did I sell my copy? I'm kicking myself now.

Nuringa,
I enjoyed that and I really like her dress!!

Originally Posted by nuringa

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3BXSqRw5zB4

here it comes but - this is Natalya's first try on this dance now she's doing it way better but it gives the idea on Khaled's cute choreo ! :)

Originally Posted by nuringa

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3BXSqRw5zB4

here it comes but - this is Natalya's first try on this dance now she's doing it way better but it gives the idea on Khaled's cute choreo ! :)

Thanks for posting that--it is a really cute choreo, and it was very helpful to see how the khaleegi part was integrated. I can see that she's not completely comfortable in the choreography at the time this was filmed, but I'll bet it's incredible now. She has a lot of spirit. Also a very nice costume

I can vouch for everything Kamilia said because I saw a Kuwaiti princess dance Khaleeji at a party and although she didnt do any hair tosses (it would have messed up for beautiful butt-length hair) she did do lots of daintly steps in her hiked up Robert Cavalli dress. These lady had so much money she didn't no what to do with it! ..l;,

Hi depending on what khaleeji material you can learn and get your hands on, I think it's really nice thing in your drum solo to make a distinct acknowledgement to the khaleeji rhythm by completely changing your *feeling*, even if momentarily. Khaleeji is a completely different feeling to oriental and it's a really nice, striking contrast in your solo to switch to khaleeji *feeling* (even if it is only the percussive clapping and some head and arm movements capturing the feeling and the rhythm) and then switch back to oriental. Your audience will then really hear and appreciate the change in the tempo and enjoy it - everyone loves the khaleeji rhythm!! ..g.:

PS sorry i couldn't watch the clips cos I'm pinching someone's wireless internet ...

Hey there!

The way I learned khaleegi is that it is a feeling. The vibrations are actually coming from you chest, shoulders, neck THEN hair will follow. As opposed to North African style which is tossing of the head neck & hair. With Adani (the rhythm: dom- es-dom tektek), the chest & shoulders flow forward with each dom beat like your heartbeat, so you have for example 2 bounces to 1 side then the other. If you transfer the rhythm to your feet/steps, then it's 2 bounces per rhythm frame, then shifting weight to other foot is optional.

Say for instance you want to shoulder shimmy, then it can be 2 count shimmy leaning forward (on dom-es-dom), then shift weight to back on (tektek).

What I like to do are 1) head slides with hands framing while walking a little and 2) walking with "tight (not too big)" downward fig-8's (fit 2 fig-8's in 1 rhythm beat)

Sometimes when I'm not feeling in the mood to perform raks sharqui to Egyptian music, I play Khaleegi/Gulf music. One of my fave CD's are: Orchestra Faical, title CD: Lila, Anything by Mohamed Abdo (ie. Rahib), & the classic one played for Mona al Said (video noted above) & Fifi Abdo: Ab'ad
And one does not have to wear a traditional dress.

-T

Originally Posted by nbahri_rhythms

Hey there!

The way I learned khaleegi is that it is a feeling. The vibrations are actually coming from you chest, shoulders, neck THEN hair will follow. As opposed to North African style which is tossing of the head neck & hair. With Adani (the rhythm: dom- es-dom tektek), the chest & shoulders flow forward with each dom beat like your heartbeat, so you have for example 2 bounces to 1 side then the other. If you transfer the rhythm to your feet/steps, then it's 2 bounces per rhythm frame, then shifting weight to other foot is optional.

Say for instance you want to shoulder shimmy, then it can be 2 count shimmy leaning forward (on dom-es-dom), then shift weight to back on (tektek).

What I like to do are 1) head slides with hands framing while walking a little and 2) walking with "tight (not too big)" downward fig-8's (fit 2 fig-8's in 1 rhythm beat)

Sometimes when I'm not feeling in the mood to perform raks sharqui to Egyptian music, I play Khaleegi/Gulf music. One of my fave CD's are: Orchestra Faical, title CD: Lila, Anything by Mohamed Abdo (ie. Rahib), & the classic one played for Mona al Said (video noted above) & Fifi Abdo: Ab'ad
And one does not have to wear a traditional dress.

-T

Very informative post, thanks!

Originally Posted by nuringa

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3BXSqRw5zB4

here it comes but - this is Natalya's first try on this dance now she's doing it way better but it gives the idea on Khaled's cute choreo ! :)

Nuringa thank you so much for the link! Khaled was giving same choreography this years at the Nile Group in April. I just loved it but didn't have the video. Thanks!