Thread: How Do I Dress for Shaabi?

Originally Posted by tigerb

And it was a really cute sassy interpretation! I can attest!

Aw, thanks!

I wore my new sassy dress to perform to El Enab last week

You can wear anything you like for Shaabi

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX2yWw-NtJk]YouTube - Leila of Cairo Egyptian Bellydance Shabbi[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAEnzNSirLg]YouTube - BOUSY ABDOU at King nightclub Cairo[/ame]

If you are doing a performance, you dont have to run off and change your costume everytime you bring a different style or flavour into your dance.

Jeans does not equal Shaabi either, Jeans are what people may wear everday and might happen to dance in them if the opportunity arrives (not a costume as such).
It has become a 'style' but it is more of a 'flavour/attitude' which can be present in any style like with the Bousy Abdou clip. She is performing Saaidi but her image, movement and general feel is 100% shaabi.

I wear a galabiya because it is comfortable and light.

Shaabi is undergoing some stylising at present for the purpose of dance performance.

Originally Posted by caroline_afifi

You can wear anything you like for Shaabi...It has become a 'style' but it is more of a 'flavour/attitude' which can be present in any style like with the Bousy Abdou clip. She is performing Saaidi but her image, movement and general feel is 100% shaabi.

That is the crux of the matter. Sha'abi is more about how you dance than how you are dressed. Steve Martin used to have a standup routine where he theorized that everything at McDonald's came from a single vat in the back. "[thwrfk!] Hamburger! [thwrfk!] Milkshake! [thwrfk!] Napkin!" Yeah, something like that...A good dancer doesn't change styles just by changing costumes. "[thwrfk!] Orientale! [thwrfk!] Saidi! [thwrfk!] Sha'abi!" The stylistic flavor and the implementations of the movements have to change, too.

I think one of the problems with the "you don't have to run off and change every time you change music / style" is that for most people, they are only dancing to one song. Most Hafla situations are 5 - 7 mins, so if the dancers main piece is Shaabi with a drum solo afterward, chances are they are going to want to costume for the shaabi piece.

Personally, I agree that Shaabi as a style should be very comfortable, but that if you are performing, you need something beyond jeans. The dancer is the performer. The audience should be able to differentiate her from the rest of the people in the venue.

{{HUGS}}}

yes, but basically there is no 'Shaabi uniform' as such.

Whatever you choose to wear must somehow reflect the music and dance, perhaps the only rule would be not to consider a costume which is too 'classical/chic' as this could be percieved as a contradiction but otherwise..

Most of the modern and colourful costumes/bedlahs are fine as are lycra galabiys etc.

Originally Posted by caroline_afifi

yes, but basically there is no 'Shaabi uniform' as such.

Whatever you choose to wear must somehow reflect the music and dance, perhaps the only rule would be not to consider a costume which is too 'classical/chic' as this could be percieved as a contradiction but otherwise..

Most of the modern and colourful costumes/bedlahs are fine as are lycra galabiys etc.

Especially ones that show a lotta leg....

Originally Posted by tahiradancer

I think one of the problems with the "you don't have to run off and change every time you change music / style" is that for most people, they are only dancing to one song. Most Hafla situations are 5 - 7 mins, so if the dancers main piece is Shaabi with a drum solo afterward, chances are they are going to want to costume for the shaabi piece.

Yeah, if I'm sticking a shaabi song at the end of a restaurant or party set for audience participation and getting the party started, there's no break to go change into my "shaabi-wear!" So I just suck it up and do it in my costume.

If you're performing shaabi in isolation, however, it can be really nice to present it as its own "slice of life." While costuming definitely isn't everything, it certainly can enhance the style and mood. To do the best justice to shaabi, you're supposed to "rough up" the dancing, so why not do the same with costuming?

One time, my friend said to an Arab restaurant owner, "I want to go to Egypt and see the shaabi dancers perform!" It kinda made me giggle. True shaabi isn't about performance, and the people who do it aren't necessarily dancers. But I do think a lot of the shaabi we see in our own community has been so highly refined and stylized, it's more like shaabi-flavored sharqi.

Originally Posted by lizajuk

Especially ones that show a lotta leg....

and this is different from the rest of the time how? ..g.:

{{{HUGS}}}

Originally Posted by laura 2

I got it from a vendor called Diamond Pyramid at a BD event in Las Vegas (not the Intensive, that other one they put on in 2007 only). I think it was a pretty good price too, like $115 or so?

This I want. I'm going to check these out when I go to BDUC in February.

Deborah

Originally Posted by caroline_afifi

YouTube - BOUSY ABDOU at King nightclub Cairo

Ugh! That costume is a whole lotta different kinds of awful! ..c::

(Though it's certainly unforgettable, which is perhaps the aim...)

This is what I wore at a recent shaabi performance. I didn't have a lot to work with, but it turned out great!

Originally Posted by Oona_Belly

This is what I wore at a recent shaabi performance. I didn't have a lot to work with, but it turned out great!

If you have a chance to do it again, please change the costume to something that does not say "belly dancer". Lots of ideas in this thread - but this photo is far too much skin and really is bedleh - the one style that isn't appropriate.

I would say this was perhaps a little more inappropriate.....g.:

But this in not uncommon for Shaabi dancers in Egypt.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2oEw9JAmDo]YouTube - bellydance rated r arabic sexy belly dancer at egyptian wedding kholood arabic egyptian star belly dancer[/ame]

Originally Posted by caroline_afifi

I would say this was perhaps a little more inappropriate.....g.:

But this in not uncommon for Shaabi dancers in Egypt.

Yep - but she doesn't look like a belly dancer.

Originally Posted by caroline_afifi

I would say this was perhaps a little more inappropriate.....g.:

But this in not uncommon for Shaabi dancers in Egypt.

Oh goodness!! The bride looks absolutely horrified. Wow.

I think that the only thing I would suggest to Oona is that she wear a wrap top over her halter. To me she looks like she is coming from the beach, which is a look. Right now there is a certain hippy - ish vibe going on. Or she choose a different top.

{{{HUGS}}}

I usually wear a candy striped galabeya with a hip scarf. I also did a performance at a friend's hafla in a lycra mini dress and leggings with ballet flats and a pashmina around my hips. And lots of bangles of course. It felt right and I think it looks cute! The "I'm just here to hang out... but they didn't have to ask me twice" look.

Originally Posted by kashmir

Yep - but she doesn't look like a belly dancer.

Oh but she 100% is! ..g.:

If you have a spare 10,000le you maybe able to afford Asmahan for your wedding,if you want Dina, you need to re-mortgage or sell your house.

otherwise, the other 95% of Egyptian belly dancers as hired by Egyptian people for weddings and henna's etc. look just like this (or with a two piece lycra costume)

I was shocked too when i first saw this, but now I know only too well that the belly dance scene we know and love in Cairo is indeed a very small one.

You can count the well known Cairo dancers on your two hands... who do you think entertains the rest of Cairo, the delta and upper Egypt etc?

Westerns dancers on most part just want to erase them out of their minds and pretend they dont exsist, but I think Western dancers honestly need a reality check to what belly dancing represents to many people in Egypt.

Belly dancers like Kholood.

Ok, here are some examples of what a majority of Egyptians might see..

This first one is very tasteful in terms of costume and presentation
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNTWyOR1jho"]YouTube- wedding in Cairo near Bab Zuwayla with belly dancer[/ame]

This is not the right music but I want you to look at the costume and the overall clip..
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPctO4sUGN0"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

Here she is again.. whilst she seems to be singled out on youtube, she is not any different from amny dancers I have seen in nightclubs and weddings etc. dont watch if easily offended. This was very simliar to s 'performance' I watched at a Henna in Mahalla (Nile delta).

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K-KCbUkn9A"]YouTube- Belly Dance[/ame]

I just want to make something clear... you can go to Egypt many many times and not see any of this. Stick to the big hotels and tourist places and you will probably be spared. The thing is, you will only really experience one small aspect of 'belly dance' in Egypt, not the full picture.

When Tarik teaches and performs Shaabi, I've seen him in sequined jeans, sequined Tshirt and a smallish coin belt.

When my student group performed we went 'club wear' on the cheap. Flare leg pants-like my L Rose jazz pants-and a fancy top. We went with hip wraps but NOT the big coin kind-with fringe or beads.

I suspect newcomers to performing (looking back a lot of years, here) are drawn to the upbeat fun of Shaabi-but still want to 'dress up'!

I don't think you can go wrong with a gallabeyia--either the white cotton one like I am wearing in my profile pic or the inexpensive sparkly lycra ones that you can get at bellydancestore.biz. Little Egypt Home Page has the gallabeyias like I am wearing in white and colors right now. About $100. Just tie any scarf around your hips or a plain piece of fabric and you are costumed.

I was really happy to find this thread on Bhuz, because I am preparing to perform a shaabi choreography at a show on Saturday, and I had a sudden panic attack that the dress I selected wasn't appropriate because it was more glitzy than folkloric.

It's a relief to know it's ok to be modern.

Here's a link to the dress if you'd like to see it:
http://halobellydance.com/BlackCaneSmiley.jpg

Caroline, wow, eye-opening. No wonder we don't tell Egyptians that we're "bellydancers" (or if we do, they sometimes have a funny idea about us.)