Thread: origin of this hair flip/trick thingy?

is there another origin to this hair thing Saida does? or is it just something she does/has invented?


briefly at 1:51 and then at 2:22

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC1QuJ0MSr8&feature=related]YouTube - Saida - video original[/ame]

Reyna Alcala, I think.

Middle Eastern Dance, Flamenco Dancing, Bellydance, Zambra Classes, Dance Workshops, Performances by Reyna Alcala

I've seen some girls do it when they dance khaleegy. (Sorry if that spelling is wrong, I'm too lazy to spell correctly today).

i thought it might have some khaleegy origin but i have ZERO experience with it so i really had no clue. the hair movements just made me think of it automatically

I do something quite similar to that. And I picked it up from Virginia from Miami

yes i've seen Virginia do something similar. I tend to play with my hair too but not that way..i tried it today when i was practicing and i felt silly..idk why

I've seen old movies of Flamenco dancers doing that. For example in "Ship of Fools" a member of Jose Greco's dance troupe performed the move.

I think it probably dates back to teh caves.

I should add the flamenco dancer did NOT bend all the way over; rather it was a small quick head move and extremely effective.

interesting, we have to wear our hair in a tight low bun for flamenco. i'll have to ask my flamenco teacher if she's seen that before, and try and find the clips of greco's group

Originally Posted by ZanaRaqs

yes i've seen Virginia do something similar. I tend to play with my hair too but not that way..i tried it today when i was practicing and i felt silly..idk why

It works best as a quickie accent. Virginia taught it to us in the context of a drum solo, and there's this little "tick-a-tock, tick-a-tock" in the music where the hair flip fits in perfectly.

I'd also imagine that it's a style/personality thing, too. There are plenty of moves that look adorable on others, but feel silly on me. (Aziza's boobs-on-a-string chest lift, anyone?)

haha true. i might incorporate it for just a quick accent..saida does them for a longer period of time (there is another video out there where she does it longer, but i cant find it).

I saw Moroccan Shikhat dancers do this in a video once.

I learned it as a khaleegi movement from a family of Saudi women who used to come into one of the restaurants where I worked, but I have also seen it done as an accent by quite a few dancers in other styles. I do it on occasion as an accent and think it is one of those things that can look great as long as you don't overdo it. :)

Originally Posted by jmdruadh

I saw Moroccan Shikhat dancers do this in a video once.

I've seen that, too. It was footage Artemis Mourat showed us, and she said hte Shikhat dancers were Romani.

I learned this from a khaleegi workshop too.

I've seen Fifi do that during saiidi moments

That move came up a while ago in a video of a Khaleeji routine. I can't remember the dancer's name, and I can't find that clip on YouTube this morning, but I am almost positive she was performing at Bozenka's studio with the yellow-and-red striped walls. At the time I saw the video, I was studying with a teacher who was a Gulf native, and I showed her the video clip. She said she had never seen anything like that move, either socially or in a theatrical setting back home, and she found it amusingly bizarre.

Personally, I can't recall ever seeing footage of a native dancer doing that move--which doesn't mean natives never do it, especially natives of a different ethnicity than my teacher, and there are a lot of people not on YouTube--but it seems to be a larger part of the "outsider" version of the style than the native one, and a fairly recent addition at that. Out of all the hours of cultural presentations of folk dancing from Gulf TV shows on YouTube, I don't think I've ever come across a woman doing that as part of her repertoire.

maybe she just got hot and wanted to fan her neck?

Originally Posted by raqFariha

maybe she just got hot and wanted to fan her neck?

..l;,

hey, it works! LOL

Originally Posted by Lauren_

I've seen that, too. It was footage Artemis Mourat showed us, and she said hte Shikhat dancers were Romani.

That was probably the same clip: I saw it at Artie's too.

I also do this sometimes, but can't really help with your question since I picked it up from this exact same clip!

I first saw it when I was starting Egyptian style classes, so I asked my teacher about it and she had no idea, said she'd never seen in before.

Since then, I've seen a couple other dancers do it in oriental, and also in Saidi and khaligi pieces but I don't know if it's "authentic"

I picked it up from Suzanna Del Vecchio- but she is such a fusion dancer, I have no idea where she got it from! I know I have it on a VHS from Morocco's collection, but I don't remember which one or who the dancer was... I think the Haft Theater one?

Originally Posted by ZanaRaqs

interesting, we have to wear our hair in a tight low bun for flamenco. i'll have to ask my flamenco teacher if she's seen that before, and try and find the clips of greco's group

Yes, see if you can find it. The dancer had short hair and I think she was wearing pants.

Her dance was outrageous, wonderful.

Also I'm sure you're familiar with Carmen Amaya? hair sometimes down or let down during the performance (she was unbelievable.)

Originally Posted by raqFariha

maybe she just got hot and wanted to fan her neck?

lol i've done that before :)

Originally Posted by jmdruadh

I saw Moroccan Shikhat dancers do this in a video once.

I've seen a few Egyptian dancers hold hair in front of their face and puff it out of the way, but the full helicopter thing I've seen taught and performed (awesomely) by Nawarra in Moroccan shikkhatt/shaiibi. Cool reason to have long hair!

From what I recall Artemis Mourat learned it directly from Moroccan Shikatt dancers (of Romani origin). So, from that region it's "authentic".
I haven't seen Saudis do it with my own eyes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Originally Posted by raqFariha

maybe she just got hot and wanted to fan her neck?

That is exactly it! In my day we used to do shows ranging from 45 minutes to an hour! You can generate a lot of sweat. Now back in those days big long hair was mandatory. The dancers who had naturally long hair influenced a lot of hair moves just to cool themselves off. For instancing, listing the hair up and off the body during a taxim...not because it's part of doing a taxim and sexy...which it is...but because they were hot and sweaty and lifting the hair gave them a chance to cool off.

Some dancers were creative and incorporated into their show.

I remember seeing a beginner dancer a few years ago lift up her hair every few seconds. After her show I asked her why she did that and she said she saw other dancer doing that and thought that was a requirement. I was stunned. We lifted our hair because we were HOT!

I don't know about this particular dancer but my guess is she either copied it from someone not knowing why, or she just came up with her own cool way of cooling.

And here I thought maybe the music had something to do with ponies!

*ducks*

{{{HUGS}}}

Wherever it came from, it dates back to at least 1973. Yapple Dapple!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaqmvqIUjJY]YouTube - Opening to Jeannie cartoon[/ame]

It originated with a hair metal head banging belly dance group in 1972.