Thread: malaya, uh oh!

I saw the thread on Oriental Dancer about this and was shocked. I had no idea Malaya was like this. I was told that the Malaya Leff was a prostitute dance done in the red light district but i had no idea it was like this.
no don't get me wrong when I was a teenager we danced like this minus the getting on all fours or on the floor. we would squat and do this and bend over. it's very African and pretty familiar to me but i wouldn't want to do it on stage. What do you all think? Is this the same as Malaya Leff or somethin entirely different? What's the difference. is is really a prostitute dance? Should we be doing it if it is, when we make so much about the distinction between us and strippers?

[ame=http://youtube.com/watch?v=ChGa1yUSvYY]YouTube - Malaya festival !.. New[/ame]

[ame=http://youtube.com/watch?v=UleIz_-h8pM]YouTube - Hot bodies .. Hot malayya[/ame]

[ame=http://youtube.com/watch?v=XAavr_1H9pY]YouTube - New Malayya .. in a new Car[/ame]

[ame=http://youtube.com/watch?v=XXzPrHh7Apg]YouTube - how could she control her ass ?? i like Malayya[/ame]

This is defintiely not the same as the Alexandrian Melaya Leff. This dance is from Oman and is really new, not what we would call 'traditional'. I think the confusion comes when the word is written in roman letters because I believe that in Arabic the words aren't the same. I was told about it by a musician here, a syrian guy, who thought it was a new thing and found it crazy.
I don't know alot about this trend, which is really shocking, but I think it' s just a popular form that has emerged. What I do notice is the very African influence that I think can be seen in a lot dances from that area.
If anybody knows anything more I would be very curious.

Samantha

Saw Malaya mentioned on the orientaldancer forum. It's definitely not the same as melaya leff...

is it true melaya leff is new too and was invented by muhammad reza? how new?
because now that i think of it, i dont think i've seen any Egyptian nationals do it. doesn anyone have footage of any Egyptians doing it?

Here's Israeli dancer Orit Maftsir doing Melaya Lef

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkMhUnwngqE]YouTube - Melaya Laff[/ame]

And here's an Egyptian dancer doing Melaya Lef

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMR2Mcy2e4]YouTube - Egyptian dancer Melaya Leff[/ame]

is that lucy

oh no it's suzy. ur right but did it come from muhammad reza? or can u see it in cairo traditionally?

Originally Posted by rakgirl

oh no it's suzy. ur right but did it come from muhammad reza? or can u see it in cairo traditionally?

I believe that you are right, that it was a Reda invention, but it goes back at least 30 years, I believe. It's a tableaux baladi piece invented for the theatre and is fairly well-known to Egyptian audiences, but less so outside of Egypt. I've never seen it done by Lebanese or Turkish dancers, for instance, though Orit does it (but then again she's an Egyptian-style dancer).

posted in wrong thread

Originally Posted by rakgirl

is it true melaya leff is new too and was invented by muhammad reza? how new?
because now that i think of it, i dont think i've seen any Egyptian nationals do it. doesn anyone have footage of any Egyptians doing it?

Usually credited to Mahmoud Reda - probably early to mid-sixities. I seen Raqia Hassan, Aida Nour, Denise Enan and Nani performing it. If anything it is more common among Egyptians than Westerners. However, it only belongs on stage - you won't see it done in a social setting. Not part of Lebanese or Turkish styles.

If someone else has pointed this out and I missed it, I apologize:

Meleya Leff is not about prostitutes or the red-light district.

Shira and others provide more background on it in this thread from Old Bhuz:
Bhuz Forum - Melaya leff?
(There are lots more sources out there, and probably here on Bhuz also. This is just one I remembered and was able to find easily.)

I wish I could cite the source -- an interview by Shira or Aunt Rocky, maybe? or a response in a Q&A at the big conference several years ago? -- but I recall Mr. Reda saying somewhere that especially since he was creating the dance for his sister-in-law as principal dancer, there's no way he would ever have choreographed a tableau in which the characters were hookers. Also, my understanding is that much of what the Reda Troupe was about was making the dance more "respectable" and gaining acceptance for it as a performance art for big stages and broad audiences, so the prostitute idea wouldn't have fit in with those goals.

I think the misconception (which seems to be pretty widespread) may come from the way it's often presented -- short bright dresses, high heels, a lot of bouncy, swingy movement, even gum-chewing. Maybe this just reads as tarty, and people think tarty = tart?

Shira wrote about this in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of Zaghareet! "Origins of Reda Troupe Dances: Part 2, The Melaya Leff"

It is two different words in Arabic. I am not sure what the booty shakin' dance is called, but the word commonly used for malaya lef, melaya, just means sheet (like a bed sheet).

I'll try to find the other word and give the Arabic spelling if someone else does not get to it first (I have it written down somewhere). Unfortunately in transliteration the words look really similar.

As others have said, the clip in rakgirl's original message of "malayya" represents an entirely different dance/concept than the dance melaya leff which is done with a modesty wrap. The words look similar spelled in our alphabet, but they are different words in Arabic.

I don't know much about the butt-wiggling thing - it's new to me, too. Taletha posted a thread on tribe about it recently, which you can find at Does Anyone Know What This Is? - Belly Dancing - the Shira.net Tribe - tribe.net .

As for melaya leff, yes, the first dance done using a melaya leff as a prop was in 1959, in a dance choreographed by Mahmoud Reda. The character being portrayed in the first melaya leff performance in 1959 was that of a respectable young woman who lived in Old Cairo. It had nothing to do with prostitutes. In the story line, the melaya-wearing character was buying something sweet to eat from a street vendor.

Reda himself always believed in creating dances that showed the nobler side of Egypt. He would NOT have created a dance that depicted prostitution.

However, later folk troupes came along who tried to imitate him, and the prostitution idea most likely came from the Russians who were running some of these. Their artistic vision didn't necessarily tend toward that of portraying an honorable Egypt that people could be proud of....

The dances you show on YOU TUBE don't look anything like the Melaya Leff I've seen done by either Egyptian or American/European dancers. The name of the dance comes from the large black sheet-like coverup that Egyptian women would wrap around themselves when going out on the street. The dancer wraps and uwraps the melaya while moving to earthy baladi music. The melaya is not like a veil--it is heavier and larger and decorated for the stage. So there are all kinds of ways to wrap it around the body to show hip movements and play with it to go along with the earthy music.

Yes, I have heard some people say that it is supposed to represent prostitutes, but that is not what M. Reda, who stylized it for the stage, says.

The videos you saw are some kind of Arabic pole dancing thing.

Souzan

Originally Posted by Monica

It is two different words in Arabic. I am not sure what the booty shakin' dance is called, but the word commonly used for malaya lef, melaya, just means sheet (like a bed sheet).

I'll try to find the other word and give the Arabic spelling if someone else does not get to it first (I have it written down somewhere). Unfortunately in transliteration the words look really similar.

The second clip that was posted by rakgirl has this spelling in Arabic: mim 'ain lam alif yaa taa marbuta. So a more accurate way of writing it in English would be ma'laya. Can't find any relevant meanings in my standard Arabic dictionaries, but that's not surprising! It must be a very specialized dialect word. Someone posted somewhere (boy, the discussion boards flow together sometimes!) that the word meant a$$ in Oman. Anyone have an Omani dictionary?? (Language geek joke. I don't think there is one.)

Yup. We did have a thread on this a while back. NOT melaya leff. Two different things, two different dances, just happen to sound similar when translated into English. Not the same things at all.

Melaya lef: a modesty wrap sometimes used as a prop in a dance invented by Mahmoud (not Mohammed) Reda to mimic Egyptian women of a certain type/era, performed by Egyptian and Egyptian-style oriental dancers.

Ma'laya: Middle Eastern & North African booty dance

Similar words, different meanings entirely. Like 'Tap' and 'Tape' or 'Disc' and 'Disco.' Sometimes one letter makes a world of difference.

Yeah, I've also heard the original clips you showed are Omani, not the same as the Egyptian Meleya Lef dance.

I've always understood the meleya characters portrayed in the Egyptian dance to be Alexandrian girls. It was my understanding that there is a long tradition of women wearing the meleya in Alexandria, Egypt. Although I understand various types meleya like garments were worn historically in the Islamic world since the time of Mohammed, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear they also wore the meleya in Old Cairo. I guess because of the sources I've learned from I've always associated meleya lef with Alexandria.

I don't know a lot about the specific history of Mahmoud Reda being the first to create a Meleya dance tableau, but that is what he is known for doing in general, taking elements and dances from folk life and then fancying them up for stage. So that is probably true. You do see some pretty old footage of Naima Akef and Samia Gamal and some other dancers in early movies dancing with meleyas. There are many, many examples of Egyptian dancers doing dances with meleya, some of which have been mentioned above. I'm sure if you start looking for it, you find a lot. Since it is a dance based on folk life, and as mentioned, something Mahmoud Reda did staged versions of, I don't think it is meant to be associated with prostitution. I've never seen it that way, flirting yes, prostitution no. It's just regular respectable girls out and about and doing their thing made into a dance.

I've also seen footage of Lebanese dancers dancing with the meleya, Amani for one example, but I think they do it very much with the understanding that they are portraying an Egyptian character.

There is a dance done in Somalia and East Africa called Niiko which is identical to Malaya even sometimes down to the music. I asked a friend of mine from Somalia about it. She said that its kind of a fertility dance that was done on wedding nights intended to demonstrate what the bride and groom were suposed to do. She said there were many dances like that in East Africa, but many times they were done only when there were no men around, but its not always explicit. It depends on the situation.

So my guess, judging from the fact that there continues to be a strong link between East Africa and the Gulf, Malaya was originally Nikko brought there by East Africans. I was also told by an Emerati that its something done at weddings, but its also a way to just blow off steam. I guess going nuts every so often allows them to blow off steam and pent up frustration. I might not like it, but I guess its better than having teenagers creating heards of children from unwanted pregnancies. The lesser of two evils I suppose.


This is a posting form that thread on orientaldancer by Tarik Sultan and seems to me to be a really good explanation of malaya.

Nothing absolutely to do with Meleya/.meleya lef dance , of course

I've seen it spelled "malayaa" - which in my Swahili dictionary means prostitute. Swahili is based on Arabic, so I think its just the spelling difference. Unfortunate confusion.

Some you tube clips of Egyptian Folk Dancers and belly dancers dancing with the meleya. Some of them you will see just a clip of the meleya part way in or near the end:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFDFSl6z14U]YouTube - National Egyptian Dance Troupe - Tour 2007[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW7o_Y9a9Hg]YouTube - Nagwa Fouad & Shafiq Galal - Egyptian Folklore[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGE9SKwkW6A]YouTube - sharm el sheikh[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KjsRGprABk]YouTube - Fifi Abdou on film �ي�ى عبدة[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ZYEB6kloQ]YouTube - Fifi Adbo[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Nt2i5VuxM]YouTube - نعيمة عاك�، لبلبة، رجاء و عواط�[/ame]

I think the prostitute thing could also have emerged from a misunderstading of what women in the ME are allowed to do. Remember the thread where we talked about how some people assume that *all* women in the ME wear burqua, have arranged marriages, only interact with other women, etc, etc? If you take that belief, and then put it up against a dance where a ME girl is wearing a short dress and flirting with guys, some people might assume that this character is more representative a fringe element rather than a typical girl.

and one more, Tito teaching meleya in workshop (just because I love Tito's dancing):

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi_oTxS34JY]YouTube - Tito's workshop 1.12.2005[/ame]


you know I really didn't find much on you tube of Egyptian meleya done by Egyptians, considering that I know there is a lot more out there.

Originally Posted by laura 2

I think the prostitute thing could also have emerged from a misunderstading of what women in the ME are allowed to do. Remember the thread where we talked about how some people assume that *all* women in the ME wear burqua, have arranged marriages, only interact with other women, etc, etc? If you take that belief, and then put it up against a dance where a ME girl is wearing a short dress and flirting with guys, some people might assume that this character is more representative a fringe element rather than a typical girl.

The other side is that within the cultural context everyone "knows" it is just flirting. With a closely bound community where everyone knows everyone else, strict morality and strong notions of family shame - nothing is going to happen. Outsiders (ie us) may not get it.

Recently a friend was staying in a small village in Italy and was overwhelmed by all the beautiful Italian women flirting with him. He thought he was in with a chance. It took him a few weeks to realize it was just flirting and they were far more unavailable than a Kiwi woman who never played this game.

Originally Posted by lizajuk

There is a dance done in Somalia and East Africa called Niiko which is identical to Malaya even sometimes down to the music. I asked a friend of mine from Somalia about it. She said that its kind of a fertility dance that was done on wedding nights intended to demonstrate what the bride and groom were suposed to do. She said there were many dances like that in East Africa, but many times they were done only when there were no men around, but its not always explicit. It depends on the situation.

So my guess, judging from the fact that there continues to be a strong link between East Africa and the Gulf, Malaya was originally Nikko brought there by East Africans. I was also told by an Emerati that its something done at weddings, but its also a way to just blow off steam. I guess going nuts every so often allows them to blow off steam and pent up frustration. I might not like it, but I guess its better than having teenagers creating heards of children from unwanted pregnancies. The lesser of two evils I suppose.


This is a posting form that thread on orientaldancer by Tarik Sultan and seems to me to be a really good explanation of malaya.

Nothing absolutely to do with Meleya/.meleya lef dance , of course

I went and read thru that. I agree that it's a cultural context thing. When I went on line and looked up the Somalis doing the Niiko it wasn't as shocking to me. They aren't wearing hijab and it's just women together. My family still gets together and dances. When the women get together, if some music comes on we start dancing similar to this. and like i said, when i was a teenager this was the way we danced minus getting on the floor. But I guess i'm still wrapping my mind around what i think of as North African and Middle Eastern ideas about women. I don't get it and I may never get it. I guess.
Here's Niiko.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26teSO25aRw"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

I believe that you are right, that it was a Reda invention, but it goes back at least 30 years, I believe. It's a tableaux baladi piece invented for the theatre and is fairly well-known to Egyptian audiences, but less so outside of Egypt. I've never seen it done by Lebanese or Turkish dancers, for instance, though Orit does it (but then again she's an Egyptian-style dancer).

Amani does melaya in one of her videos -- maybe the "Around The World" video?

Originally Posted by rakgirl

Here's Niiko.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Wow, fabulous clip, thanks for sharing it.

Originally Posted by rakgirl

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Daym! I gotta learn me some of that!

i wonder where anyone teaches niiko classes here? i think i'll ask the ladies at BOCA if someone from the Somali community in DC could teach it at this year's BOCA Fest. That would be cool.