Thread: Lebanese Zeffa with Cane? Have you heard of this?

Hello Bhuzzers,

I have just been hired for a Lebanese wedding. These are repeat customers who have hired me several times for parties and showers, but this will be my first wedding with them. They asked for a wedding procession where I will lead the bride and groom in accompanied by a couple of drummers. They have asked that I use a cane.

I have done Lebanese weddings before with shamadan. I asked them if they wanted shamadan instead of can and they said, "no, that's more Egyptian style, we want cane."

I am not choosing the music for this, which takes some pressure off. I am just being asked to lead the procession, interact with guests as appropriate and keep the energy of the crowd up. I am totally up for the challenge and looking forward to it, but I've never heard of a wedding procession with cane.

Have you heard of this? Are the Saiidi style movements I'm used to appropriate?

I am looking on Youtube for examples but not finding anything - any info greatly appreciated.

Thanks'
Wingin' it Saiidi Style!

Oh, should have checked Bhuz before checking Youtube, just found this awesome thread:

Music for Lebanese-Style Cane

This sounds like a challenging gig. I'm quite curious to know what music and costuming one would would use to dance with a cane at a Lebanese wedding. Please keep us posted!

I've seen clips of dance troupes doing Lebanese weddings on YouTube. Offhand, I can't recall any using cane, but they seem to love the pomp of a big, visual spectacle. A leader swinging prayer beads or a scarf/rope (per the usual dabke style) seems to be the most common, but I've also come across guys leading the procession with spears, flags, and swords. If you can swing it, wave it, or brandish it while doing dabke, apparently they're up for it. Try looking for clips with the terms Lebanon (لبنان), wedding (عرس), and zeffa (زفة).

A few years ago, I took a workshop with a troupe that was based in Michigan, and the teacher said that their local Lebanese population considered the cane "the party stick." As soon as they saw you with it, that meant the party was happening. To that end, it sounds like they won't expect much from you in terms of cane technique--prance around while holding it, swing it, hit it on the ground occasionally, and use it for framing.

Since they specifically said they didn't want shamadan because it was Egyptian, that probably means they don't want Saidi moves, either. Actually, if you look at older clips of Egyptian dancers doing cane, they don't do a lot of what dancers think of as Saidi cane moves. Much of our understanding of that tradition was shaped by Reda, and it's possible to do an authentic cane performance without that particular part of the movement vocabulary. Now, if you throw in a couple of horse steps where you stand on one leg, and paw the ground with your other foot, will they think, "Hey, this gal knows how much we Lebanese love our horses!" or "What a doofus! Doesn't she understand we didn't want Egyptian stuff?" I have no idea. If you're feeling particularly adventurous and want to try a bit, you could gauge their reaction; otherwise, I'd stick to the sorts of moves you see someone like Howaida doing with cane and moves that clearly reference dabke. I'd expect the drummers will be playing dabke (not Saidi) rhythms, unless they tell you otherwise.

Originally Posted by kozmique

This sounds like a challenging gig. I'm quite curious to know what music and costuming one would would use to dance with a cane at a Lebanese wedding. Please keep us posted!

For costuming, they have asked for something more covered than usual, so I will be wearing a fancy balady dress with lots of bling and some modest cutouts.

I will not be picking the music, that all been arranged beforehand. I assume it will be debke rhythm and I'm just going to go with the flow :)

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

A few years ago, I took a workshop with a troupe that was based in Michigan, and the teacher said that their local Lebanese population considered the cane "the party stick." As soon as they saw you with it, that meant the party was happening. To that end, it sounds like they won't expect much from you in terms of cane technique--prance around while holding it, swing it, hit it on the ground occasionally, and use it for framing.

This makes sense now, based on the Lebanese cane clips I was watching last night from the other thread. All this time, I had no idea there was Lebanese-style cane!

It was very different from what I'm used to. As you said, there was lots of high-energy prancing and twirling, very showy. No horse-y moves although I did see some hopping that could have fit with a Saiidi style. Overall, a very different feeling than Saiidi.

I know what I need to do now, and I'm SO glad I checked this out beforehand. If I'm going to wield the party-stick I want to know what I'm doing!

Thanks

Originally Posted by Asra*

This makes sense now, based on the Lebanese cane clips I was watching last night from the other thread. All this time, I had no idea there was Lebanese-style cane!

It was very different from what I'm used to. As you said, there was lots of high-energy prancing and twirling, very showy. No horse-y moves although I did see some hopping that could have fit with a Saiidi style. Overall, a very different feeling than Saiidi.

I know what I need to do now, and I'm SO glad I checked this out beforehand. If I'm going to wield the party-stick I want to know what I'm doing!

Thanks

I've done a lot of weddings with cane. Don't be surprised if you see some of the wedding party brandishing very decorated canes. You can try doing a very twirls if room allows, but basically if you hold the cane over your head, in front of you or on your shoulders and shimmy and shake your shoulders a lot, you should be fine.

Howaida Hashem (green bedlah) Pt 2 - YouTube

Nadia Gamal - Zills/assaya in bedouine style 2/2

Watch her interact with the crowd around 3:30

Originally Posted by Asra*

This makes sense now, based on the Lebanese cane clips I was watching last night from the other thread. All this time, I had no idea there was Lebanese-style cane!

It was very different from what I'm used to. As you said, there was lots of high-energy prancing and twirling, very showy. No horse-y moves although I did see some hopping that could have fit with a Saiidi style. Overall, a very different feeling than Saiidi.

I know what I need to do now, and I'm SO glad I checked this out beforehand. If I'm going to wield the party-stick I want to know what I'm doing!

Thanks

think of the cane like the sea shell in lord of the flies...it makes YOU the leader...you are bringing in the wedding party....you are in command...

I've done a few Lebanese zeffahs that have asked for cane, because as already mentioned they see shamadan as Egyptian. They enter on debke music so I throw in a few debke steps and also twirl/swing cane (until they crowd the dance floor too much!) and stay high energy :)

The Lebanese Wedding Zaffa is done to Dabke music, which is probably why they ask for the cane. You may want to ask if they want you to dress up in a folkloric costume. Depends if the family was from a village or the city.

Below is a clip of a typical Lebanese Zaffa done in Sydney, no dancer though


This is an Islamic Lebanese Zaffa with swordsman, again no dancer. Also the rhythm they use is malfouf. Very different.



I'll see if I can find something with a belly dancer in it.

OK found a clip with a dancer. I know the dancer and drummers. I think they decided to copy the Islamic zaffa with an entrance rhythm of malfouf, probably makes it easier for the dancer to travel with. When the dancer gets people on the floor to dance, the rhythm changes to Dabke/Nawari/tabal rhythm which definitely more suited to stick moves to dabke.

Originally Posted by HubicRuzz

This is an Islamic Lebanese Zaffa with swordsman, again no dancer. Also the rhythm they use is malfouf. Very different.

Could you clarify what you mean by "very different"? I'm not sure if you're saying that a zeffa with swords uses malfouf instead of nawari, or just that the combination of elements in the Islamic zeffa is different from the other clips. Do these clips weigh for or against the point you were trying to make by "very different"? The clip with the spears looks like the "we hired a troupe to do a show" zeffa instead of the simple "procession with the couple and everybody ends on the dance floor" kind, so that may be confusing the issue.

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

Could you clarify what you mean by "very different"? I'm not sure if you're saying that a zeffa with swords uses malfouf instead of nawari, or just that the combination of elements in the Islamic zeffa is different from the other clips. Do these clips weigh for or against the point you were trying to make by "very different"? The clip with the spears looks like the "we hired a troupe to do a show" zeffa instead of the simple "procession with the couple and everybody ends on the dance floor" kind, so that may be confusing the issue.

Yes when I said different, I meant it is unusual to see mock sword fighting. But having thought about it I probably shouldn't have added the sword clip because that particular troup is a not for profit troupe from the mosque and any payment made goes to the mosque. So if a conservative muslim couple went to the trouble of hiring them then I can guess with 99% confidence that they would not hire a belly dancer as well. So highly unlikely a bellydancer would work with a troupe like this.

The third clip I had is what I would expect a Lebanese wedding zaffe with a dancer to look like. The first clip is very typical of a Lebanese zaffe with muscians only.

The clip you had of the dakbe troupe outside, that is probably at the father of the bride's house as the bride leaves to go get married. The spears clip, that looks like what you would see a dabke troupe perform at a wedding. Not 100% if that is a zaffa or was performed in the middle of the night.

As far as rhythms for a zaffa, the ones I've been involved in personally would either use Narawi all the way through, or started with Malfouf and then changed to Narawi when we hit the dance floor. I think if a dancer is involved then it would be easier to start with malfouf for the entrance as this is a travelling rhythm, then at some stage change to Narawi when you hit the dancefloor as that will get people involved in Dabke.

Originally Posted by norma

Howaida Hashem (green bedlah) Pt 2 - YouTube

That was a great clip, thanks for posting it! I may borrow a few of her cane moves :)

Originally Posted by HubicRuzz

OK found a clip with a dancer. I know the dancer and drummers. I think they decided to copy the Islamic zaffa with an entrance rhythm of malfouf, probably makes it easier for the dancer to travel with. When the dancer gets people on the floor to dance, the rhythm changes to Dabke/Nawari/tabal rhythm which definitely more suited to stick moves to dabke.

Awesome. Thanks so much for digging this clip out and posting it.

Thanks to all. This has been very educational for me.

I am so much better-prepared for this gig now thanks to all this information!

In case you needed more ideas and examples, I stumbled across these

MEJWEZ AZAN 2 - YouTube

The wedding Band - YouTube

ZAFFET KODAR - YouTube

This is a Chaldean wedding but you can see the decorated wedding sticks:

rasha and allen wedding -emad batayeh - YouTube

In Detroit, it's mostly the Chaldeans that hire belly dancers and the clip above is pretty typical. In Detroit, the Lebanese are usually more conservative and don't usually have a dancer. This is typical Lebanese wedding. If they are having a live band, you may get a drummer to dance with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B56vn...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtaN6...eature=related