Thread: Fusion Melaya?

How sick and wrong would it be to dance a modernized melaya leff at an all-fusion bellydance showcase? Because right now I really wanna do it if I can pull it off. I'm normally all about Egyptian, but it's novel and exciting to have a chance to push the envelope in a different direction. Am I crazy to think this could work? Is it horribly inappropriate?

This is the song I want to do:
http://tinyurl.com/2z4yc7
(This link takes you to the artist's myspace profile, and should start playing the song at you; if not, click "habibi" in her media player)

Somebody stop me before I go too far! ..g.:

Chandani,

Will the crowd get it? or will it be a GP audience that will wonder - WTF?
Melaya is weird for GP, actually maybe a hip modern version would be less weird if you don't know the backstory.

Thanks, Danidance! Definitely a factor to think about. Around here dance audiences tend to be around 98% other dancers and their families and friends, but the promoter of this one is pretty hard-working and smart-marketing, so that could be an issue.

Then again, the song lyrics (sung in English) are all about "ooh, pick me, I want to be your habibi", so it kind of tells the story anyway. Maybe it would be too much of a departure from the traditional melaya leff to even bother calling it that. Taking away the middle eastern music almost makes me fear it would be more like burlesque without the stripping, which is not where I want to go. But I think this could be the right show for walking the coy, flirty side of that line without crossing it.

All of this is assuming I can even get this together in time...the show is June 2, and I just found out today that I've been invited to solo. But I like to obsess and overthink and freak out, apparently.

I think it could work. That song is fantastic, though it doesn't scream (or even whisper to be honest) Melaya.

You could play up the modern aspect, think street shaabi-ish moves, a modern young girl in cairo outfit (rather than something reminiscent of the original Reda costume styling) so jeans, heels and raqs it up somehow.

For the audience you could show the focus being your manipulation of the 'prop', using the flashier melaya wrapping and un-wrapping techniques to showcase your movement and dispensing with too much of the cutesy melaya strut.

I have always felt that constructs tend to be a little more inviolable because they have specified boundaries which create the definition of that dance.

And for that reason I would love to see the results of someone pushing those boundaries. It seems like you have the right venue, so if your clear about what is being presented then it shouldn't call down the belly-police on you.

I think it sounds like something a fusionist audience would appreciate.

Originally Posted by danidance

Chandani,

Will the crowd get it? or will it be a GP audience that will wonder - WTF?
Melaya is weird for GP, actually maybe a hip modern version would be less weird if you don't know the backstory.

I often think that when I'm watching fusion ..c::

Seriously tho' we've fused Ghawazee (music and costuming and some steps) with ATS/Domba moves so why not? It could work as it is a theatrical invention and even better if there was a programme or a narrator to give some sort of explanation.
And why shouldn't "Egyptian" invade a fusion event, fusion has well and truly invaded "haflas"
(or events not really worthy to be called such) ..g.: ..cr.:

Oh, don't get me wrong....I'm thinking the reinvented Melaya would probably make more sense than the "original" Melaya - particularly as described by Nanda.

I remember the first time I saw someone come out in a tight, tacky dress with a weird pompom thing on their head - it just seemed dumb b/c I didn't have any reference for it.

And yes, Ms. Liza, I too feel WTF at a goodly amount of fusion...c:: not all, but a bunch of it. I will not ever get the Pirate/BD fusion thing.

Originally Posted by danidance

Oh, don't get me wrong....I'm thinking the reinvented Melaya would probably make more sense than the "original" Melaya - particularly as described by Nanda.

I remember the first time I saw someone come out in a tight, tacky dress with a weird pompom thing on their head - it just seemed dumb b/c I didn't have any reference for it.

And yes, Ms. Liza, I too feel WTF at a goodly amount of fusion...c:: not all, but a bunch of it. I will not ever get the Pirate/BD fusion thing.

Pirate/BD thing...what, what..where how why.... ..l;,

I clicked on your link to hear the music, but couldn't get it to work. So I will try and respond without having listened to the music. All I can say is anything goes since melaya is "made up" anyway. Its not an authentic dance, it was delveloped by Mahmoud Reda for the stage. Raqia Hassan teaches melaya and she often uses pop music versus the traditional melaya leff music. Most dancers in Egypt (including Dandesh and Sohair Ragib) will dance to a meleya but wear a regular one piece or two piece costume. The only thing I would suggest is that you explain what the melaya is in your intro and have the MC of the event read your intro so that the audience "will get" what you doing. You can briefly mention that you are doing a modern interpretation of the traditional melaya or something. If you do a melaya, you really need to use the correct veil. Other than that, you don't need to wear the traditional dress, or the shoes (ship-ship) or the head scarf of the partial facial covering.

I've done a sort of meleya/baladi fusion to the Cramps--I didn't use the meleya veil, but I definitely used the attitude and movement vocabulary, except that it was sort of baladi as re-imagined by Russ Meyer. I wore leopard print, of course. ..g.: It went over very well with the audience, which was largely GP.

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

I've done a sort of meleya/baladi fusion to the Cramps--I didn't use the meleya veil, but I definitely used the attitude and movement vocabulary, except that it was sort of baladi as re-imagined by Russ Meyer. I wore leopard print, of course. ..g.: It went over very well with the audience, which was largely GP.

Badriya, have I told you lately that I love you? <3

Originally Posted by danidance

I will not ever get the Pirate/BD fusion thing.

Yeah, can someone explain that pirate thang??..c::

ditto to Christina. given that dancing with a Meleya Luff is not a traditional dance, i think the only valid rules are #1 use the various wraps, #2 use a Meleya Luff.
i personally would add #3 create a character, instead of simply dancing, coz if it's straight dancing, you might as well just do veil
other than that, anything goes.

other than the wraps, there are no traditional moves, no traditional steps, no traditional music, no traditional costume, because there is no tradition of dancing.
even the association with Alexandria isn't "tradition." i asked Sahra why is Meleya Luff associated with Alexandria. and she said, "I have no idea." She speculated that although Reda was based in Cairo when he first presented the Meleya Luff dance, it really caught on a couple years later after he was based in Alex.

Sahra says one thing she really enjoys about Meleya Luff is because it's a character, anything she did was attributed to the character, not to her Sahra the dancer, so she could do things as her Meleya Luff character that she as Sahra could not do w/o getting a naughty label.
it's the same kind of thinking that sees floor work in Raqs Sharqi as vulgar, but the moment you put a Shamadan on your head, hey presto, you're a folk dancer and can go to the floor. (although what you can do there is still limited, of course.)

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Yeah, can someone explain that pirate thang??..c::

um, i think it's like a joke, if you have to have it explained to you, you won't get it.
don't bother trying to explain it to me coz i don't get it.

my only experience was seeing a group doing ATS to sea shanties while wearing "pirate" garb.
fortunately, they seemed to have their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks, or i would have been frightened.

Originally Posted by asimatiyat

Badriya, have I told you lately that I love you? <3

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Yeah, can someone explain that pirate thang??..c::

It was a workshop Samantha Riggs, well-known for her work with Domba and Boom Boom Bollywood, taught in prop skills for fast music at Tribal Throwdown -- basically, how to twirl a prop and pass it from hand to hand in flashy ways. The choreography she used to teach this skill was a novelty choreography based on characters from pirate movies. Months later, people still seem to be waiting for this new fusion style to take over the world and destroy bellydance as we know it.

Two of my students asked my permission to perform "pirate fusion" at my recital a couple of weeks ago. It was a cute sword dance, but I'm still looking for the pirate connection!

Ok, if I had to take a wild guess at the pirate/belly dance connection, I'd guess it was inspired by the Pirates of the Carribean movie with Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. Remember how he had that vaguely turban like head wrap with coins hanging from it? He may have had something wrapped in his hair too, I really don't remember. I just remember a belly dancer website with his picture commenting that he looked "tribal".