Magdy El Leisy's Egyptian Balady

[gotraqs]

I just wanted to say how much I love love love love love Magdy's Egyptian Balady choreo tape! I have worked with it twice now, and each time I work with it, I spend the whole time smiling. He is such a nut! The choreo is so fun and light-hearted. I am going to look for more of his stuff. Camera-work is a little frustrating at times, but I getting out of it what I need. Not for a beginning dancer, as most of the moves are not really broken down in detail. But, so much fun!

[gotraqs]

P.S. Anyone know the name of the song he teaches the dance to?

:)

[Lesgemini_Zafirah]

I'm interested...

[mmouse1534]

Is it the one that goes "la la la la"?
Yup I use this all the time!! I altered it for troupe performance I just LOVE him!
The song is called "Dh Min". At least thats how he has it titled on the cd I got from him. In Virgina's recent Amal Hayati show her girls did Malaya Laff to it and the artist was listed as Hakim to my suprise! ;-) I don't recall if the titles matched though.
XOXO,
-NJ

[Michelle75]

Got Raqs, I'm sure you've probably seen these already but I thought I'd post them JUST in case you haven't and for anyone else who hasn't.

This is a comedy Baladi piece with Magdy and Maya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh1oH1XWe84


These are two funny clips with Magdy and Ahmed doing a silly Tahtib and Saidi dance.

Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7wsB9wgwlE

Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeIbCQ81NVk

[badriya_al_ahmar]

I have his meleya video and I have the same reaction, I spend the whole time smiling. It is by far the most fun video I own, even with sometimes frustrating sound and sightline moments. Would love to take a workshop in person with him someday!

[habibiyaeini]

Originally Posted by Michelle75

Got Raqs, I'm sure you've probably seen these already but I thought I'd post them JUST in case you haven't and for anyone else who hasn't.

This is a comedy Baladi piece with Magdy and Maya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh1oH1XWe84

That was excellent!! Is that the actual choreo?

Is the Tape your talking about from little egypt?

[gotraqs]

Originally Posted by Lesgemini_Zafirah

I'm interested...

I got mine from Dahlal. I'm not sure who else sells it.

[gotraqs]

Hi, Michelle!

I love love love the Maya and Magdy. (something about this guy makes me say love repetitively) :). Maya is a beautiful dancer. I had not seen her dance, nor heard of her, before I saw this clip. I looked up Magdy on youtube before I bought his video because I wasn't really familiar with his dancing beyond seeing his tapes for sale at Dahlal. I just love youtube. I use it for everything from belly dance clips to educational clips for my son. We watched a caterpillar turn into a butterfly on there the other day.

The tahtib was very cute as well. I had not seen that one before.

Thanks! :)

[gotraqs]

Originally Posted by mmouse1534

Is it the one that goes "la la la la"?
Yup I use this all the time!! I altered it for troupe performance I just LOVE him!
The song is called "Dh Min". At least thats how he has it titled on the cd I got from him. In Virgina's recent Amal Hayati show her girls did Malaya Laff to it and the artist was listed as Hakim to my suprise! ;-) I don't recall if the titles matched though.
XOXO,
-NJ

Yes. This is the song. Any idea where I might get the lyrics? Curious what the song is about. I entered the song title on Yahoo and didn't have any luck. If I can't find it, I will probably just e-mail him and ask him what it is about.

I e-mailed Nourhan Sharif once when I wanted to know about a song, and Smadar Levi as well. They were both very nice and helpful.

Thanks!

[outi]

Magdy has been teaching in Finland years. He is notorious about, not telling the source of his music. So after his classes there is vigorous hunts for the titles and singers . Usually it's really difficult to get all information.

Many teachers sell copies of the music they use. I have heard that in Germany it's very common. That's illegal! I know many Egyptian teacher does the same... Mahmous Reda is one, who prints in his studio, but the music is composed for Reda Troupe. So it's his music. I always want to have the original copy, so I really HATE these copied collections, especially when there is no information at all about the songs. In Egypt one problem is getting the music. If the CD is printed in Europe or US, the teachers can't get it here, but outside even that can't be an excuse.

By the way: The question for an another topic: Why we are so angry for undercutters (I'm, too), but most of us are quite happy to do the same in music and dvd business. Even if we don't do the copying ourselves, we are happy to buy copies. If students really won't buy copies from teachers, there would not be sellers. Right?

[gotraqs]

Outi, I sent an e-mail to Dahlal asking what the name of the piece is, and she sent me a message saying that she thinks it should be on one of the workshop CD's she sells. I think she sells 2 of his CD's, so I am not really any clearer about how I go about getting the song or lyrics. I don't really want to buy both CD's in hopes that one of them may have the song. She may have been busy packing for a show and not had time to look it up.

[outi]

Yes, and the workshop CD is copy of all the choreographies made by Magdy and copied by Magdy. That's his way. Because of this there is only one shop in Finland where you can get his CDs. All the rest don't want to sell them at all. No information at all in the CD. All it comes to money. He makes money in a easy way. And as I wrote he is not the only one. As a students we could try to make things change. But we have to all to do our part in it. We have to start to demand the original information of the music from all the teachers.

All this copying started decades ago, when there wasn't music available. Teachers gave copies to the students, because there wasn't anything else. That's totally understandable. But with CDs, Internet and everything things has changed. So this should change too.

Unfortunately it won't help you in this case, but hopefully in future.

The problem with copied CDs, as we all know, is that all the players don't play them. This is very nice surprise in the gig. Some places in Finland actually want see the original CD, because it's illegal to them to even play copies.

[mmouse1534]

Paula,
I can check at home this week and see what the name odf the cd is to help you out!

As far as the lyrics go, I had searched and searched fora translation with no avail. However in the workshop (I was there and they must of edited it out) Magdy explained the song. Its not a literal traslation but it will give you the flavor at least.
He said the song is about a man walking down the street. He looks up at a window and sees a woman (yeah it seems all songs are like this ) And he says to her "are you human?" "or a jeannie?" "oh...you make me crazy". This is the part of the choreography where you do the poses. Part of the chorus.

For my troupe, in which we use this choreography often, we take on the character of the woman. We play cute and innocent!

I'll will try to check the cd for you to telly ou the name. It might be hard to come by. If Dahlal doesn't have it then Little Egypt will but you will have to tell them which one you want for they won't know which songs are on which cd.

Hope this helps!
XOXO,
-NJ

[gotraqs]

Thanks, Nadirah!

I think he says something about the lyrics on the videotape, but it very difficult to hear what he is saying whenever he talks.

:)

[ChristinaRizkallah]

I have that song which I purchased in Egypt. Its also on Magdy's CD that accompanies his video. Its called "Mein Dah" which means "who's that." Its about a person who sees another person and questions whether they are a jeanie or a human. I was also in his class when he used that music.

[Lauren_]

If it's the same video I'm thinking of, it also has some quick footage at the end of Magdy dancing to the Dum/Tek song? THAT song is free from Amani's fan club website. It's called 'Tabbilouha'

(I sold that video, the poor sound quality, etc. made me CRAZY for such a ridiculously expensive video. I think I sold it for less than half what I paid because I felt guilty charging more for it - my copy even had a football game on the tape after the workshop footage, like somebody taped over something! GRRRR!!!

But Magdy was cute as heck, and so was the choreo!)

[Taj]

Originally Posted by Lauren_

(I sold that video, the poor sound quality, etc. made me CRAZY for such a ridiculously expensive video. I think I sold it for less than half what I paid because I felt guilty charging more for it - my copy even had a football game on the tape after the workshop footage, like somebody taped over something! GRRRR!!!

But Magdy was cute as heck, and so was the choreo!)

Yeah, the quality is horrendous. I was very glad to get 3 used Magdy workshop videos--including this one--on Ebay for about $12/each, 'cause I *refuse* to reward Little Egypt for crap videography. I mean, on one of the vids, the operator actually points the camera at the floor while he chats with somebody!

But yes, Magdy's a cutie pie!

[Bellybabe]

Originally Posted by ChristinaRizkallah

I have that song which I purchased in Egypt. Its also on Magdy's CD that accompanies his video. Its called "Mein Dah" which means "who's that." Its about a person who sees another person and questions whether they are a jeanie or a human. I was also in his class when he used that music.

If this is the same song that Magdy taught a choreo to (which our troupe still does in an adapted form) at my very first workshop, it's called Dah Mien. When I was in Egypt, it was the fun "theme" song of the staff of the resort I stayed at.

If it is the same song you are all talking about, you can hear the singer saying dah mien over a number of times in each section of the song. And yes, Magdy referred to one person asking another if they are an "alien" or a human being.

He was a lot of fun but so much like Mr. Bean!!

[ChristinaRizkallah]

Yes, that's the song. Its actually called "Mein Dah" not "dah Mien." If that is how Magdy listed it, then he listed it incorrectly which is understandable as there are always typo errors and spelling mistakes when Egyptian CD's try to translate to English!

Originally Posted by Bellybabe

If this is the same song that Magdy taught a choreo to (which our troupe still does in an adapted form) at my very first workshop, it's called Dah Mien. When I was in Egypt, it was the fun "theme" song of the staff of the resort I stayed at.

If it is the same song you are all talking about, you can hear the singer saying dah mien over a number of times in each section of the song. And yes, Magdy referred to one person asking another if they are an "alien" or a human being.

He was a lot of fun but so much like Mr. Bean!!

[ChristinaRizkallah]

In addition to having Magdy's version, I also have the exact, identical version but one minute longer! I have a choreography to that. Don't mind the extra repetitive minute since I love the song so much anyway!!

Originally Posted by ChristinaRizkallah

Yes, that's the song. Its actually called "Mein Dah" not "dah Mien." If that is how Magdy listed it, then he listed it incorrectly which is understandable as there are always typo errors and spelling mistakes when Egyptian CD's try to translate to English!

[Lauren_]

Where can I get the song?