04-29-2008, 07:27 PM
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#15 (permalink)
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V.I.P.
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Posts: 4,222
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Classical, etc
Dear Adiemus,
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Originally Posted by adiemus
A'isha, I don't think it's the costuming and music - although the music influences the dance - looking at what people here are saying, and reviewing some of the videos, it seems to be more than that. I think it's that 'modern' seems more of a 'performance', although having said that, the majority of YouTube footage of earlier dancers is from movies, and I wonder how choreographed their work is.
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A'isha writes- I think that is true when it comes to the more westernized dancers, but not when we look at the Egyptians. While they all have their own style, we can definitely see abdominal support in just about all good Egyptian dancers, from Tahia Carioca onward, and sharp, clean movements in many of them, including whereas in the west, it is a new thing. I do not see the newer dancers as being more in "performance"mode than say Nagwa Fouad or Samia Gamal, Lynn and Lyss, or any of the other movie dancers. The dance is and has always been about performance. And dance wise, the movement vocabulary stays abut the same, with different dancers utilizing it in different ways. Soheir Zaki always made far sharper movements than many of her contemporaries. So did Naima Akef. Aza Sherif moved bigger, Nadia Hamdi was more Beledi in her approach, Fifi hardly ever did anything truly sharp, and Randa uses sharp and soft techniques, as does Dina. Dandash uses everyone's stuff on purpose!!
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ne distinction I can see is something you've all alluded to - the abdominal work is less separated or isolated from the whole body movement, this integration of movement is a feature of all the movements of the Egyptian-style dancers compared with a more western style. It seems like the isolations in western dance are there to draw attention to THAT movement and part of the body, while the Egyptian older style especially seems instead to flow from that part of the body to emphasise the music. Wish I could explain this better!!
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I have always stated this as a huge difference between good Egyptian dance and those trying to imitate the style. When you make it all about the movements, it becomes less Egyptian by the second!! The newer Egyptian style also has this flow and a feeling that there is not just a lot of separate movements on stage, but rather instead a whole picture that is well connected to all aspects of the dance, including the music, and even especially the music. Egyptian dance, then and now, has always been more about a whole picture than about, "Look at this cool movement I can do, look at ME", as we often see in the West.
Regards,
A'isha
Last edited by Aisha Azar; 04-29-2008 at 07:29 PM.
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