Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark_Balahadia
A'isha has seen me do both Ra's Khaleeji and Iraqi Kawaliya, both involving tons of hair stuff. My hair is shorter now but I still can do the movements although it looks a little different. The movement of the head is more important anyway, the hair just follows along!
I have a good friend, Kamilia (DC dancer who seems to be on the forum now!) who does great Khaleeji. Her hair isn't too long, a little shorter than her shoulders and she does GREAT Khaleeji.
The problem with Khaleeji done by foreigners is they lack "the feeling" needed to perform it properly. There are certainly steps and movements you must follow but there's more to Khaleeji than just following a choreography. Most people I see making an attempt don't seem to get this "feeling" and the performance suffers. It's hard to explain but hopefully A'isha and Kamilia can chime in!!!
In fact, I believe from what I've seen already in the US at least, there are only an handful of people capable of teaching real, authentic Khaleeji. Everyone else unfortunately butchers it completely...  |
Dear Mark,
I think the problem is that many people have never seen it done authentically but believe that the Nagwa Fouad version on the Samy Farag video is "real" and that the BDSS versions are also real. Most everything that is done here is too big, concentrates on gallumping around the stage and throwing the hair like mad. Holding the dress in all kinds of weird, exaggerated ways also seems acceptable. The Gulf guys I know said that they laugh their heads off when they see the Egyptian dancers trying to dance Gulf dance.
Another issue is that there are many versions of he dance, from very sedate traditional style Samri of Kuwait to the very modern Khawliya styles of Iraq, to a lot of stuff in between. Nejdi Hadith is a couples dance, the UAE women have styles that are different from the Qatari girls, etc. What they all seem to have in common is that movement is not big, or overblown or out of control, or choreographed except in a very few cases where it is being presented for some state or other event.... and even then choreogaphy is not the general rule from what I can tell.
Regards,
A'isha