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...  |
Oh, Mark. You flatter me so much, but I learned my most valuable material from the infamous Yasmina, and all the Bedouin adventures she has let me be part of.
(My hair is getting longer, btw! I know we were planning on whispering motivating quotes to it, but I think it's doing fine now!)
I think all of the pro-short hair advice on here is great, but I just wanted to add one more thing: recent trends in migration, specifically that of Moroccan and other North African women to Gulf states, might have had an influence on hair movements in khaliji dance. Some of the fancier head moves, even done by folkloric dancers, look suspiciously Moroccan/North African. Some of the dancers do, too, but anyway...
Yasmina had the fortune of learning this dance from older generations of Gulf women, whose few hair moves consisted of gentle tossing. Like most other people have said here, the key to most Gulf head movement seems to be just that: movement of the head. The hair just seems to go along for the ride.
And I heart Etab!