Maria_Aya

ROM dance tend to be unrefined, because of the nature of dance and how it develops.
Here I'm teaching part of the rusty style, some of the animation.
Everything means something, for their culture

Maria Aya

Kiraze

Thanks Maria for sharing these clips

It was good to see some decent dance clip of Ahmet as I had been a bit suspicious on his dancing as he has performed together with Mezdeke, who were probably the worst dancers in Turkish history (one example here )

The second clip is however theatrical version (that is not much different from "americanized" versions) which features singer Yonca Evcimik (female lead dancer) and choreographer/jack-of-all-trades Ugurkan Erez (male lead dancer) of whom to my understanding neither is Rom... it is nice show however as both lead dancers have professional dance background and music is great - singer is Kibariye, who has some really good music both in arabesk and Rom style available

One more dancer with Roma background is Sema Yildiz - I think Eva Cernik has some video of her dancing but I don´t know if it includes Rom dances or Oryantal - and one very famous and skilled Rom teacher/dancer is Reyhan Tuzsuz, with whom e.g. Artemis and to my understanding also Jennet has studied but I don´t know if there are any videos available of her

And BTW Maria I loved your teaching , that version of Mastika however sounded bit funny as lyrics felt to be in the wrong place... which version is that?

Aisha Azar

Dear Kiraze,
I have video of Jennet teaching Oryental Tanzi, Tunisian, and performing several dances, I think including Rom. She is a truly wonderful Turkish dancer. The video is in my private collection, but if you ever get to the States, drop by. She has studied with Reyhan and family and neighbors, kids, etc.
I LOVE Sema Yildiz!!!
Regards,
A'isha

Maria_Aya

The version of Mastika is made from greeks and it is from the cd of Saragoudas "Istanbul".
Mastika exist at greek also for over 80 years, thats why I used this song for first time teaching Turkish Rom to my greek beginer class.

Maria Aya

Moon

Oooh thanks Maria! That looked exactly like what I've learned when we did Turkish Rom in class.

Aziyade

A'isha, Eva Cernik used to sell 2 volumes of Turkish dancing, and on those were several dances by Roma women, but in a staged setting. I don't know if you were interested in that, but if you contact her, ask about the "hat check girl" video -- that's the video that has quite a bit of Rom dancing.

What's really weird is how it resembles Ghawazee dance. Makes one question all those theories about Gypsies and their music!

Kiraze

I just noted there was a slight error in my previous message: Sema Yildiz is NOT Rom herself but she dances a lot with Rom musicians and is also a great Rom style dancer herself. Interestingly in Turkey she mostly dances/teaches Oryantal but for foreigners mostly Rom

Aisha Azar

Dear Azoyade,
HHMMM, the Rom that I have seen, both by natives and by good western imitators, does not look or feel like Ghawazi.... In what way did the dance strike you as similar to Ghawazi? BTW, I am not sure the Ghawazi themselves buy into that Gypsy theory of their history. I can not remember, but I do have the original Habibi series that was written by Edwina Nearing and could look to see what I can find that they say about themselves. Is the hat check girl video the one where the young dark haired girl ends up dancing after the older woman sort of takes her under her wing, in a restaurant or club?? I have that video and there is one segment with an older belly dancer who does a
Rom section in her routine...???

I will plan to get in touch with Eva Cernick and well as Artemis hopefully next week. Thanks for the info.

Regards,
A'isha

Kiraze

Someone should ask Eva Cernik to make her videos available as DVD:s - Dalia Carella has made her Dunyavi Rom videos also available as DVD format and they are also fantastic resources in learning some ideas for fantasy gypsy dance as the movements she uses are based on combination of real Turkish, Indian and Spanish influences - only problem is that sometimes it is difficult to know which influence comes from where and that´s why it is fusion when she dances it and fantasy if e.g. I do it

nicknack

Ooooh while we're all on the subject, could anyone give a good description and explanation of some of the more common hand movements seen in Rom style dance?

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