janaki

Hi all,

I love dancing with melaya. It kinda suits my personality. I lerned my first melaya dance from Ghada Hafez (Former Reda troup dancer and Raqia student and Instructor). It is very beautiful yet flirty and classy. She used a nice baladi piece for this dance.

I have also learned it from another intructor from America to the music 'Si abdo'. We were asked to chew gum and all the other stuff that goes with it. Choreography is extremly sassy...kinda goes with the lyrics I guess!!!!

I have also took Reda's works shop and he taught us a melaya and it is different to the egyptian version but nothing like the american version. He used typical Reda's intricate travel steps but dance is flirty and elegant.

In Yasmina Ramzy's WS, I learned 'Kidaho'. Very nice choreo. She also has mentioned about chewing gum (Chiclette) in the dance.

I have done my own research on the internet. The information I found on the internet is from the bellydancer's sites. Some dancers support the gum chewing theory and some don't. Personally, I don't like chewing gum and dance. It it nor for me.

Your input on this subject will be appreciated.

Cheer
Janaki

Maria_Aya

Ok regardless the Melaya dance I find chewing gum and dancing first of all not working for a simple reason.
Try to chew gum and keep correct rythm in body movements.
It just doenst work !!
Its a rule when teaching no gum in class for pure dance/learning reasons.

Now about the Melaya dance, I have my own theory about the roots of Melaya and I disagree with the theory of many egyptians.
My theory is based on reading alot and old pictures of the greek community that was in Alexandria until 1950.
Some say that Melaya Leyf is the dance of the prostitutes of Alexandria.
In such a close society prostitutes were CALLED every woman that had the freedom to be dressed as she liked and act as she liked.
Lets say much like the only free women community in Egypt the greeks?
I have read more than 10 books of greeks of Alexandria explaining the way that greek women were dressed and the way native Egypt women were dressed something like 100 years ago.
The dance was created in a way from Reda for theatre right?
So this means that actualy was a way of walking with the Melaya at the roads of Alexandria, what we say in Greece while walking by places with caffe's etc bride-bazaar.
The walking it self is a kind of dance-movements.

Some history about it:

The achievements of the Greeks in the ancient world, by no means few, may have reached their peak in the city of Alexandria. No less a ruler than its namesake, Alexander III of Macedonia (Alexander the Great), Alexandria dominated the eastern Mediterranean world culturally, politically, and economically for more than nine hundred years, the latter three hundred of which it competed with even the eastern capital of the Byzantine Empire, the famous Constantinople. Few cities in the world can claim success of this magnitude for close to millenium, and even fewer still flourish to this day.

The Greek population of Alexandria, Egypt, once numbered some 150,000. Traders, businessmen, philanthropists and artists moved among the cosmopolitan society of Alexandria. Their legacy is still to be seen today, not only in their historical influence, their writings, teachings and their influence on the society of Egypt and Greece, but also in the structures which they designed and built - hospitals, churches, schools, public buildings and mansions.

Sadly, the Hellenic community of Alexandria has dwindled to a mere 800 and many of the businesses, clubs, hospitals and schools have closed, but many of the churches and grand neo-classical buildings remain.

At 1950 the population of Alexandria was around:
1950 1038000 with 150.000 greeks.

Greek governments have traditionally pursued a policy of friendship with the Arab states. This relationship is based on both historical and contemporary factors. Greece shares with the Arabs a common history of subjugation by the Ottoman Turks, and a large proportion of Christian Arabs are of the Greek Orthodox faith. Many Arab states have had large and prosperous Greek communities within their boundaries. The largest such community was in Egypt. In the 1950s, however, the Egyptian government forced most resident foreign businessmen, including Greeks, to leave the country in an effort to foster growth in the Egyptian middle class by reducing foreign business competition.

Right now in Athens lives more than 200.000 greeks that came from Egypt from the years 1950 and after, and for them the memories of their life in Egypt are so live and they remember their time there with much love.

So my theory comes also from stories of the older people about how they were living in Alexandria, and what was their life there.
So when meeting a woman that she is now around 80 remembering her time when she was young unmarried, dressing with her dress, her melaya her high heels and walking at the roads of Alexandria with her girlfriends just to be seen from possible grooms you just relate this to Melaya leyf dance.

Or its just me being paranoic lol

Maria Aya

Suheir

Great research, Maria! Very interesting.

Aniseteph

I've been to a couple of melaya workshops and I really enjoy it. A melaya is such a great prop. BUT... I hate chewing gum! Hate the smell, hate the look, so I don't feel comfortable even pretending. My teacher bans it from classes , but that's because tense jaws tense up the rest of you.

For me there's something a bit cheesy about having to tick all the prop boxes for a melaya lef dance, like it was a uniform. The rest of it makes sense - bright dress to contrast with a plain melaya, headscarf to stop the melaya slipping (), shoes to help get the walk right... but the gum for me is just part of someone elses interpretation. I'd rather see the right attitude than the regulation props.

Oh well, so maybe I'm never going to do a melaya lef dance "properly" .

janaki

HI Maria, Tks sooooooooooo much. It took few reads for me to store all the info you have written. Good one!!!!


Aniseteph,

Lets dance Melaya without the chewing stuff!!!


Cheers

Janaki

maariku

I am not sure where I read it from but I heard that Reda also really dislikes the gum in Alexandrian dance.

But then again, I might be partial - can' stand the stuff either, in or outside dancing

__________________
"[A good bellydancer] must express life, death, happiness, sorrow, love and anger, but above all she must have dignity." -Tahia Carioca,

Outi

Maariku: from BHUZ.com ... Belly Dance Central ..The Largest Online Bellydance Community » BHUZ Shira wrote it in Milaya thread there very recently.

Again (like in stick/cane thread): There is no dance called Milaya dance! Milaya is a prob. First bought on stage by Mahmoud Reda. Milaya was an overcoat for Egyptian people. Some decades ago it was common on streets of Cairo, but have now disappear completely.

Nowadays milaya is seen in Alexandrian and "Cairo" balady style of dancing. The dance is more important than the prop. Each teacher will do their style and include the milaya.

Chewing gum has also "a history". It represents past, when all things from abroad were almost impossible to get. That time you only got these luxury items, if you knew right people (foreigners) well enough. In this light is very good question where young Muslim girl were able get gum? Who men did she know?

For me it's strange why these two are linked together. It may be from past, when in America there was no information at all about folk dances or different styles. I have understood that during only last few years there has been more information and more importantly want for more knowledge. Maybe one well known dancer made a choreography with mileya and gum. After that it was set. I don't know.

maariku

Thanks, Donya for the reference! Shira is such a great source of information, so probably a big part of the facts "I've read somewhere but cant remember the origin" probably come from her pieces of writing.

Heh, this actually reminds me of the situation in Estonia in the 80ies. When you were an owner of even one colourful plastic bag (preferrably with a brand logo) or chewing gum, you were made! But it never inspired our choreographers

__________________
"[A good bellydancer] must express life, death, happiness, sorrow, love and anger, but above all she must have dignity." -Tahia Carioca,

KuteNurse

OMG I can barely do a hip circle and basic graceful arms, adding chewing gum would just mess me up!

kalila_raks

My instructor is an 80-ish woman from Egypt and she insists on the gum during the melaya lef. She even pulls it out of her mouth and twirls it on her finger.

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Kalila Dance