Brea

I was just talking to a local dancer about doing a little show together and I asked her what songs she was using. She said she had a CD with songs on it but her teacher never told her who or what the songs were (on purpose, keeping it a secret, so they could not practice anywhere but with her). So I have to get together with her to listen to her songs so we can figure out what they are...

Has anyone heard of anything like this before?!

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Aisha Azar

Dear Brea,
Is she SURE the teacher is doing that for some furtive reason? I often do not know the name of some song or other because so much of what I have for music is all in Arabic. Tis is just a thought. Many times I am not even sure of the artists because I have "inherited" so much music from people who were leaving for home and not wanting to take their tapes or CDs back with them.
Regards,
A'isha

Aziyade

We had a lot of that down here, but I don't think it was a deliberate secret. Zeina (Dee Birnbaum) used to bring back cassettes of dance music that SHE got from who knows where in Egypt, and a lot of times the tracks were simply named "Oriental Dance Routine" or "Hagallah" or "Saidi One."

Nashwa in Kentucky brings back from Egypt remixes and versions of songs that we recognize but the artist doesn't CALL it by the name we recognize.

Sometimes workshop instructors will give you field recordings of ethnic music, or they'll give you music THEIR instructor gave them, and it may not be named. I have a lot of Tunisian and Bedouin and Ghawazee music that isn't named. I recognize some of the pieces as being songs on OTHER cds, but couldn't tell you the names.

ALSO -- I gave my first set of students a compilation CD (I know - it's illegal. I don't do it anymore.) Anyway, I also included a sheet of paper with a track listing and description of the song and why I chose it to represent what. Well, come to find out one of those students complained to my mentor that she didn't know what the name of the song was because I NEVER TOLD HER. I asked her if she got the paper, and she said she lost it.

So how is it this MY FAULT? I would have made her another copy.

Brea

Well, I'm mainly considering the source here. This instructor has done several very strange things in town and I keep hearing new things every day.
This girl has a compilation CD of these songs, none of which she knows, and which this instructor apparently burned for her. I understand what you are saying, but I don't think that is the situation.

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Aziyade

Well, like we agreed in other threads, you get a LOT of neurotics in the bellydance world. It's not the first weird thing you've heard, obviously, and it probably won't be the last. I feel sorry for students stuck with people like that -- but fortunately she's got YOU for a guide and influence!

Ecuabellydancer

Yep, sounds familiar, but in my case even worse because this teacher would burn an ugly voice recording over each song. The recording said something like "This is an exclusive recording for X dance school" Like Hakim and Amr Diab would do an exclusive recording for a dance school in Ecuador

Brea

Wow Ecuabellydancer, I am so sorry to hear that!

And Aziyade- I am thrilled to be here and able to teach. I'd hate to think anyone would get a bad taste in their mouth for the dance because of bad experiences.

It's true it isn't the first thing I've heard, and probably not the last; however, it's always something I'd NEVER have expected.

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maariku

I can imagine the situation as Brea described happening. I don't understand it at all, but I've seen quite a few people who hide just about every bit of information... just to make sure noone else would benefit from it. However, the situation of the dance school of Ecuador is completely ridiculous. They try to put an ownership mark on the music that probably never belonged to them in the first place.

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

jenc

Has anyone else noticed that on IAMED dvds they give a credit to the catering, but not to the musicians and not to the music used on the performances at the end, even where they are obviously recorded. There is one sweet pop song on one of my dvds that I would love to know. I always thought it was illegal to use songs without credit.

Yshka

Wow Brea, Ive not heard of such things around here, but I can imagine it sucks. Ecuabellydancer described something that quite freaked me out. Why put voice recording over the music if it's not something you produced yourself?
I'm happy to hear that you're there to help. Maybe you could upload some short samples of the songs you cannot figure out, maybe other members here can help. We ID stuff in the music section all the time.

I've got a couple of cd's that have only "Bellydance" or "Mizmar Saidi" written on them, the rest being in Arabic. In this case I understand if the teacher doesn't know the title, but personally I'd want to get it translated. The mizmar saidi album however didn't even need translating. When I put it on it turned out to be Egyptian classical songs played on mizmar. Can you believe it? Ana fi Entizarak... Alf Layla w Layla.... on mizmar??? Called Saidi??? lol. Quite funny to listen to though.

Anyhow, I did a compilation for my students once and also included a paper which credited the musicians and listed song titles in the cd cover. Why keep that information from anybody??