Baladi

Baladi ( Arabic بلدي, DMG baladī ), also Beledi or Balady; is a folk, improvised, Egyptian dance style performed solo by women.

Origin and Distribution

Baladi means "from the country" or "coming from the country", adjective of Balad , "the country", but can also have the meaning of "my country" (formed from Balad and the personal ending i for "my") and refers to this case on the dance.

The baladi originally comes from the rural regions of Egypt . Due to the rural exodus of the population, the dance was, so to speak, taken into the big cities and further developed there. Today, the baladi is primarily a folkloric dance that expresses the longing of the former rural population for their old homeland and contains many elements of oriental folklore. The musical forms of the baladi originate from folk music and were further developed in the urban milieu of the northern Egyptian cities, especially in Cairo. One can interpret this development as a cultural expression of the rural exodus in Egypt.

A kind of Taqsim is followed by a dialogue between melody and rhythm and further tempo increases in the rhythm. The expression of a wide range of emotions and complex rhythmic structures has made Baladi a demanding musical and dance art form. The new townspeople, who once lived in the country, brought their traditions with them to the town, adapted their culture and themselves to the new influences. This created a new music and a new dance expression. An essential feature - comparable to jazz , soul and blues - is the central element of improvisation (Arabic Taqsim ). For the dance pieces of the baladi, simple, straight rhythms without great orchestration and subtleties are mainly used. The main instruments played in the traditional accompanying orchestra are the spiked violin Rubaba , the oboe mizmar , a flute and a barrel drum.

Instrumentalists (alātīya) and dancers improvise within a basic structure that has become more and more complex over time. The integration of new instruments into this music, such as the accordion and saxophone , opened up further, previously unknown and new possibilities of expression. The music of the baladi is often associated with a kind of sadness and melancholy, a mourning for the lost old homeland, but often also hidden criticism of the existing system and the current living conditions, which makes the baladi the "blues of Egypt".

For the baladi, the dancer uses a galabija , many bracelets, large earrings (all in gold), a headscarf or hair band and a scarf for the hips are mandatory.

Oriental dance with a shamadan

The oriental dance with elements of the raks sharqi and / or baladi with the shamdan (candlestick) on the head of the dancer is also called candlestick dance (shamadan) .

With the shamadan dancers a distinction must be made whether it is a "Raqs El Shamadan" (a dance following the Egyptian tradition) or the western variant of the candlestick dance, which is more likely to be assigned to the oriental show dance.

The Raqs el Shamadan is attributed to the Baladi and is an Egyptian folk dance. Originally it belonged in the wedding procession at Baladi weddings and later became part of the tableau for dance performances at the wedding celebration. Correspondences to the Egyptian light dance traditions, which can be traced back to the symbolic background of spiritual enlightenment on the one hand and the real path illumination on the other, can also be found in Turkey. Baladi music is preferred for both types of dance.

A continuous dress is worn for the dance, but nowadays you can also see a trouser suit. This has more practical or moral reasons, because a floor part is built in in modern candlestick dance. Here the dancer shows balance and shimmy movements lying or sitting on the floor. Furthermore, playing cymbals is a traditional feature of a candlestick dance, regardless of whether it is a traditional or a modern candlestick dance.

In the “traditional” baladi with a floor part, the dancer balances the candlestick on her head while she sits or lays down on the floor, and there shows acrobatic exercises such as splits or shimmies doing splits. These split movements are unusual in traditional candlestick dance, as they are considered "indecent" in Egypt.

Iskanderani

The Iskanderani or Iskanderiatanz, is also called Alexandriatanz or, after the wrapping of the Alexandrine women, Melaya Laff. It comes from Alexandria / Egypt and was developed by the urbanized rural population, similar to the Baladi.

Instrumental pieces, especially baladi music, also with singing (male and female), which are mainly about love, flirting or the longing for the beloved, are used for the Iskandrani dance. The Iskanderani dance is described as the most emancipated of the “baladi-like” dances, as the woman plays a leading, dominant and self-confident role here - when the dance is shown with a male dance partner.

The Iskanderani dancer wears a dress with striking flounces and ruffles. These dresses were originally long, according to modern fashion trends, the skirt lengths were shortened. It is important to have a headscarf with pompons or flowers, which are tied high up, as a reminder of their rural roots. It is also possible to wear a face veil with or without a nose bridge. Slippers with heels are also compulsory. The veil of the women of northern Egypt, the melaya , a large black shawl, is part of everyday clothing and is also used in dance. For jewelry see Baladi.

literature

Wendy Buonaventura: Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World , Interlink Publishing Group, 1998, ISBN 1-5665-6300-3

Karin Van Nieuwkerk: A Trade Like Any Other: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt , University of Texas Press, 1995, ISBN 0-29278-723-5

Wendy Buonaventura: Belly dance , Kunstmann Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-8889-7106-3

Dietlinde Bedauia Karkutli: The Belly Dance Book , Rowohlt 2002, ISBN 3-4996-1328-X

Eluan Ghazal: The sacred dance. Oriental dance and sacred eroticism , Simon & Leutner, 2005, ISBN 3-92238-995-3

Eluan Ghazal: snake cult and temple love. Sacred eroticism in archaic societies , Simon + Leutner, 1995, ISBN 3-92238-963-5

Web links

Shamedan - Informative article about Raqs e Shamedan - The dance with the candlestick