::BELLYDANCE::. HAGALLA

Hagalla (Mahmoud Reda)

"I am not doing folklore. It is inspired by folklore." - Mahmoud Reda, July 31, 2006.
The Western Desert
The dance called the hagalla comes from the western desert region of Egypt. (See the shaded area on the map.) Hagalla is generally believed to be a Libyan dance tradition which was brought to Egypt by Libyan migrants.
In the course of researching Egyptian folk culture, Mahmoud Reda would approach the local governors with his request. They in turn would try to arrange opportunities for him to see local music and dance. For his research into the western desert folk culture, Reda decided to travel to Mersa Matrouh, which is very near the Libyan border.
Mersa Matrouh is along the Mediterranean coast, about halfway between Alexandria and the Libyan border. Today, a road which takes about 4 hours to travel one way connects Mersa Matrouh with Siwa. However, back when Reda was conducting his research, there was no such road. Traveling from Mersa Matrouh to Siwa took about 10 hours, allowing time to get lost along the way and double back.
Arranging to See It
When Reda arrived in Mersa Matrouh, he contacted the local officials to request their cooperation in helping him arrange to see local folk dance. Unfortunately, the General Secretary was sick, so Reda worked with his assistant. He was told that a wedding was scheduled for the coming Thursday, but it was early in the week and Reda's schedule did not allow him to stay that long. The official then said he would let that couple marry yet that same night. Of course, there was the difficulty of notifying all of the guests of the change in plans. The official handled this by sending his people out in the wee hours of the morning to fire guns in the street to wake people up. When they stuck their heads out the windows to investigate what the noise was about, they were told of the change in plans for scheduling the wedding.
Observing the Dance
In the environment observed by Reda, the hagalla dance was performed by a professional dancer at a wedding. The term "el hagalla" referred to the dancer herself. For this wedding, the dancer prepared herself inside the house, where the women were, while Reda waited with the men outdoors. Because he was a man, there was no opportunity for Reda to see what occurred inside the house while the dancer was still inside with the other women.
The gathered men were eager and began to clap in a simple, steady rhythm of one clap per count. The dancer waited, holding back, waiting for the claps to build in volume and intensity. Eventually she came outdoors to perform for them. The men were standing in little clumps - 3-4 in one place, 4-5 in another. The dancer headed for the group that was clapping the most loudly and danced for them. Another group became jealous and started clapping more loudly, to attract her over to dance for them. One man might go down on one knee to clap to show his excitement, another might lie on his side while continuing to clap. The men didn't actually dance, just clapped and acted enthusiastic to get the dancer's attention. This activity continued for about an hour, with the dancer moving from group to group to dance for them.
The movement by the dancer is very simple. Reda demonstrated it in the interview, and it is what many Americans call the ¾ shimmy, the version where the hip on the weighted leg goes down, up, down. He observed that the dancer lifted her feet, which made sense in the sandy desert where sliding motions with the feet would be impractical. During his visit to Mersa Matrouh, he also observed a fat woman walking normally and noticed that her hips too went up and down in this shimmy motion, without her consciously trying to dance.
Different people have reported different stories about the role of the female dancer. In the wedding celebration that Reda observed, the dancer was definitely not the bride, nor was she a young woman seeking to attract suitors. In Egypt, it was customary for marriages to be arranged. The dancer Reda witnessed was a professional entertainer, hired to provide entertainment for the occasion.
Bringing It to Stage
Theater audiences wouldn't have much patience for listening to an hour straight of simple clapping, nor would their attention be held for long by watching a dancer strut back and forth in front of a row of clapping men doing the same move continuously. Therefore, Reda made some modifications to the hagalla when using it in choreography.
This screen shot shows a scene from a Reda Troupe performance of the hagalla which appeared in the 1965 Egyptian movie Gharam fi al-Karnak (Love in Karnak). The woman dancing is Farida Fahmy.
One adaptation for stage involved adding music, rather than just the continuous clapping.
Another adaptation was addition of movement which was not traditional. Because the men in the village approached the dancer and tried to get her attention, it was plausible to place the men in the choreography in a circle around the dancer and choreograph moves for them to use in vying for her attention.
The original choreography Reda created that was based on this dance utilized 15 men and one woman. The men were arranged in three groups of five men each. Their efforts to draw the woman's attention were exaggerated for stage purposes. A later Reda choreography depicted the hagalla with the men doing flashy steps based on Russian folk dance moves in a circle around the women.
For the dancer, it was necessary to add all possible variations to the basic shimmy move - traveling forward, backward, sideways, in floor patterns, etc. It was necessary to use the imagination, but still to stay in character. Pirouettes, for example, wouldn't have been logical.
Costuming
The costumes Reda Troupe used for hagalla were influenced by the clothing of Libyan women. Just as the village dancer had a sort of peplum effect to her skirt around her hips, so did the woman in the troupe choreography. The women wore flat boots of soft leather.

Haggala (Shokry Mohamed)

Las Danzas Folklóricas en Egipto son todas marcadamente diferentes entre sí. Cada región tiene sus danzas, incluso hay regiones que tienen un tipo de canto propio, un dialecto y costumbres distintas de las demás regiones.Haggala es la danza típica de los Oasis del Desierto Occidental de Egipto y es común con la vecina Libia. La palabra Haggala viene de hagl, que significa salto. Hay otra palabra que probablemente se relaciona también con esta danza, hegel, que es una pulsera de plata que rodea la parte inferior del tobillo y que llevan las jóvenes egipcias del Alto Egipto.Todos sabemos de la costumbre en el mundo árabe de que el hombre elija a la mujer cuando quiere casarse, pero en los oasis de Siwa sucede exactamente al contrario, por extraño que parezca. El día de la boda se reúnen todos los jóvenes y hombres del pueblo a la intemperie, formando una larga fila. Todo comienza con el fuerte batir de palmas de los hombres, acompañado por los ritmos de los panderos. La novia sabe muy bien quién es su elegido, pero ningún joven sabe exactamente quién es el afortunado. La joven baila durante bastante tiempo con su cara tapada por un shall transparente desde donde puede ver a los hombres sin dejar que ellos la vean. Mientras el ritmo está en su plena fuerza, ella se va parando frente a uno de los jóvenes y le baila durante unos minutos, luego le deja y baila frente a otro, repitiéndolo con cada uno de ellos hasta llegar al final de la fila. Cuando esto sucede, se coloca frente al elegido y enlaza sus manos de una forma cruzada, bailando sólo para él, su futuro marido. Si éste tiene alguna joya o algún abalorio lo ofrece a su futura mujer. En este momento los demás hombres tocan las palmas de una forma continuada y los familiares de ambos se acercan, se saludan y se abrazan dándose la enhorabuena. La danza y los gritos continúan mientras los recién casados cruzan la fiesta para dirigirse juntos a su nuevo hogar

::. BELLYDANCE::. DANZA DEL BASTÓN - SAIDI DANCE

EL BASTÓN ( SHOKRY MOHAMED)

La Danza del Bastón tiene su origen en una lucha, según indican los grabados en las tumbas de los faraones. Esta lucha se encuentra presente en diferentes culturas, no sólo en la Oriental.A lo largo de la historia, el hombre ha buscado una forma de defensa ante los animales salvajes, encontrando, mucho antes de la aparición de la civilización egipcia, en el Bastón un arma de defensa.El Bastón continuó en el tiempo junto al hombre, formando parte de su vida. Hoy en día, los hombres del Sur de Egipto, van siempre acompañados de él, incluso se reconoce a las personas por su Bastón. Por ejemplo, si se entra en una casa, se puede saber quien está en ella por los bastones que se encuentran en la entrada, ya que se dejan allí al entrar como muestra de respeto.En el tiempo libre, en los días festivos y en las bodas, se forma un círculo muy grande, donde dos hombres comienzan la lucha (el Tahtib) dentro del mismo, girando uno hacia un lado y el otro en sentido contrario hasta que se juntan en el medio del círculo. La lucha del Bastón tiene su técnica y hay que tener un reflejo muy cabido para mover y pegar los bastones, incluso es necesario saber defenderse durante la lucha, de los golpes que pueden llegar de un lado u otro. El que vence continúa dentro del círculo hasta que se presenta un nuevo individuo para continuar la lucha y así hasta que participan todos los jóvenes presentes.La lucha continúa en el tiempo, a pesar de los cambios que ha sufrido la vida de la gente del Sur. Aunque ha tenido transformaciones, hoy la Danza del Bastón forma parte de los festejos, como por ejemplo, bailan manteniendo los bastones en alto, por delante del desfile de boda.Esta Danza es típicamente masculina pero hoy en día, buscando un punto más de igualdad entre ambos sexos, también suelen bailarla las mujeres. Cuando una mujer desarma a un hombre que lleva el Bastón durante una boda, significa que está compitiendo con el hombre y que si él es capaz de bailar con el Bastón, ella también.Esta Danza viene del Alto Egipto y la baila todo el mundo. Los niños pequeños ven bailar a los mayores y bailan igual que ellos, pero la lucha es sólo para los adultos.Los instrumentos folklóricos utilizados son el Seps, que es como una especie de Dulzaina gallega e incluso da el mismo sonido, y todos los instrumentos de percusión. Algunas veces lo acompaña el Rabel, como instrumento de cuerda.Los grupos de Ballet Nacional de Danza, lo tienen como una Danza fija en su repertorio. Las bailarinas de Danza Oriental lo incorporan dentro de su espectáculo. Hoy en día se practica este tipo de danza cada vez más y en el Alto Egipto siguen aprendiendo los pequeños esta Danza que pasa de generación en generación.

Saidi DanceBy Ashraf Hassan

The Saidi dance is from Upper Egypt, between Gizeh and Edfu.The Saidi people are upper Egyptian farmers. Usually a Saidi dance is lively, energetic and earthy. The dancer uses one or two sticks, originally made of bamboo.There are two types of Saidi stick dance: Raks Assaya and Tahtib. The word Tahtib means dancing with sticks and it is originally a kind of conflict with sticks between men to show their power. Tahtib is the oldest form of Egyptian martial arts to have survived. Tahtib dancing is a product of Egyptian martial arts from the pharaonic times. The Pharaohs painted this kind of dance on the walls of their temples and their soldiers learned it.Tahtib was considered, at that time, to be weapon training. The ancient Egyptians performed stick fencing or stick fighting as a tribute to the pharaoh. This type of fencing was probably based on an actual fighting system used in combat with a shield and a sword - as with the wooden bukko in Kendo which then evolved into a system with its own rules and methods.The fighting stick appears to have been used as a battlefield weapon. There were advantages of teaching stick fighting, along with other combat sports such as a wrestling, the main advantage being that the Egyptian army could be kept trained and ready for war.In many respects, it resembles the sport of single stick. Like other martial arts of the world which are tied culturally to dance and music traditions, such as Brazilian Capoiera and Indonesian Silat. Tahtib is a special art form in that it combines both real combat aspects, and aesthetic aspects, and the concept of The Game or Play.There are five distinct areas of study in Tahtib, and a recognized expert in one may not necessarily know much about another. The modern style of highly choreographed Tahtib dance seen in stage performances in the Middle East is far removed from the wild nature of play seen at festivals and other social gatherings, where real blows get mixed in with the game of fakes and counters.Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics indicate that Tahtib along with Sebekkah were the primary fighting styles taught to the Egyptian military. Royal families were trained in an advanced style of these arts at a very young age to deter assasination attempts. Much of what was known of Sebekkah and Tahtib have been lost, but there are still a few authentic practitioners believed to inhabit Egypt.There is NO historical evidence to prove how Tahtib was created. However, there is historical evidence referencing the Pharaoh Menes (c305-285BCE), who unified Egypt and his desire to have the world's greatest army.Supposedly, he invited the greatest warriors throughout all of Africa, India, and several other locations in the Middle-East to train his armies. This was probably the catalyst for the first Olympic Games. Elements of Tahtib can found in the more well known martial arts of the world; namely Eskrima (Filipino Stick Fighting), White Eyebrow Kung Fu (Bak Mei), Pencak Silat, Krav Maga, Muay Thai, Hwa Rang Do, Ninjitsu, and various Capoiera styles.Tahtib has changed over years to be just a kind of dance with Stick. Stick dance belongs to folk dances. The stick is regarded as a symbol of masculinity, i.e. a phallus. Although the dance form originally started as male-only, there are women who perform dressed as men and dance with other women.Another female version of stick dancing has been developed with a flirtatious and generally less aggressive style, and incorporated into cabaret or "belly dance." The stick used for this type of dancing is generally thinner, more lightweight and hooked at one end like a cane, and generally embellished with metallic-coloured foil or sequins.Stick fighting has been used to settle disputes between members of rival families, mostly in the Egyptian countryside. The men's stick dances are very dramatic and manly dances - not to be confused with the coquetry of the women's dance. Tahtib is a favorite dance at any festive occasion, such as weddings, welcoming parties, and harvest festivals. It is also practiced by the men as a pastime and used as a means of self-defense.The stick itself is about four feet in length and is called an Asa, Asaya or Assaya, or Nabboot. It is often flailed in large figure-8 patterns across the body with such speed and violence that the displacement of air is loudly discernible.There is another form practiced from horseback known as "Horse Stepping" which uses a stick that is nearly 12 feet long. Raks Assaya is performed by men and/or women and shows off a more acrobatic version of handling the stick. The women's version of the stick dance is, of course, much more feminine and graceful, and can only lightly imitate the Tahtib.One story claims these women's dances are a parody of the men's stick dances. They make the movements cute and flirty and omit the fighting. The women flaunt effortless control of their much smaller stick or crooked cane. They use it unabashedly as a frame for the body movements. Some of the women's movements echo the 'tahtib' and sometimes the men imitate the woman's style.Stick dance can be danced in a duet or in a group from men and women. The traditional men's costume consists of long pants, two galabeyas with wide sleeves and a round neckline, and a long scarf wound around the head. The women wear a Beledi dress with a belt or scarf around the hips and a veil on the head.The music used in Tahtib features the tahvol (bass drum) and a shrill pipe. The tahvol is a double-sided drum worn with a shoulder strap so it hangs sideways in front of the drummer and is played with two sticks. The right hand uses a heavier stick with a hooked head to beat out the "dooms" which drive the heartbeat of the rhythm, while the left hand uses a light twig as a switch to produce rapid-fire staccato "kahs". (Doom = the deep sound from striking the center of the drum with the right hand or with a knobbed stick; Kah = the higher sound from striking the edge of the drum with the left hand or with a light switch.