Hair Dances

[Yame]

This thread is a long overdue one I wanted to post. It's a topic that's very interesting to me, and I thought perhaps I should share over here as well. I am not sure if this is the right place to post... I hope it is!

As many of you know, I am a belly dancer, so naturally, I am drawn to Middle Eastern dance and dance in general. There are many dances out there in the world, especially all over the Middle East, that involve tossing the hair, showing it off, or otherwise using it to dance or compliment the dance.

I would like to share with you a few of my favorites, with examples and explanations:

Khaleegy
Khaleegy means "from the Gulf" and in this context it is a dance from the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the Emirates, etc). There are men's dances and women's dances, the women will usually dance in each other's companies at home or at segregated parties, weddings, etc. Of course each country and even each region has its own different version, but unfortunately for those of us who are interested in it, it's very hard to find videos of actual Gulf women dancing because these places are generally very conservative and it's taboo for women to be seen dancing in public, to be recorded dancing, or sometimes even to be seen at all outside of their homes.

In any case, it's a very beautiful dance. We generally get a chance to see it performed by people who went and studied "over there" or who learned from someone who did, so the version we get is surely diluted in some way but we can get a sense for what it looks like. The footwork is bouncy and the attitude is playful. The women show off their beautiful hair by tossing it from side to side, they also show off their expensive jewelry and beautiful intricate thobes with movements that draw attention to them.

Here is an example of Khaleegy performed by Aziza Mor, a belly dancer from Brazil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhyQKMgqdaQ

Here is one of my Khaleegy performances, although I don't believe it's the best example of Khaleegy and it's been cut to pieces due to bad camera work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLldTRuZXHQ

This one I believe is closest to what it actually looks like, albeit adapted for the stage, but it's more mellow than the videos you see above
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_LsMTUVAg

Here is an example of a UK dancer performing Kuwaiti style Khaleegy. It's different from other Khaleegy styles I am used to, it looks to me like almost a cross between Khaleegy dances and Iraqi Qawliya (explained below), which would make sense geographically.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_P4yE6eiX8

Qawliya
Qawliya means "gypsy" and it is the dance of the Romani (gypsy, I use Romani as "gypsy" can be used as a slur in some places) people in Iraq. I don't know nearly as much about this dance as I would like, but from what I have seen of it it's a LOT of fun, my favorite one of all these dances. You will notice how it's somewhat similar to Khaleegy but it's got a lot more booty and is more high-energy. For this one, I have clips of actual Iraqi women doing them but they are music videos so the dance parts are scattered:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeWO_t7apK0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDHlp...40D032&index=2

And here is a video of Myriam Fares dancing Qawliya. Myriam Fares is a Lebanese singer, but she dabbles in other Arabic styles as well, and here she is singing an Iraqi-style song and dancing accordingly. The reason I am including this video is because of her gorgeous curls... so you can see them in movement, it's a nice variation from the long, straight, black locks seen in almost all of the videos above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf6Wy...eature=related


Chabi Maroc
This is a Moroccan dance which, admittedly once again, I don't know as much about as I'd like. But I've seen many videos of it... it looks really fun and even funny, the dancer will do a lot of interesting, random, and ridiculous things to entertain the audience, including sometimes hair tossing and spinning and whatnot, but sometimes even rolling around on the floor or doing somersaults... I can't say I understand it, but it's certainly cool to watch!

In this clip there is a belly dancer performing, and she calls another dancer up on the stage to join her for her Moroccan performance, as the other dancer is trained in that style and was dancing in the audience, sort of playfully challenging the performing dancer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kapN6...eature=related

Zaar
This is a ritual done in some places of North Africa. It is often called a "trance dance," although many people don't consider it a dance. Its purpose isn't to be performed nor to show off or have fun socially, but to heal a person who is tormented or sick. I include it here because there is a lot of hair movement. This is another one that is very hard to find actual footage of, because it isn't exactly done in public. The person being "healed" will be surrounded by friends and/or family and neighbors but this doesn't happen out in public for random strangers to see. In addition, because of the religious connotation, many people are not interested in making a performance out of it because they do not wish to offend others. However, I have done so, as I do believe in its meditative power and power to release negative energy, and although I am neither a religious nor spiritual person I think the people who practice this ritual are definitely on to something. So I'll just post my own video. Once again this isn't the best example, especially because it's been adapted for performance, but I think it might give you the gist of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMW73DfVWkw


Headbanging
Hahaha I know a lot of metalheads cringe at the thought of their headbanging being called a "dance," but in my opinion whenever you are moving to the rhythm of music, you are dancing, therefore by my definition headbanging is dancing.
I chose Dragonforce for my video example because of Herman Li's epic thigh-length hair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jgrCKhxE1s


I'll leave it at that, for now at least. I know I have posted wayyy too much already and most people won't go through even 2 videos on this thread, but who knows, hopefully it will peak someone's interest and if it does, perhaps I will post more in the future

As always, feel free to add your own or ask any questions!

[AngelAblaze]

I love these!! and your hair is amazing!!

[archel]

I love bellydancing and I'll never be a performer (arthritis/fibro prevent me from getting really good), it's so much FUN. I can't wait to have enough hair to swoosh around as I dance!

[Yame]

I love bellydancing and I'll never be a performer (arthritis/fibro prevent me from getting really good), it's so much FUN. I can't wait to have enough hair to swoosh around as I dance!

APL is long enough to swoosh around. I sometimes wish I had shorter hair, because then it would take much less effort to make it move!

[Yame]

I love these!! and your hair is amazing!!

Thank you! I was afraid this post would go by with no answers. I know it's a long one so thanks for watching!

[MeganE]

Oh my gosh there's enough information here to teach a whole workshop about hair dances. Thank you SO MUCH for compiling this information, it's AMAZING!!! I'm definitely subscribing to this thread, and will be studying all of these dances. Thank you!!!!

[battles]

Interesting videos! Thanks for posting them.

[archel]

Well that's true, but it was way more fun when I was at waist

[Lostsoule77]

Thank you for posting this! It was really interesting. It's funny that you included the headbanging because while I was watching some of the other videos I was thinking some of it was similar to headbanging.

[Cainwen]

I realize its not really head banging, but your Dreamforce video reminded me of this video by Amon Armath http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGINL...feature=relmfu, particularly about 15 seconds in.

I find their syncronized hair-spinning to be both awesome, and terrifying. Imagine trying to detangle afterwards.

Great thread, Yame!