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RedStripe
April 30th, 2009, 03:01 PM
The video links in the thread on Arab haircare, with the women tossing their hair while dancing, made me think of khaleegy dance, which I thought LHCers might be interested to see.

Khaleejy (also spelled khaliji, khaleegy, etc.) is a dance style that comes from the gulf region (the name is the Arabic word for "gulf," so I'm told). One of its distinctive features is tossing of the hair -- not its only defining characteristic, but it's what most people think of (that and the really cool sparkly dresses).

Here's a (clearly non-Arab) troupe performing a stagey khaleejy dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFD_aBhZNJE&feature=related

and a UAE dance program that includes an interesting piece (the girls in orange, who come in at about 5:05)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgRfto6Z_0A&feature=PlayList&p=C9682BCDE4BBF78A&index=7

and a song shot in the desert with a group of woman doing not much dancing, but lots of flinging of hair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCawRqztZX4&feature=related

Enjoy!

spidermom
April 30th, 2009, 03:04 PM
Brief peek has me intrigued; I'll have to come back later when I have time to watch. I love dance like this.

LILBERT
April 30th, 2009, 03:26 PM
Its very interesting! not sure if i like it or not, when part of a dance its quite nice! the last link though was a bit strange to see women just flicking their hair from one side to the other, lol! can even imagine combing my hair out after all that flicking though! :bigeyes:

myotislucifugus
April 30th, 2009, 04:17 PM
First link reminds me of a scene in (cecil. B Demille) The Ten Commandments, where the sisters of sephora (zipporah) dance to show who they are to a prospective husband. "One shawl, one wife, your choice for life..."

SHELIAANN1969
April 30th, 2009, 05:32 PM
I like it, so far I have only watched the first one, but I have seen seen other dances similar to this except the girls whip wildly, that would make me too dizzy, I can't ride a roller coaster or rides that go in circles and get dizzy if I jerk my head around too fast, but I like the slower dance movements.

Thanks for the links! :flower:


ETA: That music in the last one makes me naturally want to bounce left and right and shimmy and boogie, I can see why it's good hair flinging music! :D

Queenie
April 30th, 2009, 05:49 PM
I did several khaleegy style dances. It definitely is tough on the hair! But it's fun, I love it!

Jessica Trapp
April 30th, 2009, 08:06 PM
This is a very fun dance! I enjoy the way hair feels when it is flicked around.

practikalmagik
May 1st, 2009, 03:02 AM
That looks like tremendous fun but I dread to think of the tangles after. Still it's much classier then my version of hair-dancing (headbanging lol \m/ )

Kristine
May 1st, 2009, 03:17 AM
Kind of like headbanging :D

Jessica Trapp
May 1st, 2009, 03:31 AM
Kind of like headbanging :D


hairbanging?

:D

eresh
May 1st, 2009, 09:38 AM
We did this in our bellydance class, to close the year :-)
As a sort of ritual among us ladies.
But on our knees and swaying the hair left and right, up and down, hands reaching out to the lady left of you, then to the lady right of you in receiving and in giving gestures.
Very rhythmic and faster faster, became really sort of a trance

Aisha25
May 1st, 2009, 09:40 AM
I love this dances, heres one of my favorites http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faPosg-bcYw

Nat242
May 1st, 2009, 09:50 AM
We did this in our bellydance class, to close the year :-)
As a sort of ritual among us ladies.
But on our knees and swaying the hair left and right, up and down, hands reaching out to the lady left of you, then to the lady right of you in receiving and in giving gestures.
Very rhythmic and faster faster, became really sort of a trance

That sounds more like a Zar than Kahleegy, but I could be wrong! It's enjoyable, either way. :D

RedStripe
May 1st, 2009, 01:41 PM
I love this dances, heres one of my favorites http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faPosg-bcYw

Wow, what a party! :cheese:

Aisha25
May 1st, 2009, 01:59 PM
Wow, what a party! :cheese:
Hehe, makes you want too doesnt it;)

eresh
May 1st, 2009, 02:10 PM
The teacher described it as a hairdance and hairritual, and called it Khaleej.
We had to undo our hair for it and really make figes with our hair, figure 8 and flowing movements and also tossing side to side.
I remember the girls next to me needing more space as my hair would slam them in the face ;-)

RedStripe
May 1st, 2009, 02:23 PM
That sounds more like a Zar than Kahleegy, but I could be wrong! It's enjoyable, either way. :D

It does sound Zar-ish. But quite lovely, though. You also see dancers work hair tosses -- either khaleejy-like or more of a zar style -- into cabaret shows. Whatever, it's great to have hair to toss around.

RedStripe
May 1st, 2009, 02:30 PM
The teacher described it as a hairdance and hairritual, and called it Khaleej.
We had to undo our hair for it and really make figes with our hair, figure 8 and flowing movements and also tossing side to side.
I remember the girls next to me needing more space as my hair would slam them in the face ;-)

Oops, sorry, I didn't see this comment before I sent my reply -- I got interrupted while I was writing it. The figure-8 movements are definitely a khaleegy hallmark.

If you're not familiar with it, though, I recommend you look into zar, which is quite fascinating. It's not really a dance but a ritual meant to rid oneself of evil spirits, although people do perform theatrical zar pieces. It also involves some very dramatic hair tossing.

enfys
May 4th, 2009, 07:09 AM
I wish I knew somewhere near me where I could learn dances like this; and perform them; it looks so much fun.

It's a shame some of the performers seemed to have such (comparitively) short hair. The ones with LHC long hair looked even more amazing!