Workbook: Week One
Read "A little background on Oriental Dance (aka belly dance)" including "The Origins of our Modern Style Costuming" and "A Brief History of Oriental Dance" by Salome Memorize your Arabic words of the week: Ahlan, Raqs Sharqi, Beledi, Tabla, Masmoudi Saghir Ahlan – Hello Raqs Sharqi – Raqs means dance, Sharqi means Eastern or Oriental, …
Workbook: Week Two
Read "Different Styles of Oriental Dance" and watch some of the associated YouTube clips. Choose at least one dancer you liked and tell me her or his name next week and the style of dance he or she performed. Study Learn a little more about some of the more famous belly dancers and how they …
Workbook: Week Three
Because all styles of belly dance are very connected to the music, now is a good time to learn a little about Middle Eastern music. Take some time to familiarize yourself with some common instruments used in Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Greek and other Middle Eastern music. The names of the instruments are your vocabulary for …
Workbook: Week Four
Music Education continued – In the Middle East you will hear music used for entertainment as well as for religious worship.When choosing music to dance to it is very important to understand the origin and content of your music, so you can avoid potentially offending your audience or just looking foolish. Please read this general …
Workbook: Week Five
Learn a little more about some of the more famous musicians and how they contributed to the growth of Middle Eastern Dance. Choose a name from my music article and learn more about them. I recommend visiting Turath.org, Al Mashriq, The Turkish Music Portal, Kashmir’s Who’s Who in the MED World and Serpentine’s article on …
Workbook: Week Six
Read "Learning the Language of Belly Dance" by yours truly. Think about where you are personally in your learning. Find a favorite peice of poetry or prose, not necessarily dance related, and think about it as a dance. Memorize your Arabic words of the week: zaghareet – a high pitched ulation used as both a …
Workbook: Extra Credit
Meet a few of the local performers in our area (try to watch at least part of one clip of each performer), identify what style or styles they are dancing in: Piper, Baltimore, MD: Fatamorgana & an Vintage Oriental clip sword Lotus Niraja, Baltimore, MD & Pennsylvania: Oriental entrance & a drum solo. Latifa, Severna …
Tribe
