How Can I Adapt My Oriental Tecnhique to Folklore

Most Oriental Dancers study and dance Egyptian Folklore and they need to adapt their technique so to respect the different way of dancing. Even though each folk dance has its own typical movements and way of dancing, some earthy folk dances, such as Saidi, Shaabi, Baladi and Ghawazee, share some important characteristics.

Following the article “How Studying Egyptian Folklore Can Improve Your Dancing”, here goes 6 ways Raks Sharki and Egyptian Folklore differ in terms of TECNHIQUE:

My Shaabi performance in the competition of ‘Ahlan Wa Sahlan 2019’ festival, in Egipto.

1. NO BODY ISOLATION - In the folklore dances, the dancer is relaxed and enjoying herself not making great effort in isolating her body.

In oriental styles, belly dancers work on moving one part of the body without moving the other, resorting to body strength to keep one part of the body still while the other part performs the movement. When dancing Egyptian folk, however, dancers must leave aside this ability and let their body flow in a relaxed and earthy way. Therefore, there is no need to focus on keeping one part of the body still, instead, the effort is to keep the upper body relaxed and loose.

2. AMPLE MOVEMENTS – Folk dances are earthy, relaxed, and joyful, requiring a loose and ample hip.

Big hip drops and circles are a must-have in a folk performance. Dancers make use of their legs to amplify each movement, making every hip drop the biggest they can with the help of their knees. Similarly, while doing big circles with their hips, Oriental Dancers transfer their weight to the edge of their feet, moving away from their axis the maximum they can, performing the biggest circle they are able to make. As there is no need for isolation, the rest of the body allows the movement so it can be the largest possible, always in a relaxed and joyful way.

3. NO PIROUETTES – Fast axial turns from the Ballet do not match the folk energy, rather we use our hip and legs to turn.

Instead of beautiful and straight pirouettes, belly dancers turn on both feet and with the strength of their hips and legs, without isolating their upper body or fixing their hip. Contrarily to oriental, when we want to turn in these styles, we keep our weight in the back of our body in our heels (and not in the front), making little impulse with our upper body. Turns propelled by hip circles are, therefore, quite common in the folk dance.

4. BOUNCING – We can spot a folk performance mostly by how the dancer moves on stage and performs each movement: always bouncing.

Who can stop themselves from bouncing while listening to folk music? The moment we start listening to the music our knees start bending and stretching in a dynamic way. We start feeling the music, relaxing, and enjoying ourselves. We use not only our knees, but also our heels which go up and down while we move, to create that bouncing feeling so common in the folkloric dance. When working with my students on this way of moving, I call it “swag” and tell them to “swag all the way”.

5. RELAXED ARMS – We keep our arms more relaxed, in a lower and “W” position.

The almost completely straight arms we use in Oriental Dance, inspired by the Ballet, do not fit the relaxed and earthy energy of the Egyptian folkloric dances. Instead, we keep them low, curved, and relaxed, with only an effort to keep our hands and fingers in a beautiful position (therefore the “W” shape), which sometimes come to our head (especially forehead) in a delicate and effortless manner. Our back that needs to be always activated in Raks Sharki style for a good posture and arms, here is relaxed and making little effort.

6. HEELS ON THE FLOOR – Moving on stage is mostly performed with our heels on the floor, so to convey the traditional, earthy and relax way of dancing.

While in Bellydance we do a lot of moving on stage in relevé, in folklore, most movements are performed with our heels on the floor, or if we need to move fast, we just lift our heels a little bit to aid us on the movement, with no need to have a straight body in relevé. This feet’s position helps dancers perform the loose and ample hip movements and the turns propelled by hip circles mentioned before.

There are specific qualities of movement and different combinations depending on the Egyptian Folk Dance we are performing, but these are, in my opinion, 6 ways most of them differ and that I teach my students. Hopefully, this information can also be useful for you! If you like it, comment, and share it.