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Egyptian Dance          Barbara Shepard

Fed by the waters of the Nile, this colourful dance from the land of the pharaohs combines power and lyricism. The western audiences think of Egyptian dance as a form of belly dance and although many of the general movements are common to all Arabic dance, the form of dance I practice has a different emphasis. It explores the authentic roots of the dance that have been introduced to this country by Suraya Hilal and the people she taught via the Raqs Sharqi society and Hilal Dance.

It is a approach to movement and dance that integrates the whole of the body in a very natural way.

The feel of the dance is sensuous and poised, with a strong earth quality. It has three main expressions. The origins of the dance are in the various folk traditions of Egypt. These are collectively known as ‘Shaabi’. The exuberant, fiery ‘Shaabi’ is bold and open and danced in groups. Later as people moved to the towns the dance became urbanised to create the baladi form. Although it still retained the folk roots (baladi means of the land), it developed a more contained and emotionally expressive form of the dance. The influence of the courts of the Ottoman Empire during the occupation of Egypt and later the western film industry stimulated the creation of the classical forms (courtly classical and Modern Classical respectively). These were more performance based and used refined hip movements with more expansive upper body. Recent work by Hilal dance has modernised these forms. In particular via Baladi it has generate a more opened form which is in keeping with modern musical developments.

Egyptian dance gives expression to a musical tradition that interweaves complementary elements. The soft feminine flow (called the ‘Awaadi’) has the fluid movements of the figure 8’s, the camel’s and kenya’s. In contrast the percussive masculine expression called the ‘Tet’, has staccato hip movements like the hip drops and side to sides. Some passages in the music give rise to the soulful ‘Tacasim’ an introspective lament that mourns the loss of the life of the country.

The classes are designed for all shapes and sizes. We begin with exercises to stretch and warm up the muscles, mainly done on the floor. These are tailored to individual needs so it is possible to do them whilst sitting instead. The first part of a lesson concentrates on different dance walks and arm movements. These are the pendulum and the scissor walks that the dance it built onto. Each week I try to introduce a different movement. We usually wear costume to get us into the mood and encourage the right way of moving. The costumes are flowing and colourful. I can give advice if you want to make your own but we also have colourful scarves that you can use.

The beauty of the dance is in the alignment of the body. It is also a therapeutic form of exercise. It frees up the whole of the back, shoulders and hips. If possible we dance barefoot, so it encourages your feet to get suppler as well. So come, enjoy and get healthy.

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