I really really HATE that I don't speak Arabic. I am dancing to a song for an upcoming wedding and it took me a while messing around on the Internet to check and make sure the lyrics weren't jinxing the brides by saying " I hate your guts and I am glad its over". Luckily the song is Maghroumah by Najwa Karam, and just reading the lyrics reminds me of the way they fell in love....the song title is actually " In Love". Whew.
but case in point, we are a little spoiled as Americans. Most of the time we do the music exporting, not the importing. In 97' I lived in Germany and I remember when my hostess, a German woman who then spoke English, but didn't in her youth put on my headphones, and listened to my CCR CD.
She said" Oh, it's funny now that I can understand what the lyrics mean".
I guess she just made the sounds of " Proud Mary", with not knowing a stitch of English as I do with my Arabic music. I feel like a total idiot as I imitate the sounds of the words, probably butchering them to pieces. Just like when I was 12 and thought "Panama" by Van Halen was "Animal". I sang "Animal "to the top of my lungs until the class bully, a big girl who liked to hurt people, called me out on it. Never again, my friend. I make sure that when I am singing Ma L'ndi Shak, no one but the dirty dishes can hear me.
Needless to say I gotta learn me a leetle Arabic, at least enough to get by. Imagine my joy at discovering Habibi, You are my...What? Essential Arabic for Bellydancers by Leyla Lanty.
Hence the very first Happy Drunk Review.
This DVD is like going to a workshop with Leyla Lanty, literally.( and she is TOTALLY adorable, and looks like she'd be a blast to hang out with). This was obviously filmed at one of her workshops, so don't look for any dazzling sets or flashiness for those of us that have the attention span of a chipmunk.It is just her sitting next to a poster board, reading from a piece of paper. But this is well worth the money, if bellydancing for you is more than just the weekly class, or shape-up-for-your-wedding kind of thing. If you are serious about cabaret bellydance, then this DVD is invaluable.
She uses clips of traditional songs such as Habibi Ya Eini, to illustrate the words and GESTURES that go along with it. I loved the gestures part, it really brought to me that dimension that I felt was missing from my dance.
This is not an Arabic lesson, this is not something to teach you anything more than a bit of "dancers Arabic" and the body language and culture that go along with it. If that sounds like something that you'd enjoy, then fork out the $20 and invest. It is worth it.
Ma'a Salama, everyone!
3 comments:
I do the same thing! I just babble along to whatever part of the Arabic (or in burlesque cases, Bulgarian) I can more or less pick up. I'll definitely be checking this one out. Thanks for the link! :)
Believe me, speaking Arab is overrated. I learned it at university for 8 years. (^v^)
As for the gestures, I was lucky to have not one, but two incredible teachers who could explain the gestures and what they meant in a way that made it really easy to understand and follow. And when you saw them dancing, you understood the song from their dancing alone, without understanding the lyrics.
(I have often wondered what it must be like to listen to music you perfectly understand most of the time. Many German youths listen to "English" music because "it is cool", without understanding what they sing along. For me, good lyrics are the most important thing about good music.)
I try to "feel"the song, and most of the time i can tell at the very least whether or not it is happy or sad....but I hate being in the dark about the meaning. :(
BF- I had NO idea that a lot of burlesque was in Bulgarian....
Diandra- 8 yrs of Arabic....you could make your own DVD! :)
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