Natacha Atlas is a Gateway Drug.

I remember the first time I heard "metal". I liked it but it was a bit off putting, and felt a bit wrong ( but oh so right) There was an angry aggressive somewhat dark part of myself that really connected with it, and still does. Shortly after my introduction to metal I started listening to Metallica, Overkill, Iron Maiden (this was the late 80's/early 90's). I sort of became a headbanger. I have loved metal and most of its hybrids ever since, but it took some getting used to.

Ditto with the first time I heard Middle Eastern music. It was at a bellydance show, and there was an Armenian band playing. I was 8 or 9, and I remember it made me feel.....exotic, passionate, and like my body couldn't help but move. Middle Eastern music has that effect on me, I just have to move.
    Once I got serious with bellydance I started with Solace, and a lot of tribal music. That Amir Diab, Somaya, and Nawal stuff just sounded too raw to me, too foreign. My ear could only handle it in short bursts. Solace, Helm, and all of the other Tribal-ly stuff gave me my Middle Eastern music fix, without the in-between notes.(which is an actual thing, ME artists use something called quarter notes, which are not present on a Western scale). Solace helped me get used to the music and the rhythms without any distracting singing. It was safe and predictable, almost lulling. This was before Fusion really exploded, so there wasn't really any bleed over. Tribal stuff sounded Tribal. I started to have this inner itch after a while, though, and that music just didn't satisfy me anymore.
   Then I found Natacha Atlas.  My teacher of all teachers, Donna used to have us warm up to "I Put a Spell On You", and I loved Natacha's smoky voice, and western-eastern blend. Natacha Atlas is like Middle- Eastern- music-lite. She is mostly Egyptian, so she has the feel of an Arabic singer, her voice has that passion. But the music wasn't so Arabic that I felt like an outsider. I bought one CD. Then another. She sings in three different languages ( Arabic, French, and English), and after a while I started listening to only the Arabic language ones. Then one day Natacha was not Middle Eastern enough for me. ( but I still love her..:)
      Now I consider myself a (still learning) Lebanese, and Egyptian pop fan. I like the kind of whine that translates the quarter tones to my ears. I am still discovering singers, some I like, some not so much. But there is nothing to me like the feel of that genre of music.

      Trust me, to friends and family, it is like having a passion for polka. or harpsichord. or Chinese wind instrument music. or something equally annoying to everyone within earshot, but that you love and can't get enough of.

example:

A few weeks ago at our last family gathering

the men in my rather large family were sitting at the table playing poker, the kids were running around, the women were chatting and cooking, and I was fiddling with the Ipod player.

Me: "Ya'll wanna listen to some Nawal El Zoghbi?

Everyone and I mean everyone stopped what they were doing, looked up at me and emphatically said "NO!". "No More Middle Eastern music!".
Then my brother and father started sympathizing with " my poor husband" about being subjected to "listening to that" all of the time.

Fine. I'll just take my music elsewhere. (pouting). I didn't want to share it with you anyway.


   

Shokran/marhaba/ahlan wa sahlan....that's about it.

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!

A Quiz Just For Us.

turkishemporium.co.uk

At what rate do you buy stuff? Bellydance stuff namely. And do you show a preference, like one would with any merchandise? For instance, I love purses, I seriously have a purse problem. Switching purses causes me metaphysical anxiety....so it is important for me to own lots....yeah, that is the reason.
     I just know that in your bellydance stuff closet ( if only I were so lucky), that you have a zillion veils, and one cane. Or 18 pair of harem pants, and one choli. Or...ahem...one zillion DVD's, 1/2 zillion CD's, and no bedlah. Yeah that is me. The no bedlah girl.
    How can I be a cabaret dancer of 12 years and not own bedlah? 1. I can't sew worth a damn, and 2. my boobs are enormous. The special-made- bra kind of enormous. My mantra is that I am not sure that hanging tassels from them is the best idea. It is all I can do to strap them down when I dance already. maybe one day when I lose weight they will go down to an F, and I can have some bedlah made....but I digress.

I have just done some shopping and since I tend to do things in a grand way I bought 9 dance DVD's and four CD's. Reviews follow after I get my little munchkins into school and can have some time to breathe.  Some of us nickel and dime ourselves at workshops, etc, I tend to do my shopping in a big way. $600 at LRose. $200 at Amazon.
But I still own more DVD's than anything.

I wonder what bellydance stuff you own says about you as a dancer? You know, like those cosmo quizzes that you take" Are you REALLY stressed?" Take this quiz and find out...

Lets make our own, shall we?

What Your Bellydance Stuff Says About You! ( a Quiz)

1. One arm into the closet and you could herd a flock of sheep. Standard silver and gold, but also pink and sequin studded lime green make up your cane repertoire. Raqs Al Assaya, baby!

a. Yeah, man, that's me to a T.
b. Well, I own a few, but no lime green,that's for sure.
c. Sheep stink. Yuck.

2.In cleaning out the closet you are nearly smothered under a pile of silk,and chiffon. With a mouthful of silver pailettes that rib the edge of your lavender veil choking your airway, you mutter, not a bad way to go.

a. Bring it on. Death by veil-drowning; I can't think of a better way to go.
b. Veils are part of every bellydancers wardrobe, but I don't own any more than a normal dancer.
c. I have one veil and I use it to mop up the floor occasionally.

3. (For you Tribal-ies) Ten yards, twenty, can I get thirty, going down the forty yard line. Started with black now you have 100 yards of firefly printed skirt.

a. "Having skirts is normal for a tribal dancer."
    "Well you have twenty, why don't you give me one?" 
   "hands off my skirts or you die". 

b. The standard black ten yard skirt, plus one or two other colors is good enough for me.
c. My ass can't handle more than ten. This shit is heavy.

4. What? WHAT? I AM SORRY I CAN'T HEAR YOU MY EARDRUMS WERE DESTROYED YEARS AGO BY MY ZIL HABIT.

a.. clang clang goes the zils. All......day.....long.
b. I have a pair that is taped up for home use,and a pair for classes and workshops. Who needs more than that?
c. Zils sound like my own personal version of hell.

5. Does your closet resemble a drag queens? Nuff said.
  
a. I just HAD to have the animal print biker shorts with purple fringe and matching bedlah top. They threw in the hat for free.
b. My tastes are pretty standard. Silver, gold, and a few reds and purples. That is enough.
c. Bedlah looks like someone threw up Christmas all over you.


Answer Sheet:

1. If you answered mostly A. You have a serious problem. You need sparkle rehab or something. You also make up most of the bellydancers that I know.

2. If you answered mostly B. Snore. Wake me up when this is over.

3. If you answered mostly C. If you don't like canes, veils, zils, don't dance tribal, or wear bedlah, then you obviously have the wrong quiz/blog. The tennis/scrapbooking blogs are over there, weenie.

It's Not Cheatin' if I Pay!

This is a blog about so called "teacher loyalty". Oh, how many times have I heard a dancer whisper to me" I am gonna go take a private lesson from so and so,I hope my teacher doesn't find out". At which point I say ( rather fruitlessly I might add), " If your teacher was really a good teacher she would want you to expand your knowledge and learn as much as you can". Unfortunately, I'd say maybe even half of the bellydance teachers are not like that. It is a real shame, too.
    Zaghareet magazine has published a recent set of articles on what makes a good teacher. It has been a three article series, so there is a lot of information there. One of the things that stuck out to me is the "greedy teacher" syndrome ( I am paraphrasing). Teachers that don't want you to go anywhere else for instruction, teachers that bad-mouth other teachers ( very very unprofessional), teachers that seem threatened by other teachers. All of these should be major warning signs, and the only person that will be hurt in the end by staying with a teacher like that is YOU.
       At the risk of coming off sounding high and mighty in this blog, I have been on the other end, so I know why a teacher would feel ownership of her students.
      Several years ago I taught some pagan learning classes. The classes filled up quickly, I made good money, and I absolutely loved with every pore of my being teaching them. I was good at it. People responded in a positive manner, I got looks of awe, I got to be "an authority" on a subject that I knew a lot about. At first this adoration/attention made me uncomfortable, but after a while I ate it up then it got to the point when I fed off of it. It became a cheap pick-me-up. I found myself thinking if things didn't go my way" well they should just see me in class, THEN they will know what I can do". I really let it get away from me and become a substitute for real grounded self esteem.
      Long story short, when the classes started slipping away from me I freaked out and made some really bad decisions that not only put me at odds with the people hosting the classes but ended up isolating me from them entirely. It was a hard lesson, but an important one.

Teaching is a gift. Students are not only a teachers greatest lesson, but a privilege. No one owns anything, we are lent this privilege. If you are a teacher, ask yourself, do you get your thrill from watching someone discover bellydance? or from watching someone adore you/imitate your moves, etc.?

If you are a student, consider taking from a variety of teachers to make you well rounded. I completely understand being attached to a teacher. Foxy had a good post a while back on this, what it felt like to lose a teacher. I still miss who I consider to be my teacher, even though I had taken from many others. I still miss Donna, and when I get to see her dance from time to time I told her it feels like coming home.
But I can honestly say ( and she is the one that told me this ), that if a student doesn't surpass her teacher, then the teacher is not doing her job. A teacher should introduce her students to the wide, broad world of bellydance, and like the momma bird, kick them out of the nest when they are ready.

To me, learning your own personal bellydance style is a lot like interior decorating. If you are like me and you grew up with boring beige, browns, and bronze sconces with fake greenery, if you think that is all there is, then that is what you will imitate. If you go to Ikea, go to design stores, try everything out, even change decorations like people change majors until you find what really suits you, then you will finally know your own style. But sticking with one teacher/one style will not do this for you. You will never really move forward. You will be doing nothing but imitating anothers style.
   
    Only you can know when you have learned everything there is to learn from a particular teacher. You have to trust yourself, and know that maybe that slight itch inside you is the urge to explore. Do it.

  but if you'd rather be the 35 year old living in the momma bird's basement eating cheetoes and playing video games, then go ahead.