Belly Dance Rhythms - Baladi, Ciftetelli, Masmoudi with Neon

Class 1 - 45 min Baladi - Belly dance drum solo rhythms combinations and practice

Belly dance baladi rhythm - structure, variations, combinations. "Baladi” in Egyptian Arabic means “home town/village”, or neighborhood, as opposed to anything coming from a fancy big city upscale cultural realm or influenced by Western culture. Baladi music and dance are basically village music and dance as performed in urban neighborhoods where people started moving as industrialization took root in Egypt. Baladi rhythm is popular in baladi music and dancing, but it’s not the only rhythm in that genre - others, such as maksoum, or fellahi, or saidi rhythms, of course, are also played whenever a band and a singer perform for a party that has baladi feel to it...

Class 2 - 50 min Ciftetelli - Belly dance drum solo rhythms combinations and practice

Belly dance ciftetelli rhythm with Neon - rhythm structure, variations, combinations. "Because ciftetelli is perceived as a slow belly dance rhythm, very often the melody is improvisation played on oud, violin, ney (arabic flute) or keyboard, - any melodic instrument. So as dancers we can’t think only in terms of accents in the rhythm - our movement should switch between catching the accents and following the melody."

Class 3 - 45 min Masmoudi Rhythm - Belly dance Combinations for Sword Dance and Practice

"We’ll review masmoudi structure and recall how to catch its accents, and also treat it as a slow beat perfect for a bellydance prop balancing act. The combinations I have selected for us today are all designed to be good for balancing either a sword or a tray of candles."