No, sorry, not pulling out the KC and the Sunshine Band quite yet! I’ve been starting this series by addressing the roots of music– history, elements. . . In terms of tlements we’ve addressed the origins of “beat” and we’ve touched o the origins of “melody” with the impassioned prayer last week.
Today, I’d like to touch on rhythm. If beat is the steady drive beneath a song, the heartbeat or ticking second hand, then rhythm is non-pitch specific rhapsody upon the bead. If Og over there is pounding out a steady “Doom, Doom, Doom. . .” upon his big drum, it’s only a matter of time before Ug get’s bored, and starts playing around. In fact, we see this clearly with small children who discover the wonders of wooden spoons and pots. . . I don’t know that all that much needs saying about the relationship between beat and rhythm, really, since most people already know what they are. . .
With the dawning of both in human consciousness, it can’t have been that long for dance to arise– dance seems to be almost instinctual with most humans– we start tapping out feet to the beat, swaying back and forth in our chair, head bobbing to the rhythm . . . our bodies seem made to express music in anyway possible.
Most of the very earliest dances were likely improvised between drummer and dancer, a tradition that never fully died out, and has found new vigor in the American Tribal Style of bellydance. Bellydance, or more properly, Raqs Sharqi (Dance of the East), as we know it, owes its base to the early 20th Century Cabaret styles of Egypt and Lebanon. However, it wasn’t long before enterprising western dancers realized that these styles were closely linked to other folk-styles of the Mediterranean (specifically, of Greece and Spain), and to the dances of the Gypsies. For this reason, although Raqs is considered to be based on Arab origins (Arab, mind, meaning the old Pagan, but also Jewish, Christian and some Islamic influence), it is a fallacy to consider it as purely a Middle Eastern dance– a fact few Arabs like to admit.
When Raqs came to America, it quickly followed the same path as our cuisine– part preserving the traditions, part making a melting pot of everything to make some manner of fusion that incorporates bits of everything. These days, “Tribal” dancers–solo and group– improvise using not only traditional Middle Eastern moves, but almost any other style out there. Tribal style tends to emphasize isolations— when the hips are doing one thing, the chest another, etc. . . the costuming, too, is “rougher”– not as much sparkle and glitz, fabrics are more muted, the jewelery more matte. . . it’s hard, beyond that, to generalize, as each dancer and troupe has different approaches. . .
There are several dancers I’d love to highlight, but today I’ll just share the woman who inspired me to start learning Bellydance– Rachel Brice. I’ll post two videos, each of the exact same performance, because each one shows different things better. In the first, you see the whole dance better, but due to the lighting, she looks a lot “darker” than she really is, so the second (unsteady, you miss a bit of the beginning) shows that and some of the moves that are better from that perspective.
Although you can tell that she has familiarity with the music she’s dancing to, she is improvising, her choreography not set in stone. There are some other vids of her with live drummers where you can see the interaction between dancer and drummer, but I’m saving those for later, as these are much better for introduction.
Please do enjoy!
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