ِAs we have seen from the last post, how by the mid-1940s, Baladi was heading towards a revolution in terms of choreography and representation. By that time the culture of cabarets and nightclubs presenting Baladi as a form of entertainment (a colonial syndrome by all measures) necessitated a certain "update" in its look and appearance.
It goes without saying that the lion's share of all these innovations that endure to this day, are because of Badia Masbani and her nightclub.
But also by the 1940s, cinema has become a standard form of entertainment, and managed to be mainstreamed to a great extent. Egypt had a thriving filmmaking industry, that almost rivalled Europe. As a matter of fact several of the big production of the late 1930s and 1940s were nominated for Oscar in the Best Foreign Picture category.
Baladi as well found its way through new visual medium, and almost all the major films produced in that decade has a scene for belly-dance in a usual context of a nightclub or a cabaret or belly-dance in a more "common" setting.
The video posted, shows a very interesting and early example of what Baladi is and in what context is it usually performed. It is a 1946 production, called 'Laabet el Set' (the lady's trick) it was written by Badee3 Kheiry and developed by Naguib el Rehany and was directed by Waly el Din Sameh, it starts comedic giants like Naguib el Rehany, Mary Moneib, Bishara Wakeem and so on.. It is considered a classic of Egyptian cinema.
It has a star-studded cast, with Tahia Karioka (1919 – 1999), considered a legend of Belly Dance,and who also started her career by dancing in Badia's nightclub. Tahia was a scary performer who mastered almost all the dance styles that were taught to her, being Western or Classical. And it is how she got her name, Karioka is allegedly a Brazilian dance that she perfected (when I looked up the word, it actually refers to the inhabitants of the city of Rio de Janeiro, their dialect is called Carioca). She soon took over and became the star of the troupe and received offers to act in film and eventually became an actress in her own right as well as being a legendary bellydancer.
In that scene a rich man is coveting the affections of Tahia Karioka and she is asked to dance to lure him, and as can be seen she concedes to dance but reluctantly and not as seductively or flamboyantly as dancing to impress would usually entail.
The setup reveals, that the dancing is done at home, the singer is almost as important as the dancer, making the dancer more of a physical manifestation of the music rather than a different representation of the music. In a sense the dancer is another instrument. That view lingered for a very long time, and is still one way of doing belly dance, that a singer, usually trained in the traditional and folkloric music of Egypt, would set the key of the choreography of the dancer. Adjusting his/her singing to the dancer's interpretation, playing already to the improvisational nature of Arabic singing and music and the improvisational nature of Baladi dance.
The intimate setting of the dance, a family, at home, entertaining guests, points out to the 'celebratory' aspect of Baladi. We see by the end of the song, the entire family standing up to join Tahia in the dance, emphasizing the fact that it is a 'communal' experience, everyone is either playing an instrument, clapping along or even joining to dance at some point.
The dance itself is very minimal. Tahia Karioka is considered one of the Neo-Classical dancers, who used the traditional choreographic aspects of Baladi. Interestingly enough legend said that she was inspired by Hooryah Mohammed. There is little that I could find in terms of information on what kind of relationship that they had (some say bitter rivalry), but as we saw in the last post, there is a lot of Horya's approach to belly dancing that Karioka took from her and stuck to. The centerd position, strong isolation technique, resolute pelvic sways and gyrations without going off-center. The very subtle movement, that is sometimes unusually slow and sparse as to be almost hypnotic in a way.
Even as her style evolved she still stuck to the use the pelvis as the center of movement with fall and rise technique being the transitional motif.
The arms are almost used as a way to frame the dancer or to frame the lower extremities of the body, its the pelvis (and sometimes the legs) where the movement happens. And Tahia shows that very well. Her arms are always isloating her torso, or literally framing her pelvis or creating a static verticality that forces the spectator to trace the center of movement, since the movement itself is created around and from the center.
The song is a traditional song, and as common in most Arabic singing it laments the longing of a lover to his beloved and his ardent desire to be reunited with his beloved that is playfully spurning him to increase his affection. The choreographic phrases with the most interesting movement is the one where the singer expresses his interest desire to 'see' his beloved or asks his beloved to reciprocate his affections. Melodically and lyrically speaking these are the parts with the most improvisational content, where both singer and dancer would repeat with slight variations over and over again.
There is the less rhythmic 'coloraturas' that are now very strongly associated with Belly dance. If we notice, it is only the change of melody that gives accent to the dance and the rhythm is only there to ground the music and the singing not to define the movement.
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