Raqs Nerd: how Egyptian baladi music is like the Odyssey 🏺 Thanks to Christopher Nolan, it's hard to escape the fact that ancient Greek epic poetry is trending this Summer... And today I'd like to talk a little about the connecting thread that runs between the ancient epics of Homer, and the Egyptian baladi music we love to dance to: oral tradition, and arts that develop without being written down. Most scholars agree that the Odyssey and the Iliad weren't created fully formed, and written...
15 days ago • 7 min read
Raqs Nerd: one thing bellydancers get wrong about baladi music 🪗 This Summer I am on a mission: Namely, to seek out the finest Egyptian ashra baladi music known to humanity - and to make an absolutely top-tier playlist for my September baladi class series... In this mission, I've been going beyond my trusty favourite dance CDs, and trying to hunt down more recordings by traditional Egyptian musicians - the OGs of baladi music. I've found some absolute gems already - some new to me, and some...
22 days ago • 3 min read
Raqs Nerd: what's your dance built on? - more notes from the studio Last week I wrote to you about the pelvic anatomy that's been on my mind during my daily dance practice recently... And this week I am back with more thoughts inspired by my daily practice ritual (imagine me with a little butterfly net, trying to catch the thoughts that wander through my head while I dance, so that I can write them down for you!) For most of this year, my personal practice has been very focused on "classic"...
28 days ago • 3 min read
Raqs Nerd: where ARE your hips? - notes form the studio I'm back this week, and writing! And I'm also going way off my plan - I had intended to write for you this week about my journey with learning the Arabic language, and why I feel it's such a worthwhile thing for dancers to do, even in tiny steps. But you will just have to make do with my social media post on that, because in order to be able to write, I have to write about what's fresh in my mind, which is not always what was planned....
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Raqs Nerd: skills to get "into the zone" From the outside looking in, at a first glance, Raqs Sharqi / bellydance can sometimes look as if it's all about movement. About flexibility and muscle control, posture and alignment, balance and coordination - about mastering increasingly more "advanced" moves... But those of us who've been here a while, been immersed in this dance for a while, come to know the truth: the physical part is important, but it's also the tip of the iceberg. And a lot of...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Raqs Nerd: oral tradition 💬 and why our moves don't always have names Every so often, I have this conversation in my beginners' classes: Me: "Does anybody have questions about what we've just done?" Dancer: "Yes! What is the name of that move we just did?" Me: "Well, actually it's complicated..." (explanation ensues, whilst my students wonder what can of worms they've accidentally opened...) WHY is it so complicated? In short, because the movement of raqs sharqi isn't codified, within its...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Raqs Nerd: how is bellydance is like a clownfish? 🐠 This week's newsletter is inspired by a question I received from one of my lovely readers earlier this year, and have been meaning to address for some time - about feeling "allowed" (or not allowed...) to dance to music that doesn't have a cultural connection to raqs sharqi. And also, by recent posts by Eszter-Maura, whose new "In-between notes" newsletter I have been enjoying (she and I have similar interests, but each with our own unique...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Raqs Nerd: Autistic pride Yesterday, the 18th of June, was Autistic Pride Day - so this week, it feels important to me to share a little about this part of my identity, as an Autistic bellydancer I feel that everything about these Raqs Nerd newsletters is in may ways a celebration of my Autistic identity, to be honest. It is where I get to share all the random connections my brain makes, the information I gather when I'm lost in various special interest rabbitholes, and the sheer obsessive...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Raqs Nerd: dance art 🤝 visual art I have written a lot in this newsletter about the connection between dance and music - and how that connection is at the heart of everything we bellydancers do, as far as I am concerned. But... How often have you thought about the connection between dance, and visual arts? Specifically, the connection between Egyptian Raqs Sharqi, and traditional visual arts - and especially the geometric and arabesque pattern designs, and stylised calligraphy, used...
3 months ago • 2 min read