Learn Your Songs

It’s often the case that when dancing, we focus on the physical part of our movement first and foremost. We think of our weight changes, isolations, stage movement, and more. From there we listen to the instrumentals. We highlight accents and push through drum rhythms. But when it comes to Raqs Sharqi (Belly Dance) we must consider the whole picture. The song that is being danced to was created as a complete piece. It carries emotion through it. When we dance to a song without analyzing the music, we do not understand or respect the musician or culture. Language with no meaning is just babble.

As belly dancers, we are often dancing to music that we may not completely comprehend the lyrical, usually due to it being a different language. So many times I’ve seen dancers dance to inappropriate music because of this. Protest songs, songs referring to the dancer’s skin color, prayer songs, or applying folkloric dance styles to music that’s not from the correct region. This is so 100% avoidable.

Here are a few things you can do to be better educated.

Dancing with House of Tarab at Belly Dancer USA

JUST LOOK UP THE LYRICS

This is so simple. Take the song you want to dance to and pop it in a Google search. Most of the time you may find an English translation. Nothing shows? Use Google Translate for the lyrics. This tool is so incredibly helpful. Though it most likely will not get a 100% accurate translation you at least have an idea and can properly judge the ideas and emotions of the song. If you cannot at least do this step, you have no business soloing to any song that uses a language you do not speak.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

Where’s the artist from? Are they Palestinian? Egyptian? Turkish? All of these factors may influence how you are dancing to the song. We cannot simply remove the cultural aspect from this dance for convenience.

LEARN (AT LEAST) SOME OF THE LANGUAGE

Learning another language is fun! Might as well learn and dance. Not everyone has the funds or time available but you can at least learn keywords and phrases. There are so many free resources to learn. Duolingo, YouTube, or friends in your community. Learning keywords and phrases can help you decipher the songs and also help your dance come closer to a partnership instead of a subtraction.

Kat is a Professional Award Winning Belly Dancer, Instructor, and Studio Owner in Tacoma, WA. Check out more about here at www.tacomabellydance.com