inspiration
Sep. 26th, 2007 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alonewiththemoonI unpacked my package from Syria last night (I'm sure there's a Homeland Security dossier on me now) and discovered that what I received isn't exactly what I ordered, but I'm ok with what I got. I had ordered a 3-vcd set of Egyptian performers (check), a Farid al-Atrache concert (check) and a Hakim concert (nope), and did not order another belly dance vcd and the new Amr Diab album, but I received both of those things. Since they're things I easily might have bought anyway, I'm not going to make a fuss about it, though I did let the company know that their order fulfillment isn't quite doing its job. I also received gummy candy shaped like a cheeseburger. It is prominently labeled halal.
I watched two of the Egyptian performance vcds last night and I am so happy I ordered the set. The performances are all from hotels and parties in Egypt, so these are the famous dancers dancing for their own people on happy occasions, not big staged shows, and it's really eye-opening to see the difference. I'm guessing from the costuming and party wear that it's the late 80s, maybe early 90s. One of my favorite things in the performances are all the star struck little girls in their party dresses gathered around the dance floor watching the dancers :-) It's a little hard for me to tell who is featured because while the names are provided on screen in Arabic, it's in a very fancy script and my Arabic deciphering skills are not really up to figuring out fancy fonts. Some I recognize (a pre-nose job Dina, for example), and at least one so far was labeled in English (Lucy, or as written on screen, Losy). I think I know which dancer was Aza Sharif, I'll have to check my other footage of her to make sure. The camera work is standard Arab special effects nightmare and occasionally footage is reused within a single performance, though the beat matching between music and dancer is skillfully done. Despite the technical drawbacks, I will definitely be coming back to these performances again and again.
Some of the hotel performances were filmed with the same band, which played Manga and Shokolata for different dancers (it wasn't the same band footage mixed into different performances, the singer interacts with the dancers so you can see it's different footage). The singer and the way the band does Shokolata sounds a lot like Sami Aly, but I have no idea what he looks like so I don't know if it might be him or not. He and the band are good, though. I like seeing how different dancers interpret the same piece of music. It really highlights how much variation there is within Egyptian style, even though some people would have you believe that all the dancers over there are cookie cutter Reda creations.
Wasn't too crazy about the new Amr Diab album. It's pleasant enough, but it didn't grab me. Guess I'm one of those low class Hakim partisans ;-)
I watched two of the Egyptian performance vcds last night and I am so happy I ordered the set. The performances are all from hotels and parties in Egypt, so these are the famous dancers dancing for their own people on happy occasions, not big staged shows, and it's really eye-opening to see the difference. I'm guessing from the costuming and party wear that it's the late 80s, maybe early 90s. One of my favorite things in the performances are all the star struck little girls in their party dresses gathered around the dance floor watching the dancers :-) It's a little hard for me to tell who is featured because while the names are provided on screen in Arabic, it's in a very fancy script and my Arabic deciphering skills are not really up to figuring out fancy fonts. Some I recognize (a pre-nose job Dina, for example), and at least one so far was labeled in English (Lucy, or as written on screen, Losy). I think I know which dancer was Aza Sharif, I'll have to check my other footage of her to make sure. The camera work is standard Arab special effects nightmare and occasionally footage is reused within a single performance, though the beat matching between music and dancer is skillfully done. Despite the technical drawbacks, I will definitely be coming back to these performances again and again.
Some of the hotel performances were filmed with the same band, which played Manga and Shokolata for different dancers (it wasn't the same band footage mixed into different performances, the singer interacts with the dancers so you can see it's different footage). The singer and the way the band does Shokolata sounds a lot like Sami Aly, but I have no idea what he looks like so I don't know if it might be him or not. He and the band are good, though. I like seeing how different dancers interpret the same piece of music. It really highlights how much variation there is within Egyptian style, even though some people would have you believe that all the dancers over there are cookie cutter Reda creations.
Wasn't too crazy about the new Amr Diab album. It's pleasant enough, but it didn't grab me. Guess I'm one of those low class Hakim partisans ;-)
