Since the last post about bellydancing was so popular, many were asked for more while quite a few wondered about my improvisational skills… Well, as per popular demand, the following video shouldn’t keep you waiting or standing still any longer!

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_{(From left to right: Lynette Harper, great host of the succesful Nanaimo Hafla 2017 that took place on Sunday, November 12th, 2017, and whom was flanked by The Bellyhood Consortium, namely Haley, Carla, Louise and Taissia in a magical gathering of minds, bodies, and spirits paying tribute to the food, music and dance from Arabic, Middle-Eastern and North-African cultures.)}

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Every single person growing up around me is familiar with the Great Pyramids of Egypt… When it comes to Egyptian Bellydancing though, the statistics are radically different: Many people are aware of the popular dance named “Belly Dancing” but what is it really about?

As I became more and more conscious of this art form, I quickly discovered an array of styles and forms usually spanning from the heavily grounded baladi shared among Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and, of course, Egypt also often known as "Raqs baladi", and all the way to the more external highly limb-focussed styles from the other more occidental parts of Northern Africa to the deeper oriental sources such as in Turkey and Persia/Iran. The understanding of this art form covers such a span that it can hardly be discussed as one as there are such a variety of forms and styles within each forms.

In the social settings brought forth by the folky trends of Egyptians villagers moving into the bigger centre of Cairo at the beginning of the 20th century, bellydancing grew as we tend to think of it today making use of the arms, focuses on hip and belly movements, sometimes in isolation, where the dancer(s) performs to a musical style also called “baladi”. The term itself, means my country, in Arabic, and was originally used by the village people when they were referring to their culture and music.

The music itself was part of an elaborate ceremony in which its framework was divided in 6 main sections: Taqsim as the improvisational section setting the tone of the ceremony, Me-Attaa, Maqsoum, Tet, another Me-Attaa with the fallahi rhythm and, finally, the music would gradually slow down to end back on the initial awwady taqsim till it stopped.

As a way to envision the progression, imagine a start focussed on melody without any percussion, focussed on setting the feelings and intentions of the gathering around improvisations played traditionally on a oud, the Arabic ancestor of the guitar. More recently, as new instruments were introduced in the culture, the accordion, the sax and the keyboards can be heard as the dancers dancing on the spot perform small movements swaying to the harmonics and shimmying to the tremolos.

This introduction would be followed by the “me-attaa” where the rhythm would gradually become faster, as the instrumentalists would go back and forth in a "Call&Answer" style, while the dancer or dancers would still be using conservative movements.

The maqsoum section rises and the doumbek player exchanges uptempo rhythms conversations with the dancers and other instrumentalists.

In our case, this is what the video here is going to show you as I am on the doumbek improvising along with the music using the famous rhythm also called in the Western World "balladi", unknowingly referring to the non-urbanite source of this rhythm. In reality, in the Arabic world, this one receives an array of names depending on where one is playing it. It is a form of Maqsoum rhythm based on the other one called the Big Masmoudi. Since it is played in half the time the Big Masmoudi rhythm is usually played, it is thus possibly more appropriately called the Little Masmoudi/"Masmoudi Saghir". It is traditionally structured within a 4/4 time signature where, on the first count, the player hits the centre of the drum creating the deep resonant Doum(D) sound. It is followed by a hit on the rim called Tek (T) and immediately followed, as we strike the third beat, by another Doum. Finally, there's another rim shot, Tek, on the fourth count. From there, it repeats itself.

During the performance, I focussed on rhythm keeping most of the time. Meanwhile, I am listening to the music accentuations, elaborations around this rhythm and the dancer's movement and attitude. Throughout the song, I try to place my mindset into a bridge where I attempt to connect the musicality's first and foremost depth of emotions, in this case soulfulness and playfulness, to the dancer's rendition of her interpretation along with the music played and my drumming.

As you might notice, I have incorporated a style of improvisation that sporadically includes the idea of the triple-Doum at the very beginning of the rhythm, but instead, I play it with the Ka and sometimes the Tek sound. It is my way of giving a salute to some of the latest styles that have seen the light of day in the streets of Cairo over the past 15 years and it is inspired by the actual Big Masmoudi style used in Egypt, also called the "Walking Masmoudi" en route to our dancer's routine...

Here, Lynette is our dancer extraordinaire and hafla host, remember last post? She is an incredibly fluid and joyful dancer with enormous experience and knowledge about the art. Through her movements, she stirs up the energies of the place while inviting the drummer into her dance and cheers up the crowd to join her in the celebratory dancing. As there usually would be more instrumentalists accompanying the music, here, it is the all too modern duo “computer-speaker” that provides for the accompanying orchestra.

From here, there would be the tet, a way to calm down the waters with nostalgic harmonics and a much slower rhythm before the grand re-entry of maqsoum in double time specifically called fallahi (or fellahi).

The whole musical gathering of dancing and intermingling would finish on the gradual slowing down of the rhythmics all the way back down to the initial melodious improvisational harmonics settling the energies right back down till it reaches its end.

So, without further ado, here’s the playful balladi improvisation performed by Lynette Harper and @eric-boucher for you and the crowds of "Steemit's Got Talent Season 2":

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Well, that was my first entry for the famous Steemit's Got Talent Season 2! If you enjoyed and deem it worth an Upvote, please consider a Resteem or even a Share as it would greatly improve the chances for this performance to find itself among the winners of the contest. Good luck to the other participants, may the best of us uprise the success of us all!

Thank you all so very much for watching.

With much gratitude, sincerely yours,

@eric-boucher. 😃 🙏 ❤️