Legendary songs including Daret El Ayam and Fakkarouni, and the partnership between two of Egypt's greatest artists.
Read MoreScene from the Egyptian Film El Farha (The Wedding)
Mahraganat and Knife Dancing
Last week in class we talked a little bit about the Mahraganat style of music and knife dancing. I am not an expert on this subject, what I know about it comes from one of my own teachers, Amina, and the clips that I have seen. I love learning about it though so I thought I would pass some examples along for anyone who was in class.
One student asked if it was men who did the knife dancing, and based on the clips I have seen, it is (except of course when belly dancers are doing it as performance). This clip, which as an appeal for funding for a documentary project, gives a really good, quick explanation and shows examples of the dancing.
Mahragan: The Story of Egypt's Street Dance
This scene from the Egyptian film El Farha shows a man doing knife dance to a more shaabi-style song by Abdel Basset Hammouda. I love this song.
It's less fancy, but I also really like this clip of an Egyptian man dancing here:
Getting back to the music style of Mahraganat, this article gives a nice overview. Though I will just write here that I have seen many different and sometimes opposing things written about it in different places. I guess the lesson is as always to keep observing and to keep trying to understand the subtleties :)
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I hope that everyone's week is off to a great start!!
Happy Dancing
xo Alisa