Balady, the soul of Egypt.

Text: Hilde Lund

Balady. For years, the mere word filled me with respect and fear. Balady seemed to me to be so serious and elevated, with so many rules to remember. To tell the truth, I have at time suffered from a mild case of balady anxiety. I have always danced balady, but at the same time I felt that I didn’t know enough to teach this style of dance in my own classes. I am now over this fear of balady, and I wonder why this particular style has been so difficult for me. Balady isn’t dangerous at all!

Balad is the Arabic word for country, and balady means from the country. Simple as!

At the beginning of the 1900s, industrialisation made many people move from the country side to the city, (mainly Cairo) in search of a better future. The people brought their clothes and belongings, but they also brought their traditional dance, music and culture with them to the big city. In the city the farmers were introduced to new intruments such as saxophone, accordion and trumpet. In addition to meeting new instruments, they were also introduced to the sounds of Western music, such as jazz and blues. The traditional music absorbed elements from these new impulses, and the traditional folk music developed a more sofisticated sound; balady.

Balady music often is melancolic. It is about longing and missing home and family. Egyptians place great importance on their own history, and while families have lived in Cairo for generations, the little village they once came from, is still “home”.

The music is built on a pattern that is more or less the same in most balady compositions. One could say, a little impertiently, that if you have heard one balady song, you have heard them all. This makes it fairly easy to improvise to balady music. You will often have a feeling and expectation of what comes next, even if you haven’t heard that particular song before.

The music generally starts with an intro/improvisation, played by one solo instrument. This could for instance be a flute, saxophone or a trumpet. This part is called “awadi”. (Awadi is the plural form of ood, meaning bamboo cane, which is used for making flutes). In the awadi part, the dancer will dance more contained and introverted, and not move around the stage a lot. Soft movements would be a good choice.

After the intro/awadi section, the drums come in with distinct beats, and the drums and other instruments play against each other in a question and answer sequence. The tempo increases. This part of the song is called “zakat”. The dancer will use this section to accentuate the drums with her hips. In this section the dancer will start coming a bit “out of her shell”, and to shift her focus from inside herself to the world around her.

After zakat, the next section of the song is called “tet”. This is fast! A mizmaar could make an apperance or a fellahi rythmn, both reminding the audience of “home” in the village. The music is very fast, and it would be natural to move around a bit, and use 3-quarter shimmies and shimmies. At this stage, the dancer should relate to the audience, smile and look at them.

If everything follows the balady recipe, there will now be a finale where the tempo is turned down conciderably, to give a soft end to the whole piece. The finale often picks up the melody of the awadi section, so the piece ends like it started.

Sometimes the soft end doesn’t come as expected, a drum solo or a song come in its place. It doesn’t matter, it is still balady.

The instruments in balady are often tabla, saxophone, flute, trumpet or accordion.

While Raqs sharqi is often danced on demi point, balady is a heavy, earthy dance style. The dancer dances on flat feet, and both hips and arms are heavy. In Raqs sharqi, the dancer stretches her arms out completely, in balady she keeps them closer to her body. The most important thing to do to be a good balady dancer is to listen to the music, and express the feelings in it. There aren’t many typical balady steps. It is the way you do your circles, eights, hip drops and camels that makes your dance balady.

Balady is a solo dance. Both folkloric dances and raqs sharqi are good for groups, but balady is normally for a soloist.

Balady should be danced in a dress, not a 2 piece costume. You can wear a tob or a galabiya, you can have a head scarf or not, but please don’t dance balady in a 2 piece costume.