Joy of Dancing: Kazakh Folk Dance Kara Zhorga

Now that's great I spend every day a lot of time browsing through youtube and call it "research" ... My new love is a Kazakh folk dance called Kara Zhorga (Qara Jorğa - K'ara Zhorg'a - Қара Жорға). It has been nominated for inscription in 2013 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
One first example is a TV version featuring boys and girls in national garments:

 From the description (read full text here):

... According to A.Ismailov “Kara-Zhorga is a dance that embodies a variety of nuances and techniques. It combines bellicosity and buffoonery, tender pace and mobility, speed and calm grace” [...] Kara-Zhorga dance reproduces a picture of a traditional horse competition called bayge. "... Traditionally village residents gather for a feast (called “toy” in Kazakh). Young and cheerful horsemen step out from the crowd and start dancing - bending their bodies slightly forward, harshly swinging with their whips and eagerly entering in rhythmic competition. Young horsemen move in circles, lines and diagonals, out run each other, demonstrating agility of a leap or an intricate hop. The dance imitates horserace – rhythmically sharp-cut hops from one foot to another and big leaps with curving of a body compose major dance technique. A sharp-cut, rough and springy folk tune of Kara-Zhorga dance and the movement that coincides with the horserace rhythm, gracefully merge into a single image of bold horsemen – called “zhigit” in Kazakh, who master equestrian skills with their finger tips” (Sarynova, 1976: 37).

National dress

Overall the dance shows the agility skills and cheerful enthusiasm of a horseman who fully masters the art of riding a horse. [...]

The first notes of Kara-Zhorga dance were taken by artist and choreographer Aubakir Ismailov in 1928 during the meeting with Akhtai Mamanov, chief of amateur-talent group based at Kazkomuna boarding school in Petropavlovsk (city in northern Kazakhstan). [...]

In the pictures are some contemporary national Kazakh costumes; how can you not love those oodles of fluffiness, ruffles and trumpet sleeves?

Performers in traditional Kazakhstan costume 

Nowadays the dance is often performed at big social gatherings, celebration of festive events and even as a flashmob.

And some words about the spiritual meaning of the dance from the same document:

Researchers pay particular attention to initial sacral meaning of Kara-Zhorga, for the dance was mostly performed during “Shildekhana” ritual (feast in the name of newborn). Therefore Kara-Zhorga performance is closely linked with the time of child’s first initiation to the World, his/her acquaintance with the family and surrounding society. This period of human life along with the spiritual initiation and obsequies played most important role in nomadic culture.

Performing Kara-Zhorga for a newborn child aimed at introducing him/her with nomadic lifestyle, life on top of a horse. The tempo of the dance is sought to transmit the nomad’s main attitude to the reality of life; it sets up principal direction for future life of a newborn – meaning the way forward despite the obstacles, way of optimism and mobility. Moreover, performanc e of Kara-Zhorga bears purification and protective properties for both the child and the audience present. Appearing as a ritual and spiritual act, Kara-Zhorga gradually started to inherit characteristics of every day life. Owing to its deep semantic and symbolic meaning, Kara-Zhorga has been very popular among people over a long period of time, gradually acquiring new distinctive properties and styles.

Nowadays, Kara-Zhorga dance embodies the brightest features of Kazakh people and modern Kazakhstan, like – courage, vitality, musicality and mobility harmoniously intertwined with the scenery of beautiful and vast steppes. 

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The whole thing looks like lots of fun if danced in a group among friends. On a more artistic level Kazakh ethnic dance presents all the finesse of Oriental stage dances with opulent costumes, delicate hand movements and hazardous backbends, as featured it this video by the magical Uighur dancer Dilnar Abdullah:

Algerian Urban Costume Step 1: Research

It is one of the worst of my habits not to finish one project before starting the next one... so here I am again.

My fingers have been itching a long time for this and since the other dancing ladies have expressed their interest to work on Algerian Andalusian Dance I am heading to this adventure right now.

The costume-to-be should represent the festive attire of a high-class lady from Algier roughly in the middle of the 19th century in order to create a choreography on classical Algerian Andaloussi Music (explanation will follow...)

The fabulous book of Leyla Belkaid: Costumes d'Algerie, Edtions du Layeur, Paris 2003 offers deep historical explanations and many historical photographs related to this issue.

Below are a couple of variations of a late 19th- early 20th century style of indoor clothing.

 

The first part to explore were the trousers. This particular style is called "serouel m'douar" and is used also nowadays with a slightly different silhouette; as modern ladies want to look more slim they use less and more delicate fabric.

For the historical garments thick and heavy jaquard textiles have been used for the trousers, most probably silk. Nowadays you can use upholstery fabric which has similar characteristics and is relatively cheap.
And here you can see a modern serouel m'douar:

(picture credit: here.)

In the next post I will show you how to sew such a serouel.

On Reconstructing: What is "Authentic" in Ethnic Dance?

Now that the Kalbeliya costume is finally finished I have collected so many ideas in my head that I am working now not on one "historical" costume, but on two simultaneously.

(N.B.: Rereading this article I have the impression to have written an anti-tribal-fusion statement. I do not at all disrespect any kind of fusion work, on the contrary, it has it's own charm and is an artform in itself! But it has a totally different background than what I am trying to do in this moment.)

When I say "historical" costume this means that I do an accurate research on a specific region and a certain time period. Then I usually choose a whole outfit that I try to reproduce including accessoires like headpieces, shoes and jewellery. On this base I choose the matching music to form a dance out of that.
But when it comes to reconstruction there are a lot of different levels of historical accuracy to follow. How much must my work adhere to them?

Thinking of my next projects these are the questions I posed to myslf and also how to answer them for myself - regarding only my own work right now. I do not want to make any absolute judgements, I just want to clear my ideas in order to achieve a round and coherent outcome!

Modern  version of a traditional Algerian costume  - from a magazine of the famous Algerian Designer Samira Bezaouia Sadek

Can I mix pieces of different outfits?
The answer is difficult. As documentary material may be scarce I will be forced to invent something in any case. BUT - and this is crucial for me - I want to have a coherent work, this means, that if I borrow pieces (and, when it comes to dances, movements) from another, similar source, I want to make sure that the pieces will not loose their initial meaning by being put into an alien surrounding. This may sound really cryptic. I mean, that the pieces should match and should not be used out of their  context regarding religion, social strata and regional peculiarity. So I would not combine, e.g. a peasant woman's apron with an urban headpiece.
Mixing signs of different religious or ethnic communities is not only a sign of a certain ignorance; it might even be regarded as an insult to a member of those. So be very careful with eclectic compositions and have always your audience in mind.
The gender aspect is also very important in non westernized societies. Although I see a certain shift in contemporary ethnic stage dance and costuming (e. g. in some of the new pieces of the sukhilshvilebi from Georgia) I'd rather leave those challenges of their own society to them. As an outsider I can never be sure what denotation it will create on the indigenous audience.
Whenever we approach and try to appropriate a different culture we should be very careful not to destroy the whole systems of meanings that holds it, otherwise we risk to act not only out of ignorance but in a colonialistic way.
This is what I mean by "authentic".

I know this sound sooo conservative! But where is my free artistic expression?! you may ask.

I find a lot of it even in this cautious approach. Some of the freedom comes simply out of material renouncement. I adore, for example, handloomed textiles, and love the very few scarfs that I own. But historical garments need a lot more fabric than our modern ones. And I would have to order them from India, and that is pricey. So, in this case I am very relaxed. I use modern, even synthetic, fabrics when I think they match the styling. I use my sewing machine, I use zippers, fabric glue, faux pearls, acrylic beads, glitter, and so on.
And I also adopt and combine modern crafting techniques which are completely non related to the historical background of a costume. So on a balkan style coat I will put not only the traditional gold work, but also holographic sequins and Japanese inspired Kanzashi flowers.

Random material for goldwork on an velvet coat

Last not least the music I like to use gives me the directions, how to incorporate modern techniques into an authentic dance costume and piece.

These are so far the limitations I put on myself for my work right now. And after that - I will probably make a completely crazy fusion thing! :-)

What is your opinion about all that? Please share!

Tutorial: Chinese Inspired Headpiece

 The last dance I created was a chinese inspired ribbon dance -  I made it for a dance show of my dear friend and colleague Claudina; she just launched her fabulous veil dance instuctional DVD (view the trailer here!) and so I decided to do something that could match the program.
So the dance and the costume were more or less ready, and I wanted to add some more 'bling' to the quite simple dress. I did some research how to make the base for the headpiece; it has to look somehow like this:

So cut out the plastic base and bond it together with masking tape. Sometimes you can even use a tennis cap turned upside down. As you will cover it with fabric later it doesn't matter if the masking tape is visible.
After that cut the fabric generously in the shape of the base and glue it on the surface. Then fold the fabric along the edges and glue the overlap on the back side. Keep the fabric in place with pins and let dry.

 

Now the most tricky part is done and you just have to glue or stitch the decoration on the base. The pieces dangeling from the temples are made of earrings with some red tassels. The golden lace balls are a part of christmas decoration. I made Kanzashi flowers with fabric scarps from the costume and added also some fabric orchids and severy jewellery pieces. I can only recommend the Kanzashi flower makers from Clover. They are cheap and so easy to use, you can't go wrong! Fabric yoyos are also very easy to make and look gorgeous in the ensemble.

A broad elastic strap holds the crown on the head. If you do backbends make sure that you secure it additionally with bobby pins.

Kalbelia Costume I: Needs a Lot of Patience

For an upcoming workshop of Kalbelia dance I threw myself into sewing a costume.

The skirt is the central piece as the dance is full of whirling and spinning (see the first picture).













With a readymade dance skirt from Hongkong purchased from here, lots of ribbons from my stock and some fabric to recycle the adveture began:

 
 


  The diamonds are cut out from the fabric and basted. A narrow white ribbon will cover the edges later.

Many many hours later: lots of greens and blues. Red, yellow and white will follow....

Joy of Dancing: Helene Eriksen or... dancing without an accent

I should have written about her long ago.
Because everything started when I discoverded her art.
My passion for traditional women dances.

Helene Eriksen is a teacher and choreographer of traditional dances of the Balkans and Islamic Orient with decades of teaching experience.
But - what makes her truly unique is the rendering of every single dance in its own character. She is - it may sound almost impossible - dancing without an accent.




She speaks almost as many languages as she teaches dances and bestows her students with dance technique, musical and cultural information around the manyfold expressions of (mostly) woman dances of the East. Yoga, dance notation and explanations of the costumes make the lessons a rich source of motivation and personal development.
Working with her is true bliss.
Find more information on her classes, workshops and Dance Tours here. Helene has many friends all around the world; so, if she comes to your region, do not miss to pay her a visit.
Picture credits: Helene Eriksen.

Joy of Dancing: Gudrun Märtins – a German Odissi Dancer

I had heard about Gudrun Märtins, one of the leading artists of the classical Indian dance form Odissi in the western world, but when I saw her performance a few weeks ago, I was completely smitten. Her entrance on stage, accompanied by the sound of conch shell trumpets, reveales her exquisite features through the opulent make-up. Her face is a perfect oval with a long and slender nose. Her eyebrows form crescent moons decorated with elegant white dots, her lips are full and sensual with a mysterious Mona Lisa smile. But most alluring are her large, luminous eyes, dark and deep enough to drown oneself.

A piece in honor of the ten goddesses reveal the wide range of her art. She strikes dramatic poses with precision and expresses feelings through the most disciplined and economical gestures. Her movements are crisp and practiced with a perfection that needs many years to be reached. In the dance narrative parts and parts of pure dance, intermingled with acrobatic poses, alternate and create a complete masterpiece.

Gudrun Märtins holds a "Master of Arts" degree at Pracheen Kala Kendra University in Bhubaneshwar (India) after a total of 6 years of study in the Guru Shishya System with her teacher Sangeeta Dash in Bhubaneshwar, in the state of Orissa. With increasing proficiency she received the responsibility to teach classes and appeared at performances and festivals in India.

The following day I was lucky also to attend one of her workshops, taught with mastery, precision and a good sense of humor. Check her dates here and if you happen to be somewhere around, don't miss it!

Picture credits here and here.

Joy of Dancing: Lavani from Maharashtra

Very popular in it's region of origin, but quite unknown in the dance community in the West is the Maharashtrian folk dance Lavani. The word Lavani derives from Lavanya meaning beauty. Lavani is combination of dance and teasing lyrics with warm rhythm of Dholki, performed by women wearing nine-yard saris.
Lavani was added quite recently to the popular culture of Mumbai. Tamashas (folk theater) used to happen only in the traditional sangit bari theatres in places like Solapur, Pune, Choufula and Modnimb. The stage shows were patronised by local tradesmen, craftsmen and poor farmers. The relatively rich could ask for private baithaks where girls danced only for them.
The dance is particulraly appealing beacause of its flirtatious movements and the hilarious character of the performance. Spectators express their enthusiasm and applause whistling and clapping.

An interesting documentary "Natale Tumchyasathi: Behind the Adorned Veil" (2009) by Savitri Medhatul & Bhushan Korgaonkar has been screened only in India by now (read about it here, here and here). You can watch the entire movie here, but this television edition has no subtitles. I have been looking everywhere to buy the DVD but I could't find it - so if you come cross it somewhere, please let me know!

Picture credits here and here.

Joy of Dancing: Héla Fattoumi - Dancing the Veil

A radio interview caught my attention today and I had to share this with you immediately. Héla Fattoumi is a dancer from Tunis, which is the capital of the probably most westernized Arabic country. But even there the advancing arabisation and islamisation of North Africa is palpable. The traditional white cloth that women used to wear to cover themselves ("safsari" in Tunisia, "haik" in Algeria and Morocco) is being subsequently substituted by the "niqab", the black, body-covering veil that leaves only a narrow slits for the eyes, originally from the Gulf region. That is often considered a symbol of wahabism, a conservative islamic movement . (Moroccan haik) Fattoumi made an unusual experiment: She started to wear the full veil herself. In the choreography she works on her experiences and plays with emotions from easy to claustrophobic. The title "manta" refers both to the Praying Mantis and the French "manteau" (coat). "Manta" will be performed tonight, 20th august, 21st and 22nd in Berlin at the "Tanz im August" festival. From the festival program: In »Manta«, Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux dare to take on a controversial subject: the Islamic veil. They use clear images to grasp the struggle to regain physical autonomy: silent screams under the veil, an arm raised through the cloth. For Fattoumi and Lamoureux, the hijab represents a limitation of freedom that stifles women’s individuality. The body is, after all, a means of expression and communication for everybody – not just for dancers. »Manta« tests the limits that are set for artistic approaches to a religious symbol.

Choreografie: Héla Fattoumi, Éric Lamoureux › Mit: Héla Fattoumi Produktion: Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen/Basse-Normandie (CCNC/BN) › Koproduktion: Festival Montpellier Danse 2009, LiFE – Lieu international des Formes Emergentes de Saint Nazaire › Gastspiel ermöglicht durch: Französische Botschaft, Bureau du Théâtre et de la Danse, CulturesFrance Héla Fattoumi - Eric Lamoureux hivernales avignon 3 Picture credits: here and here. Note the very useful dictionary of types of veiling used in the muslim world.

New Series: Joy of Dancing

My regular readers and blogging friends know about my passion for dancing, and my grieve that I had to stop aftre the first months of my pregnancy... Now my little one is four months old and my body is craving for beautiful movements with music! I have been a practicioner for fifteen years now of Folklore and Women Dances from the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkans, extending my interest along the Silk Road to India - and beyond... I get excited with the music, precious costumes and, most of all, with the feeling of my bare feet touching the ground.

I have always experinced dancing as something more than just a work out; it is a sort of meditation in the movement. The deep immersion in the flow of rhythm and melody join together my scattered thoughts and let my body feel free and full of energy after long periods of physical and intellectual tension I go through while wrinting.

So I decided to share thoughts on dance styles, events and teachers in (more or less) sporadic posts.

Today I want to start briefly with an announcement, but it means so much to me!
In september I will organize for the first time a performance cum workshops in my hometown Weimar, hopefully the first of many many beautiful events.

Fabulous Classical Indian dancers Poonam Panchwagh (Pune, India) and Anne Dietrich (Leipzig, Germany) are going to perform Kathak dance from North India...

....and Mohiniyattam dance from South India (Kerala) ...

... as well as an audacious fusion of both styles.

I got to know both dancers last year when I attended their workshops in Leipzig and I was smitten by both their fabulous teaching and friendly manner. Looking forward to seeing you!

More information about the Company Srijan here.