OK, tribal and fusion dancers. I know we generally don’t dance to classic Middle Eastern music, but we should know these recordings and know them well. We should also be able to dance to them, should the opportunity arise. If you haven’t yet invested in a few good oriental music recordings, now is better than later. It’s a part of your education as a bellydancer. In my opinion, if you’ve been dancing for over a year there are no excuses for not knowing most of these songs. There’s also a reason these songs are essential: They’re damn good.

The songs with links to translations if available.  Hardly a complete list:

• Alf Layla Wa Layla (A Thousand and One Nights)
• Aziza
• Habibi Ya Ayni (My Sweetheart, My Eye)
• Enta Omri (You Are My Life) Sometimes transliterated as “Inta Omri”.
• Lama Bada Yata Sana (When She Begins to Sway)
• Laylat Hob (Love Night)
• Lissa Fakir (Do You Remember?)
• Mashaal
• Mastika – Turkish Karsilama
• Rompi Rompi - Turkish Karsilama
• Salam Alay (She Greeted Me)
• Sawwa (Vagabond)
• Set al Hosen
• Tamer Henna (Henna Flower)
• Zay al Hawa (Like the Wind)
• Zayna (Zaina, or Zeina)

Where do I find this music?

• Bellydance Superstars Volume 1
• Suhaila’s Surpreme Selections
• Jalilah’s Raks Sharki Volume 1.
• Jalilah’s Raks Sharki Volume 3.
• Jalilah’s Raks Sharki Volume 5. I love this recording.
• Masters of Bellydance Music Volume 1 and Volume 2

Please, dear fusion dancers, give these songs and these recordings a chance.  Not knowing these songs and not respecting them is like disowning yourself from your family.  And, who knows… you might find yourself loving some of these songs.

Cabaret, oriental, and folkloric bellydance instructors make it clear to their students the importance of knowing the meaning and history of the music used in performance and class, mostly because the music that those dancers typically use is from the Middle East and these dancers often perform for people from the Middle East.  How embarrassing for a dancer to perform a happy, light-hearted dance to a song that’s really about heartache and lost love to an audience full of people who know the true meaning of the song… not to mention that those audience members might be terribly offended that the dancer clearly had no idea of what that song means!  Luckily, in cabaret circles, there are many experienced dancers who will gladly tell a less-experienced dancer the meaning of a song and the history behind it.

With tribal fusion dancers, however, the situation is a little bit different… Because tribal fusion is such a new genre, and also because it encompasses such a wide range of dance styles and music choices, we may not think we have many mentors or instructors to give us guidance on the meaning of a song.  Unfortunately, I think a lot of newer dancers in the tribal fusion genre get wrapped up in the fun and artistic freedom of the style without thinking about the responsibility that they have as performers and as performers of an ethnic dance form with a rich history.

I find this phenomenon happening most often as tribal fusion dancers use more and more Balkan and Romany (Gypsy) music and blend it with old-timey, Vaudeville, circus, and sideshow themes.  And of course, blending these images and ideas with bellydance is fun and entertaining, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a responsibility to know the origins of our music.  The Romany people have been persecuted and discriminated against throughout history, and much of their traditional songs reflect this collective experience.  While a lot of Balkan Romany music sounds fun and entertaining, the lyrics of these songs can be much more sad than we Westerners might perceive.  I saw a dancer performing a light-hearted, Vaudeville-inspired choreography to “Djelem Djelem” (lyrics and translation here), which is considered to be the Romany anthem.  Jarko Jovanovic composed the words and set them to a traditional melody in response to Nazi persecution of the Gypsies during the Holocaust.  It’s not exactly a happy song.  (For further information and history of the Roma, visit this website.)

So, even though tribal fusion is such a new style, and it’s certainly going through its own growing pains, that doesn’t mean that those of us who perform this genre are excused from the responsibility of research, or from respecting our source material and music.  Of course, not every traditional song has some deep, historical meaning… but it might.  Please, if you choose to dance to a traditional song, particularly one with sung lyrics, take a few moments to poke around on the internet to find out the origins of that song.

What I think is just as important, if not more so, is the dancer’s music.

By this I mean that the songs in a dancer’s set should complement each other, through mood, tonality, instrumentation, and/or style. I wouldn’t use the first song from my “Darkest Dance” performance and put it together with the song I used at Tribal Fest 8.  The two songs have completely different moods.  The Darkest Dance performance was introspective, flowing, and an overall feeling of loss and sorrow.  The Tribal Fest 8 performance is loud, angular, in-your-face, and angry.  These are two completely different moods and putting them together, at least for me, would seem artificial and forced.  The songs you choose to dance to, if you’re dancing to more than one, should flow well together.  The more sets you put together, the easier it will be to tell whether a song goes well with another song.

The order of the songs is also important.  Personally, I like to use the model of the classic American cabaret set as a template for my own sets.  If I’m allotted 10-15 minutes, this usually means I’ll start with a fast opening song, often with finger cymbals, then I will have one medium tempo song, followed by a slower song that has the feel of a taqsim and is a bit introspective, and I’ll end my set with a song that has the feel of a drum solo and/or has a lot of energy.  This template is time-tested, and can be applied to performances that don’t use Middle Eastern music. If I’m allotted 6-8 minutes, I’ll start with a slower song and end with a song that has that “drum solo” feel.  Or, if I have songs that are short enough, I’ll start with a fast one, have a slower one in the middle, and then end with a high-energy song.

Personally, I don’t like to end my sets, no matter how long they are, with something slow, languid, or introspective. It’s rare when I see a dancer who can end her set with a slow or quiet song and make it work.  Typically, you want to leave your audience excited and energized, and the last song in your set will probably be what they remember the most about you and your performance.  Of course, this isn’t a “rule”, but just a guideline, and it’s what has worked for me.

Your set should progress like a good story: it should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  It shouldn’t be just a collection of songs that you just happen to like.  Take some time to listen to your prospective set and make sure that the songs flow together, that transitions from song to song aren’t jarring, and that the set reflects a particular mood, feeling, or character.  It’s important to look at your performance as a complete unit: costume, make-up, hair, music, and mood should all go together to make a cohesive whole.