Baladi Salon Series

One of the Ginger City's most popular programs, this 4-part series offers 9 hours of in-depth technique instruction, dance drills to music, and cultural details.

I've packed this program so you can fill your baladi practice with inspiration from 4 classic Egyptian dancers: Tahia Carioca, Soheir Zaki,

Fifi Abdou, and Mona el-Said.

These are dancers who have influenced me a lot in my dance development, and I was lucky to work with Mona personally in private lessons.

I'm happy to share some of her wisdom here through my approach.

In this program, we dig into traditional Egyptian baladi, taking inspiration from these famous Egyptian stars of yesteryear.

This is NOT about "folklore"-style baladi, like the baladi of the Reda Troupe and numerous folklore instructors and dancers around the world.

While Oriental dance (raqs sharqi) by its nature has room for globalization and cultural mixing, raqs baladi is different; it's tied to its social roots in the contexts of baladi people -- the working classes of Egyptian cities -- if it is to be authentic.

I see the internationalization of baladi (by putting it into choreography and even adding balletic touches) as something of a shame, because many dancers skip the deeper grounding baladi has to offer.

Rather, the goal in Baladi Salon Series is to follow the path from homegrown dancing at social events, up to the Oriental-stage-show form of baladi that

became popular in the 1960s and on.

In this work, I aim to honor the baladi roots of the dance stars,

from before they became famous.

The theme is "from homestyle to stage style," focusing on feminine movements to baladi music, and the differences between how regular Egyptian women dance at home and at family parties vs. how the dance stars perform baladi.

We'll address this in terms of technique, musicality, and performance skills/character, as well as the culture of baladi as it has been portrayed on Egyptian Oriental dance stages and in classic films.

I have worked with Ranya live at a festival, via her DVDs, through her first Baladi Salon series and through the Ginger City Community membership. I have learnt a great deal from her analysis and movement breakdown. Ranya’s material is informative and inspirational. Her studies in yoga, Pilates and neuropsychology enhance her gift for teaching in an approachable way. Ranya’s depth of knowledge of Egyptian dance and baladi, in particular, is unparalleled. She brings to teaching her experience performing internationally, her research and work with key Egyptian artists such as Mona Said, Nelly Fouad and Nany and musicians such as Nabawy, who played in Samia Gamal’s band and for Fifi Abdu. I highly recommend working with Ranya. She has a lot to offer as a teacher and mentor; not only is Ranya incredibly knowledgeable, she is warm, open and great fun. The introductory series of videos, Baladi from the Ground Up, focuses on alignment and baladi technique. Then, through in-depth analysis of performance videos and the techniques of Tahia Carioka, Sohair Zaki, Fifi Abdu and Mona Said, Ranya examines in the Baladi Salon Series how Egyptian women dance at family parties and at home vs. how the dance stars performed baladi style. Ranya’s knowledge of anatomy, safe dance practise and breath-work underpin her detailed descriptions of the movements. The quality of the material and the technical analysis are outstanding and would be applicable beyond baladi style alone. As Mona says, “Everything is in baladi”. The course was great value and enriched my understanding and practice of Egyptian dance and Baladi in particular. I will go back to this material again and again.

Kerry Stewart, Editor, Bellydance Oasis magazine

Perth, Australia

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