|
Claire
Naffah
Interview
By Kerry
Stewart 4/6/01 In
her workshops at the El Badri Middle Eastern Dance Festival, Claire Naffah
spoke about the qualities of classical oriental dance. Later, in an
interview with Kerry Stewart, Claire Naffah spoke further about classical
oriental dance.
|
 243a Stirling Highway Claremont 9384 8886 |
Classical oriental dance is all about
subtlety, lightness, softness, using space, being like a butterfly, having a
body like a doe. Lightness is very important. Spins use space, arms are either
at shoulder level or above the head. There is subtle usage of wrists and hands,
snake arms, horizontal and vertical undulations, roundness in hips and the lower
spine.
Hands should be soft and subtle and supple. Arms
should not be busier than the body. Arms give expression, they indicate
femininity and show that you are relaxed. The core of the body is the dominant
thing and the arms embellish and give aesthetics.
The veil can be used as a prop, an extension to
arm movements, to enhance, embellish and beautify movement. The dancer is up on
the ball of the foot (or in shoes) rather than flatfooted, as in baladi.
Classical dance is always solo. Keep a vertical
posture, knees flexed and relaxed. Think precision and balance, and maintain a
distinct clean, clear line. Subtle, subtle, subtle! (3)
Claire, can you define classical oriental
dance for me?
In oriental dance, the word classical itself means standards,
it is not specifically confined to a region. In folk and baladi we speak about
the specific area and region but classical is not confined to a region. So, you
can find classical in Turkey, in Egypt, in Lebanon and in the surrounding areas
of the Middle East.
Originally, classical oriental [culture] started from the
time of the dynasties of the Ommayads and moved on to be at its peak in the
times of the Abbasids, where art flourished and there was emphasis on poetry,
music and dance. It was the golden era. I have studied the poets and
philosophers at school as part of our Arabic literature and philosophy
curriculum, but we have no documentation about the dance and what repertoire or
movement vocabulary they used. The only guide is the music and the scales.
The hub for such classical music originally was Iraq.
People who wanted to study classical music in its highest form went to Iraq.
Also, the influence of the Persian culture cannot be ignored. The Arabs
(Abbasids), mainly in Iraq (formerly Mesopotamia), translated Persian myths,
such as One Thousand and One Nights, into Arabic.
Classical is more melodic dancing, so the melody is more
dominant in the music than the rhythm. We do use rhythm; the rhythm intertwines
with the melody, but the most dominant part is the melody. It can be formal, it
can be abstract, and classical oriental is at its best when it is performed in a
theatre and not when people are sitting in a restaurant. There is a lot of
lightness in the movements, so it is not earthy and heavy.
Classical is the highest form in the dance because it does
not depend on the outward things, what the dancer wears, it’s about the skill.
So, it is a difficult form of the dance, because it takes years and years of
training. The dancer has to have a good mastery of her body and her movements
and the repertoire, which is very rich. Classical is a very expressive type of
dancing, and it is timeless, not a fashion type of thing.
So, when people talk about Turkish or
Egyptian or Lebanese styles of dance, what are they talking about?
They’re talking about specific folk dancing, regional
dancing, the music, the costuming and the movement repertoires that identify
from which region that specific dance is coming. They’re not talking about the
classical dance. Within every culture or country they do have their own
classical forms, but if you’re talking Turkish dancing you’re talking
specifically a folk type of dancing, because types of dancing are identified by
folk, by their own native people. Once it gets out of its own context and the
communal type of expression, then it loses its identity.
Who has defined classical dancing?
Classical dancing evolved from the colonisation of the
countries, be it Turkey or Egypt or Syria or Lebanon. Prior to the colonisation,
everybody did folk dance...[but] when people were introduced to and learned
about classical ballet, they started by imitating the movements of the arms and the
erectness and the lightness, because in ballet they dance on their tiptoes,
while the folk people dance flatfooted, its very earthy and down really heavy.
The more you mix cultures and the more you are mixed with people of other
identities, the more it enhances your understanding and the manner in which you
use your own movements.
Classical oriental dance is a refinement, evolved from the
colonisation, because the original native people wanted to learn new skills, and
it was incorporated with the original movements of the dance. This is why the
hip movements, the Egyptian walk, the shimmy come into that.
What about cabaret style?
It can come under the umbrella of oriental dance, but there
is a fine line between a high standards cabaret style and an ordinary type of
cabaret. What determines all of these things is the music. Everything is
affected by the music. So, if the
composer is composing only purely classical music, then the dancer cannot go and
stamp on her own and do her own thing like the baladi, she has to abide by the
classical as the composer has done.
You can have taqsim either in the melody or taqsim in the
rhythm. You can have both in the cabaret at different intervals; not one after
the other, in different sequences.
So people dancing cabaret would be using
modern music?
They can, they can use more modern music… but classical
style cannot be modern music. There
is some formality in the style, you can’t get out of certain standards.
It is a distinctive type of dance and it’s not very
common otherwise it becomes popular and folk.
Some of the classical composers you would
recommend?
Baligh Hamdi is a great composer of classical music.
Mohamed Abdul Wahab, Riad el Sunbati, Kamal El Tawil, Zakaria Ahmad, Said Mekawi.
Farid el Atresh is very good also.
Were the great stars, such as Samia Gamal and
those we see in the Stars of Egypt videos drawing on a classical style?
Some of them, yes… but not all of them. Within the same
movie you would see the same dancer come out and do a classical piece then she
would come out and do a cabaret piece or a baladi piece. When she was doing a
classical piece in the movie you would see her on the stage, and the music is
different. When she is doing a cabaret style you see her in a place that’s
full of men and her movements are coquettish and cheeky and more seductive, and
when she’s doing the baladi style you see the way her costuming is, her feet
and her headpiece… its different.
You mentioned flatfooted…
Flatfooted for folk style and on the ball of the feet for
classical style because classical is always up high and light, (the dancer) must
be very, very light, as if she is dancing on silk or cotton. And mostly the
upper torso is involved with the arm movements. In baladi, you don’t involve a
lot of arm movements in a sophisticated manner, you don’t have to lift your
arms up in baladi. There is more more elevation and haughtiness in the
classical, but in baladi you can have the hands on the temple of the head, on
the waist, or at shoulder or waist level when you’re dancing. You’re more
expanded and open in classical and you’re more compact and earthy in baladi.
In classical would any cheekiness be
appropriate?
No… you’ve got to be graceful, not cheeky. In baladi
you’ve got to be cheeky but in classical you have to be graceful.
You said body like a doe…
A body like a doe is very important for suppleness,
otherwise you would not be fulfilling the movement at its best. If you are
stiff, then you are not doing classical. You have to be really like a doe,
that’s very important Supple…
Subtle was the other word you used a lot in
the workshops…
…subtle, to display the grace and the femininity and the
transparency. It’s like when you have something you think is concrete; you
can’t touch it, but it’s there. There
is a very fine line in dance, while the melody is concrete, it’s there…
there is a lot of transparency, and it’s a very hard type of dance. It’s
hard. It’s not easy.
“Technique … is like grammar and syntax. After you learn these you are on your own to generate your
originals”. (1)
Can you elaborate on the relationship between
technique and personal style?
A dancer has to be really well trained in the manner that
she would refine her movement vocabulary so that at the end she can perfect that
technique. At that stage of the transcendence of the technique, she displays her
own identity and personality.
It’s like a poet. If he doesn’t have good language
[skills], good vocabulary and a rich repertoire of words, he cannot command
imagery and create poetry [or] express metaphors. So, the dance becomes
metaphoric. But before you reach these stages, you have to have solid technique.
If you don’t have solid technique, you cannot play with the elements of the
dance to mould them to your own persona or identity.
This is where the difference is between exercise and dance,
it’s [in] the form of expression. We can go to an aerobics class and do the
same movements with the same technique and the same procedures but when you are
in dance, you learn the basic things and then you start using those elements
your way… and we have different ways of displaying our thoughts and ideas. We
have the vocabulary, we know the music, we know the steps, but it’s the manner
in which we display these things that makes us who we are.
Sometimes you find people in the same country speak the
same language, but if you go to different regions, they have different dialects
because it relates to their environment, they have different figures of speech.
Same thoughts, same ideas, same concepts, but the expression and the manner in
which we display is different. This is what makes every person special and
unique. It’s very important.
It takes a long time to establish the techniques
[of classical oriental dance], long training and practise, and after you
understand classical oriental dance, you will put your own personality into the
techniques and come out with something individual. (3)
You studied with Nadia Gamal…I’m
interested how you moved from training with someone as respected at that through
to developing your own personal style.
Okay. I went to Nadia because I admired her dancing and I
thought ‘wow’. You tend to look to someone who is a prototype or an example
in the thing that you like, that you aspire to, but then after a certain time of
experience and different practices you develop, your personality comes to shine.
For example, with the philosophers Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle, Socrates was the teacher and the disciples then came out, they
learned from him. He was the mentor, but then they branched out into their own
philosophies. So, you have the mentor, you learn something, but then you want to
develop and grow. Growth is about taking an independent path, an independent
choice; you make a choice how you’d like to go about it…
Nadia was for me a very good prototype and example and
someone that I would look up to, but I would not pretend, and I would not wish
to be her. I’m not Nadia, I am Claire. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have anyone
special if everyone who learns from someone else becomes [that] someone else.
Then no-one is special, no-one is unique.
Its very important to develop one’s own way of using the
music and way of playing with the [dance] and interacting with people. I
improvise a lot when I dance, depending on the space, what I wear, how I
feel…the people (I’m looking
into their eyes) … the music, the whole feel, the whole aura of the place
affects my way of dancing itself.
I dance differently to the same type of music in different
situations. Why? Because there is a certain energy in the place that feeds me
back with different feelings… there is no one way to dance a piece of music or
a rhythm.
You work hard in your classes. How do you
find the experience of teaching?
The more I give, the more I want to give. I have a lot to
give. I feel like a spring of water, it never stops, and I believe that there is
something like a spring of water coming out of me, knowledge that I would like
to impart to the others. I’d like to see everybody enjoy the dance, and the
more I give, the more I want to give. I cannot hold back something, because
it’s inside me and it has to come out, otherwise I feel frustrated that
something is left inside me and I did not say it. I have to say it, I want to
say it! I feel the urge of letting it out, and my joy, the feedback for me, is
when I see that a change is happening in the people, that it’s working, people
are benefiting from the time and what I’m standing there and giving them.
Speaking for myself, if I go to attend a class to learn a
skill or to get more informed and the person who is standing there is not giving
me 100%, I feel very frustrated. I feel I’m wasting my money, I’m wasting my
energy, I’m wasting my time and I’m not getting anywhere. I don’t like
this to be done to me, so I don’t like to do this to others.
Ultimately, the joy of teaching is when you see that
something is happening in your students. It is a two-way thing, it is not one
way, I don’t have a glass barrier between me and people I teach. It’s human
communication, because dance is human… and we are communicating with music and
with body language and with body movements and spirit. So, if this whole process
is not fulfilled, then it’s not right.
You talked earlier about seeing people
grow…
It’s very important. Ultimately, this is the purpose for
me, to feel that I’m growing. I have to help people grow also, because
otherwise I’d be stale, I’d get bored. Of course, I love to push people to
grow so that I can grow with them. It’s more challenging for me, because I
have to create new avenues of creativity and new ways of improvement and
enhancing things.
Also, when I’m in class, sometimes students do movements
in their own way and that inspires me… I get inspired by the students. It
could be an innocent or a raw material type of thing, but from there I can take
it and work on it and transform it into something beautiful. So, it’s very
inspiring.
Choreography is about relating to the music, and
the creative images you have. (It could be music you have discarded in the past
and then after a few years it means something to you.) Although the music
dictates the movements, when you dance, the music becomes an accompaniment to
you. You listen and you play with the movements. (3)
Can you talk more about this relationship
between the music and the dance?
Ultimately everything starts with the music. Something
inspires you to get up to dance – you listen to the music, you like it, and
you say, oh yes, I’d love to get up and dance. But when the music is greater
than your movements or what you are doing, then you become secondary to the
music…sometimes you are sitting and watching a dancer and the music is so
beautiful but the dancer is not marrying the movements to the music, she’s not
fulfilling …the sight and the ears are not associated in harmony, there is
something wrong.
If the dancer meets the dance deep inside, the
intimate and private experience is fulfilling.
(2)
The musical arrangement plays a great role…I like to
dance to classical pieces of music when they are done with the traditional
instruments with a nice arrangement. Arrangement is very important, and that has
to do with the conductor of the orchestra. I don’t like synthesised music…
It takes away the whole feel of the dance…I cannot dance like a wind up
toy…I don’t like synthesised music at all.
The music arrangement is very important because you’ve
got accents, not only in the rhythm but accents in the oud when it comes in, or
the lap harp or the quanoon or the violin, whichever is more dominant, [and] the
dynamics and the timing, how it is woven together, that’s really classical
dancing.
Whereas baladi is rhythmical and earthy, in classical
oriental dance, the melody takes over and is refreshed with rhythm…You know
when you hear classical music and you feel serene deep inside you, it’s like
it infiltrates into the heart, its very emotive and it gives a sense of being
centred. I feel very centred when I hear the melody, it creates nice balance.
With classical music, you can take your
time...there are moments that you take your time, the moment stretches. I’m
not talking about the taqsim… we’re talking here about abstract. It’s more
alluring. In classical, the melody opens the way for you to be more alluring.
That’s what the melody does, you can be more alluring.
(1) Naffah, Claire The
Psyche of Dance Global Oasis
Issue 2, 1999
(2) Naffah, Claire
Dance and the New Millenium Global
Oasis Issue 5, 2000