Tribal Belly dance: ghawazee in Egypt

Tribal style: dancers from the Ghawazee tribe

Ghawazee once were spread throughout Egypt. Now they can only be found in the Saaidi region.

Ghawazee are according some sources Sinti gypsies now based in Luxor, Egypt. The most famous Ghawazee tribe are the Banaat Maazin. One of the musicians beats the dohollah, a large derboukka the other is playing the riqq and the dancers play sagat.
Ghawazee dances feature constant shimmies and the foot and zills carry the beat. The costumes begin 20 th century consisted of strips layering up the skirt. Older costumes from the 18 th and 19 th century are made of one piece. The ghazeeyeh have a long tradition of tribal wedding dances. Nowadays the so called cabaret style belly dancers replaced the more folkloric style of the Ghawazee. The ghazeeyeh were first made famous by the account of Edward Lane in his book "Manners of the modern Egyptians"

Raqset al assaya or the "stick dance" is an ancient Egyptian tradition. The male dancers use a heavy cane and the female dancers are using a light bamboo stick. The pictures show the Mahmoud Reda troupe doing a cane dance. The raqs al assaya done with women and men mixed is of course a modern adaption of this particular dance.

Another interesting dance of the Egyptian gypsies is the so called "Bee dance" or "dance of the wasp". This solo dance, also described in ancient Persian lithographs, is sometimes referred to as a fertility dance. But that might be not the real reason, as many oriental dances have connotations as fertility dances. According Abdel Hazim, the name came in fact from the use of instrumentents that accompagnied this dance. To note the arghul, which drone produces indeed a buzzing bee sound.

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