Choosing Belly Dance Performance Music
Choosing Belly Dance Performance Music
Egyptian style baladi and Oriental music has a distinctive rhythmic beat that helps to elevate your belly dance performance. When you first enroll on belly dance classes for beginners, the traditional style of dance music may initially be new and strange to you. You will quickly discover that your body wants to move in time to the hypnotic rhythms of the inspiring belly dance performance music. Let your hips sway, and your allow your body to move how it naturally wants to.
Exploring Belly Dance Performance Music
When you attend regular weekly belly dancing classes you will hear a variety of different types of classic Egyptian music. On advanced belly dancing lessons you also learn lyric interpretation. Your belly dance teacher will want to share some of the most popular performance music with you so that you can learn and master the complex layered movements. Your dance experience will then become far more than just moving in time to the music. As you improvise and create your belly dance choreography, you will feel completely connected to it.
Originally, traditional baladi music was played by live bands at special occasions and events. The belly dancer and musicians would work together to improvise and create a harmonious choreography during a performance in front of an audience. Belly dance costumes were chosen to complement the song or instrumental music of each dance. In Egypt, most professional belly dancers still perform with live bands. Often however, belly dancers play recorded baladi music at dance shows and events. Recorded music is also played during belly dance lessons.
The Perfect Performance Music For Your Belly Dance Choreography
When you’re practicing your belly dance moves at home it’s a good idea to have authentic traditional belly dance music to move your body to. The right performance music, to inspire you and to enhance your choreography, depends on a number of key factors.
▪ You need to consider the audience you are dancing for.
▪ The duration of the song, and whether you want to dance to music with vocals or instrumental music.
▪ Your belly dance skills level will influence your choice of music – as a beginner you ideally want to choose lively performance music with clear rhythms that are not too complicated. Advanced belly dance students can choose music with a good variety of rhythms and moods.
▪ You should also always choose performance music that you like to listen to.
Performance Music Suggestions For Home Practice
The best way to learn more about belly dance performance music is to ask your teacher for suggestions and recommendations. On the various developmental belly dancing courses you will hear a variety of different styles and may find that you have a natural preference for instrumental or vocal music.
If you’re happy to experiment, while you perfect your moves, undulations and techniques, you can try compilation music CDs by various artists.
On Fire! The Hottest Bellydance CD Ever features uplifting instrumental pieces of different lengths.
10 Songs Every Bellydancer Should Know is a collection of popular songs that have been instrumentally adapted for performance.
The Golden Era of Bellydance is available in volumes 1, 2 and 3. The classic songs date back through the decades and are also dedicated to famous belly dancers.