Baladi is sometimes spelled balady, beledi or beledy.

The word Baladi can mean rough and unsophisticated to the more urbane Cairenes, but to the Baladi people living in Cairo, it means home, hometown, my people, in a very good way. Hmmm, much like the word 'country' might be used in the US.

When Baladi women dance, it's a joyful improvisation. Baladi dance is social dance, although Baladi women would certainly be attempting to entertain one another and might take turns dancing as a soloist at a party or wedding to entertain one another.

There's a fantastic article by Hossam Ramzy on Shira's website that describes the Baladi woman, the social context of her dancing, and specifically the musical form called Baladi Progression (aka Baladi Taksim, sometimes tet Baladi). More on that later...

Here are some words and phrases that are often used to describe the Baladi dance style, comparative to other bellydance styles. Watch for these qualities in the video clips that follow:

• Earthy
• Grounded
• Simple
• Spirited
• Playful
• Joyful

Other notes about Baladi

Related folk dances

Since Baladi means 'of the country' or 'my country' most of the Egyptian folk dances are also Baladi dances. Saidi is a Baladi dance, for instance, as is Sha'abi.

Typical Movement Vocabulary

• Arms: Heavy, soft and informal. Generally holding positions rather than moving or flowing, often in a simple 'soft W' position.
• Upper body: Big upward ribcage pops (a la Fifi Abdo), shoulder and ribcage shimmies and shoulder accents.
• Pelvis/hips: Hip drops, pelvic undulations, circles, big sideways accents with weight shifts, shimmies and pelvic locks, big hip circles
• Footwork: Simple. Steps are typically bouncy and earthy rather than gliding or mincing.
• Abdomen: Locks, pops and twisting/undulating movements that also involve the pelvis or ribcage.
• Other: Hand gestures and facial expressions often interpret lyrics or emotions of the song. The dancer may play finger cymbals or handle a cane.

Music

• Baladi Progression: aka Tet Baladi or Baaladi Taksim. An improvisational form that developed among the Baladi musicians in Cairo in the 20th century (see video clip examples below). The music starts out with a taksim (improvised solo) on a single instrument -- and follows a format that builds in speed and intensity.
• Baladi songs Tahtil Shibbak and Bint il Balad are examples of the kind of earthy, folksy songs used for baladi. Fatme Serhan is a very popular baladi singer.

Costuming

The traditional costume influences the style. A baladi women would typically be wearing a galabeya and might tie a narrow scarf around her hps for dancing. Her movements would have to be large to be seen in the loose-fitting garment. The scarf knotted at one hip tempts the dancer to move that hip in circles, drops, and shimmies that are sometimes one-sided.

Professional dancers might wear a traditional galabeya, an assuit dress, or a stretch galabeya, all with a matching or contrasting scarf at the hips. Galabeyas with matching bras peeking out from low-cut necklines were made popular by the designer Eman Zaki. Fifi Abdo made it popular to perform baladi in a simple white men's galabeya with gold bangle bracelets and a big colorful head and hipscarf.

Roots of Baladi

This dance simply comes from the way people dance in the Middle East, to express joy.

Here's an example, hotel staff having a little impromptu party in Aswan:

This is one of my favorite examples, from a wedding in Luxor. I can't embed the clip, but I hope you'll click here to watch it on youtube.

Baladi Style Dance

Fifi Abdo is the undisputed queen of baladi style dance. Here she is dancing baladi style in the look she made famous - wearing a men's white galabeya.

Tahtil Shibbak might just be the most popular baladi style song ever. Here's Ranya Renee's interpretation. She's an American dancer who teaches and performs Egyptian style. Her DVD set on Baladi (Progression) is an amazing resource, see 'Resources' below for more about the set.

Here's Orit of Israel performing a dance in Baladi style. Her costume, movement and character are all baladi here although there are several parts to the routine. She enters with a melaya wrapped around her, which is a Baladi prop. There's a bit of progression here, and also some Baladi cane.

Soheir Zaki in a gorgeous assuit beledi dress. Lots and lots of the downward hip locks she's famous for in this clip!

Baladi Progression

Here's a Baladi Progression from Fifi Abdo (I suspect the opening taksim has been cut off in this clip, normally there would be a much longer build):

Another famous dancer, Nagua Fouad, performing a baladi progression:

One of my favorite baladi progressions of all time comes from Miasia, an American dancer in the Washington DC area.
Click here to see it on youtube, embedding isn't allowed for this clp.

Baladi Style Oriental Dancers

There are some Egyptian dancers whose style is simply more grounded and earthy. We use the word 'baladi' to describe their style of dance, meaning that they have that baladi earthiness regardless of their costuming or music choices.

is a good example. Compared to her contemporaries, like and , is more grounded, earthy, relaxed in her arms, less balletic and more folksy.This is a very famous Dandash routine where she imitates several famous Egyptian dancers.

Resources: