#traditioninmotion

Below are a few excerpts of the edited transcription of my interview with Ramzi.  In telling part of his life history of dabkeh and dance, Ramzi brought up key figures such as Wadea Jarrar, Caracalla, and Moiseyev in the development of dabkeh as the national folkloric dance of Lebanon.  He also makes the important distinction between theatrical dabkeh, and traditional social dabkeh, speaking to the characteristics and aesthetics of both.

In addition, Ramzi’s interview touched on the diverse rhythms, cultures and dances of dabkeh, and which all fall under the category of “Dabkeh - to stomp, to make sound.”  

Read the full transcript at the link above.

I was born in Bahrain,.. But I grew up in Lebanon, in Beirut.  In Lebanon, we’re talking about the sixties or the fifties.  TV wasn’t a very popular…media, …it wasn’t around in every house.  So, the entertainment was live,…  [In] every house there was an oud.  My mom was an oud player, my uncle was an oud player, my mom was a singer, she sang and we gathered almost every week in different houses.  ...And I kept the beat… or singing…  There wasn’t derbekkeh around, but it was like… cooking pot, playing on a plate, anything… very simple.  And they always asked me to dance.  “Come on, come on, you should dance!” So I did dancing a little bit...

... I auditioned to be a physical education teacher.  I got in.  In this school, they teach the dabkeh-  a class.  Who was the teacher? Wadea El Jarrar.  Wadea El Jarrar is very famous.  She’s the mother of the dabkeh.  Everyone is her student.  If you’re talking about Halim Caracella, Fadl Abdullah who has now one of the biggest folklore dabkeh groups in Lebanon, and so many. She’s like - Wadea [Emphasis with hands]!...

.. ’83 I came to the US.  From ’72-’82, I did strictly dabkeh.  I learned probably… 300 choreographies from so many, Abdel Halim Caracalla, Alain Zoghbi, Fadl Abdullah, … so many.   And even… very small choreographers, they have no name, nameless, they create the steps here and there.  And there’s a standard you have to know in the dabkeh world: the Dance of the Derbekkeh, the Dance of the Mijwiz, which was called Mijwiz Caracella, and three dozens of popular songs back then, like Diggy ya Rababa, Te La We Tetammar Ya Ear, Dugo al Mahabij … there were so many that were standards.  So we had to learn these theatrical dabkehs which were not traditional. I have a friend of mine, Yahya Nasrellah, he lives in Michigan.  He memorized all these steps.  He has a dance company, and he’s still doing those steps.  He knows!

I forgot those steps-the theatrical, I kept what I learned from Wadea, and the traditional dabkeh, I kept this, and I don’t do any more the theatrical dabkeh- I could do it, but i have to review it.   I prefer the traditional....

Now, I value more the dabkeh.  I study classical, at the same time, I value the feel of the dabkeh.  I know now more the feel of the dance as the feel, not just jumping around, the feel, the real feel.  …  I know dancing after all these years...

Dabkeh is a music and dance tradition of the Levant area (Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria) of the Middle East.  Originally rooted in village folk traditions, it is performed socially at celebrations, in stage choreographies by troupes, and even in street protests.  Typically, it is danced in lines and circles, with rhythmic stomping and syncopated foot patterns.  Dabkeh is also one of the most popular and beloved dances performed by Arab Americans (not solely by those of Levantine descent), at social gatherings, festivals and political events throughout the US and at major Arab American cities such as Brooklyn, NY.

Below are a few select excerpts of the transcription of the interview which highlight important themes.  Amer addressed topics such as his love for dabkeh, it’s connection with Palestine, the important relationship between live music and dabkeh in performance, the three major types of dabkeh song/ style, the positive aspects of dabkeh such as unity, brotherhood, and as spectacular way to introduce Palestinian culture cross-culturally.

The complete transcript is available at the link above.

The villages in Palestine, it’s very unique when it comes to dabkeh.  Some villages only do wahed ow nos type of dabkeh.  From where my mother is from, she’s from Shafaat.  They like to do their sahrahs wahed ow nos.  Everyone in the community does wahda ow nos .  Their dabkeh team does wahed ow nos.  I didn’t really see them do shamaliyya.  The villages in Palestine that are really, really into the culture are the ones in the Shemal [north]  In the North.  What I’ve seen, they’re more traditional when it comes to dabkeh, when it comes to parties.  They use the arghoul, the mijwiz, the shebabe live.  Whereas, in Ramallah, and in Jerusalem, the wedding singers, they use the org [keyboard] to play all the wind instruments.  And for true dabkeh you need the wind instrument.  Wind instruments are shababe, arghoul and mijwiz. .. it’s done with a couple of songs, zarifatoul, dela’ouna, jeffrah.  These are the songs that we do dabkeh on in Palestine....

The lawih would be the orchestrator, he’s the orchestrator not only of the team, but of the musicians.  The way we do dabkeh, the way Palestinians do dabkeh, the lawih, he will give signals to the singer when to start the next verse.  Before he starts the verse even, the person that’s playing the org or the person that’s the musicians in the background, they give the tune to the singer to start.  There’s a respect that’s involved.  Once I give the sign, the musician gives the tune, then the singer sings three, two verses of dela’aouna, zarifatoul, when he’s done, when he’s singing we’re in a relaxed stage where we just walk.  When the musicians in the background, the org player or the yarghoul, mijwiz poet. When he starts improvising, It’s all about him and us.  He’s controlling us, he’s controlling us indirectly, if his tunes are slow, we’ll do something slow.  If his tunes are hyped, we’ll do something hyped.  And we can always tell him, hype it up a little more, and he’ll hype it up more, or slow it down, or do or wahed ow nos, or do an askeria.  Whatever we’ll tell him to do, he’ll do and we’ll play....