Dancy done

[bethlakshmi]

Yeah!

Got to see dancing ladies last night. FINALLY.

Mostly it was wonderful to see the gang. That was definitely my favorite part. The day's topic was Karshlama - a 9-beat Middle Eastern rhythm. Specifically how to dance to it, given that our improvisational experiment called "The Road Show", uses this beat for one of the songs -- a song called "Rampi, Rampi".

I'm gonna jot down a few notes... on about your business, unless you're a big dance geek.


So... you're still reading? I warned you this was gonna be geeky.

Karshlama is 9-beats, and it has a reeling feel to it:
D-t-D-ttt

Which is:
*1*-2-3-*4*-5-6-789

Where the numbers in stars are the D=doum (see Jas' Drum page if the drum terminology has lost you). The 789, are the three teks at the end.

This means you can do a lot of dance combos:
- slow, slow, quick, quick, quick
- slow, slow, pause, pause, pause
- quick-quick-quick, quick-quick-quick, some-thing-else
- quick-quick-quick, quick-quick-quick, breathe-breathe-breathe

Some of the combos we did:

NOTE: R=right, L=left

- 2 repeats of the rhythm:
- Doum - 2 right hip ups
- Doum - 2 left hip ups
(end measure one)
- D-t-D - right-left-right hip
- ttt - step left, pivot
(end measure two)

- 1 repeat of rhythm:
- doing a body "slither" - a vertical figure 8 of both chest and hips
- Doum - step R
- Doum - step L

- 1 repeat of rhythm:
keeping a slightly bouncy quality, powered by the L foot
- D - R foot back
- D - R foot front
- ttt - step R, replace L, step R

- 1 repeat
- D-t-D - step right, rock back, step R, angling R
- ttt - float pivot to angle L
- repeat on other foot.

We also did:
- 3 pt. turns, which a final floating step
- grape vine with a hop on the fourth step


The first two are probably my favorites, but they are all nice "what do you do with 9 beats?" solutions.

Comments

[lakshmi-amman.livejournal.com]

Since this is improv dance to live music, it's never the same song twice. :) We tend to follow Rosa's lead in how we arrange it. She and the other violinist, Lynne, work out a general plan ahead of time, and the drummers and sometimes-singer (me) follow along. We ended up codifing the phrase "habibi!" for Rosa to yell when it's the last round of the chorus.


We work off Mimi Spencer's "A Near Eastern Music Primer" book which has a version of Rampi, Rampi that you hear quite often in live ME music sets at Pennsic - as the late Ms. Spencer is very well beloved.

I could hum it for you, but that doesn't do very well via LJ. I can remember to drag out the music book sometime when I come to your place...