THE MAGHREB:
THE MAGHREB AND MAGHREB DANCE
The Maghreb is the region of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and
Libya. Since the 1989 formation of the Arab Maghreb Union, Mauritania, and of the
disputed territory of Western Sahara (mostly controlled by Morocco) were included.
During the Al-Andalus era in Spain (from the 8th century to 1492), the Maghreb's
inhabitants, Maghrebis, were known as "Moors.
Today, the Maghreb is also known as al-maghrib al-ʻarabīy "the Arab Maghreb" or almaghrib al-kabīr " the great Maghreb" in Arabic. The Berber language alternative term
for al-maghrib, Tamazgha, has been popularized by Berber activists since the last quarter
of the 20th century.
The region was unified during the rule of the Berber kingdom of Numidia. which gave
way to centuries of rule by the Roman Empire, and later of the rule of the Islamic
Caliphates and Emirates under Umayyad, Abbasid, and other dynasties during the 8th to
13th centuries, and that of the Ottomans thereafter. For almost three thousand years the
Berber peoples of North Africa have clung to their identity and language, sheltering in
the mountains and in desert oases from invaders. The Arabic language became
widespread only with the invasion of the Banu Hilal, in the 12th century. Most of the
North African population is of Amazigh (Berber) origin but has been largely arabized.
There remain 20 million Amazigh people who are still speaking their ancient dialects as a
first language.
The Moors ruled Andalucia for several hundred years. Approximately ten per cent of the
Spanish language has Arabic roots, OLE (just try shouting "Allah". The term "Flamenco"
comes from Arabic. The root is the Arabic word "fellah": peasant, farmer, and poor
person.
After the 19th century, areas of the Maghreb were colonized by France, Spain and later
Italy.
MAGHREB DANCE:
In Maghrebi countries music and dance are associated partly with Middle Eastern culture
(Arabic and Turkish) as well as Arabo-Andalusian elements of Medieval Spain, and
partly with Amazigh and African elements.
The musical content was transmitted from the Baghdad of the Abbasid Dynasty and its
Golden Age to the surviving Umayyad Emirate in Cordova with which the musical
scholar Ziryab identified.
The aspects of the development of the dance focus on various specific Maghrebi
communities: Firstly among Imazighan people of the mountains such as the Djurdjura,
the Ahaggar, the Aures and the region of the M'zab in Algeria, the Rif and the Atlas and
the Sousse regions in Morocco and some regions in Tunisia such as Djerba, Matmata and
others as well as regions in Libya and Mauritania including the Oasis in the South of the
Maghreb, and lastly in Northern cities where highly sophisticated music and Andalusian
dances are to find. Spiritual dances with a strong self-healing content do exist every
Maghreb regions.
The dance is both a public and a personal expression, rich in symbolic dimensions that
deal with universal constants in nature, fertility of Mother Earth and the communication
between the Earthy and the Divine. In Amazigh regions women's singing accompanies
any kind of work, such as the Harvest. Festivals provide the opportunity to see dances as
a Unity. Traditional Amazigh dances are mostly ritual dances. Originally they were a
magical act, in order to obtain the fertility of Mother Earth or to ask for the rain in case of
the drought. The worshiping of a Divinity or a spirit of Nature was used in order to gain
its protection.
MAGHREB DANCE THEMES FOR WORKSHOPS
I.
CITY DANCES
1. ANDALUSIAN COURT DANCE WITH SCARVES: ( 2/3 hours)
Andalusian city dances in the Maghreb (North Africa) originate from
Arab-Andalusian traditions of well respected families in ancient cities,
Such as Fes, Rabat, Meknes, Tetouan, Tlemcen, Constantine, Algiers, Tunis,
Sousse...also have a Turkish element especially in Tunisia and Algeria.
Women only at various festivities perform them.
During the workshop Amel Tafsout will focus on the various techniques
of dancing with scarves and how to keep the rhythm while improvising.
(Please bring two scarves for the workshops). Time: 2 hours
2. Dancing to ALGERIAN “RAI” AND “‘ALLAWI”: (2 hours)
Raï music is a popular genre of world music from the Northern African country of
Algeria. Rai (“rah-AY”) music began in the late 1980s as a combination of popular music
and traditional Bedouin desert music. Raï in the 1980s: when country people moved to
the city, the artists blended traditional Raï with modern pop sounds and it is associated
with American blues. Many Raï singers such as Khaled, Cheb Mami, Rai music and
dance are based on improvisation. Not only the Shioukh and traditional female
performers performed the roots of traditional Rai music: the Meddahat and the Chikhat,
singing and dancing at various festivities. With her own choreography, Amel TAFSOUT
has innovated dancing to Raï music is bringing the fluidity and the sensuality of ArabicAndalusian roots, the strength and energy of the mythical Berber priestess, the earthiness
of the African soul, the inspiration of the Sahara-desert and the expression of the great
Mediterranean seaport Wahran.
Amel Tafsout with the Rai Diva Cheikha Rimitti.
II. AMAZIGH BERBER DANCES
1. CHAOUI ‘ABDAOUI FERTILITY DANCE OF THE FAMOUS ‘AZRIYAT:
(3 hours)
Amel Tafsout will introduce this dance from her home region of the Northern EastAlgerian Aures mountains.
The ‘Azriyat (literally, “Women without men”) are professional dancers and singers,
who performed at various festivities such as the harvest, circumcisions, weddings and
specially during the Bendou festival in order to celebrate the fertility of Mother Earth.
Amel will be teaching choreography based on the dance tradition but integrating the
"partridge" steps in innovating the dance for the stage. Please bring fabric or long veil for
the dance.
Amel Tafsout in a Chaoui _ Chaoui costumes
costume by Wick Kihara Sakit
2. ‘RAQS EL MAHRA’/RAQS EL KEYL: THE HORSE DANCE: (2 hours)
This dance originates from a real story: A married couple and a horse in a journey. The
husband preferring the horse to his wife, because the horse could dance. In order to win
the attention of her husband, the wife decided to imitate the dancing horse. She not only
won her husband but also became famous and was invited to perform her dance at
various festivities. This dance is full of energy, earthy and very balanced.
3. AMAZIGH-BERBER SHIMMIES: DANCE OF HE KABYL PEOPLE: (2 hours)
This fertility dance comes from the North-Eastern Algerian Mountains of the ‘Kabylie’
and is performed with a long scarf while the dancer is doing very small and fast hip
movements. The shimmy and the trembling movements are related to pregnancy and
fertility, because they help the woman to give birth without too much pain. It is a very
earthy and proud dance. Traditional Berber dances are mostly ritual in nature. The dance
is both a public and personal expression, rich in symbolic dimensions that deal with
subjects such as the fertility of Mother Earth, the rites of marriage and birth, and the
communication between the earthly and the Divine. The Kabyle Berber dances are drawn
from this rich colorful dance tradition that has been sustained by the unveiled, earthy,
powerful and proud women of Kabylia.
4. MOROCCAN CHIKHAT DANCE: (2 hours)
In Classical Arabic, the word Cheikha is the feminine of Cheikh: a person with
knowledge, experience, and wisdom. The Chichi are female professional dancers and
singers, who perform together in cities and villages for men and women, singing and
dancing at various festivities Professional shisha dancers wear colorful costumes with
tight, midriff-baring sequined tops and long loose skirts or pants. One woman may dance
in the middle of a circle while other women stand around her clapping to the beat of the
music. Sensual hip movements, pelvic undulations and flowing hand movements
characterize the dance. Often a hip scarf is worn to bring attention to the movements of
the lower body with quick, sharp body movements and fluid string sections that prompt
more graceful, flowing movements. A troupe sometimes includes up to ten women. Once
these women become famous and start recording, they start a solo career
5. AHWASH:
(2 hours)
Performed in the High Atlas Mountains and particularly in the Ouarzazate area, the
ahwash dance takes place around a fire. The male participants sit in a circle playing
wooden bendir frame drums, while the women stand motionless in a larger circle. As the
rhythm of the drums increase the women start swaying with the beat.
6. TUNISIAN DANCE: (2 hours)
Dancing in Tunisia is characterized by a multitude of forms at festive events. Tunisian
dance is distinguished mainly by its dynamic, since it is faster with more staccato, and the
multitude of forms, with each region having its own "style. The variety of dances
performed by the Tunisians probably reflects the migration flows that have traversed the
country throughout the centuries. This dance insists on the movements of the pelvis in
rhythm, movement highlighted by the elevation of the arms to horizontal, and feet
moving in rhythm and transferring weight onto the right leg or left. The dance reflects a
social phenomenon born in the working classes of Tunisian cities. The dance, has long
been performed in cafes backed by music, typically the darbuka and mezoued. Since the
1970s, however, the dance has declined in cafes and is more often characterized in
modern times as being displayed at festivals and circumcision ceremonies or marriage in
the neighborhoods of big cities
III. DESERT DANCES:
1. NAYLI DANCE OF THE OULED NAYL: (2 hours)
Algerian dancers of the Ouled Nayl tribe fascinated and inspired the West for more than
a century. They became worldwide known through many Western accounts written by
writers such as Andre Gide, Maupassant, etc., paintings, such as Clarins, Fromentin,
Dinet and a huge number of Colonial postcards. Since 50 years their dance tradition
disappeared. The West could not recognise that there was a difference between
prostitution as a profession and an Algerian tradition, which gave to the young girls of the
Ouled Nayl a temporary freedom. The Nayli tradition consisted of learning the dance as a
child from the mother, the girl will leave her home village at the onset of puberty, making
her way to other oases in order to start a new life while travelling and performing, getting
paid with jewellery and living a life of a courtesan. When she earned enough, she would
return to her home oasis, look for a husband, marry and end her professional career after
which she hands down her dancing skills to her own daughter.
Amel TAFSOUT has done a lot of research about these famous dancers and had
published an article about their dance, which is grounded, religious and powerful. “The
dancer does not walk she slides along.”
2. Guedra:
(2 hours)
Guedra is a traditional circle dance that belongs to the Blue People of the Tuareg
Amazigh, from Mauritania into Morocco and Algeria. The dance’s name comes from the
name of a traditional cooking pot called the guedra that is used to provide the percussive
beat of the dance. Only women take part in the dance, and they usually wear loose blue
robes and festive head dresses decorated with cowrie shells. To perform guedra, the
women start singing and clapping, and one woman moves into the middle to perform a
solo. The soloist starts her dance covered in a veil that is gradually removed as she moves
her hands and shoulders in sharp, quick movements. The dance ends when the solo
dancer throws off the veil and collapses on her back. For the Blue People, Guedra is a
ritual which aim is to envelope all present with "good energy", peace and spiritual love
transmitted from the depths of the guedra's soul via her fingers and hands. With hand-tohead gestures, she salutes the four corners: North, South, East and West, associated with
the four elements: Fire (the sun), Earth, Wind and Water.
3. HOUARA, MOTHER OF FLAMENCO: (2 hours)
South of Agadir, lie Inezgane and Taroundant, homes of the Houara tribe. Although in
the heart of the Berber Souss, the Ait Houara speak and sing in Arabic. The women are in
belted kaftans and d'finas. The group is almost entirely composed of men, with one or
two women: the best dancers. They start by singing in loud voices, short bursts of song
followed by crescendos of rapid footwork as a group. Two or three rounds in this manner,
then the next bursts of song end with one or two of the men running forward, beating feet
like crazy for a few seconds, then rushing back to the line, and ending their "solos" with
high leaps or sharp flamenco-like barrel turns. After several rounds, when the rhythm and
excitement reach their peak, one of the women rushes forward. Her footwork is even
more skilled and complex than the men's, her solo longer. Flinging the front halves of her
d'fina, she makes several vueltas quebradas and jumps into the air, bending her knees,
tucking her calves to her thighs. Sometimes, her hips move with the footwork, sometimes
she uses them to manipulate a dagger under her d'fina, moving as if she's on horseback,
her feet the horse's hooves. After a while, one of the men, unable to resist, rushes forward
and, facing each other, they begin to dance together. He blends his footwork with hers,
they spin and leap in unison, his arms, elbows bent, in front and behind him as he spins,
she, flinging her d'fina furiously as she spins. They resemble the courtship fight of a
rooster and hen. This dance represents the struggle between the Human being
(represented by the man) and Nature (symbolized by the woman).
IV. OTHER ETHNIC ORIENTAL DANCES
KHALEEJY DANCE FROM THE GULF (2 hours)
1. Khaleeji is the Arabic term for “ Gulf”, in context it relates to the Persian Gulf,
also called the Arabian Gulf. The term refers also to the people, music and
customs of the Arab Gulf States and a small part of Iraq. There are several
distinctive dance styles in the region. Many Oriental dancers focused on a
particular women’s dance done with a large decorative dress, called a Thobe An
Nashaal. Thobe means “garment’ or a long dress. The dances have influences
from other regions, brought in from trade and slavery. Amel studied this dance
with various dance teachers including Kay Campbell.
Latifa Bint beled
2. EGYPTIAN NUBIAN DANCE
Nubian Dance or Raks at Balad el-Aman (Dance of Nubia) comes from Nubia in
Upper Egypt and is performed at social festivities. The dance is improvisational in
nature, and the dancer draws from variety of characteristic movements with which to
interpret the music and show mastery of the rhythm. The second part of the choreography
is a dance featuring a rhythm typically played for a person only once in a lifetime, at the
occasion of a first wedding. The bright and ornamented clothing that the performer wears
would only be worn in the company of her family, as in public she would never appear
without her fustan or black cover dress, which is a sign of modesty. While using the flat
ball footwork and standing erect in good dance posture, the arms swing in unison forward
and back, the Nubian dance has various hand gestures and movements and frequently
uses a flat "rice cleaning" basket. The basic step can also be done while leaning forward a
little and letting the arms cross in front while swinging them forward and back. The arms
are relaxed, as is the rest of the body. this is a fun, fast paced dance.
Amel in a Nubian Costume and in Aswan in 2012.
V. SACRED SUFI HEALING: (4/5 hours)
Raised in Algeria, Amel grew up with traditional healing practices of her native country.
With a research in dance anthropology and coming from a Sufi spiritual tradition, Amel
combines traditional healing with sacred dance. With a long training in various healing
practices, her knowledge in music and dance and coming from a lineage of a spiritual
Sufi tradition, Tafsout developed her own workshop in sacred dance.
She combines her traditional healing background with her learning experience in Sound
healing and Zikr, breath work, whirling and trance.
The workshop includes body and breath work, sound healing and chanting (Zikr), leading
to whirling and ending with Zar-Hadra, an ancient healing ceremony in the Middle East
and Africa. Her research in dance anthropology focuses on a culture’s art and ritual
expressed in dance as well as a healing form. Please wear comfortable clothing,
preferably white and bring a small blanket and a long shawl for the workshop.
VI. NUBA: A DANCE JOURNEY THROUGH THE MAGHREB
( TUNISIA, ALGERIA AND MOROCCO). (3 / 4hours)
In this workshop Amel Tafsout will introduce the various dance movements that are
specific to each country, such as the Tunisian hip twists, the Moroccan hips and belly
drops the Algerian hip figures of eights and various steps. She will teach the similarities
and differences in each dance, talk about costuming, give some background of each
dance and teach some sequences for each style.
VII. OTHER DANCE TOPICS
1. ROOTS OF TRIBAL (2 hours)
This workshop will introduce basic movements and steps, appropriate posture, arm - hand
positions, hip combination and hip accentuation useful for North African Maghreb dance.
Amel Tafsout will focus on drills to increase the feeling of the North African rhythms,
enabling working in duets in a journey through the Maghreb
2. DANCING WITH THE TAMBOURINE
Tambourine dance is as ancient as the existence of the world. It was already known as
“Myriam’s Dance of Freedom”. The purpose of the dance was the letting go of and
forgetting a troubled past.
The use of the tambourine helps the dancer to be more aware of dancing to the rhythm in
absorbing the vibration of sounds in her whole body.
Amel Tafsout will teach the students to use various sounds and techniques while dancing.
Please bring a tambourine.
3. SONG IMMERSION, STORY TELLING AND INTERPRETATION IN
DANCE (3 hours)
Amel will introduce storytelling in the Maghreb and how to express a story, a song, how
to use hand gestures and facial expression and communicate emotions. Amel will select a
special North African popular song, such as “Ya RayaH”, “Sidi Mansour” or another
chosen piece by Amel, which will be explored in depth. We will learn the lyrics, cultural
and social significance, and underlying rhythm so that all students will have a good
understanding of the song before we dance to it. This intensive workshop will culminate
not only in learning the song, the rhythms and the dance to a song but also how to narrate
stories, convey emotions and bring rituals on stage.
Photo by Aedan Kelly
4. COSTUMING IN THE MAGHREB (3 hours)
Amel will introduce the various costumes used in the Maghreb, such as the
Berber Amazigh dresses and head dresses, the Andalusian styles as well as the
Sahraoui Desert wrapping. She will also explain the history of the costuming and
how they evolved during the centuries. Please bring fabric.
VI. FRAME DRUMMING, SINGIN AND DANCE: (3 hours)
VII. TOPICS FOR LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS: (2 hours)
1. Professional Female Performers in the Maghreb
2. Andalusian music and dance
3. The ritual in dance
4. Sufism in North Africa
5. North African Sufi brotherhoods
6. Beauty care in the Maghreb
7. Arabic symbols, such as the ‘KHAMSA’ or the Hand of Fatima
8. Wedding ceremonies
9. Arab women in History
10. Legendary North African women
11. Al Kahina: Berber Queen and Warrior Priestess: History and Legend.
12. Algerian Costumes and their connection to Mediterranean costumes.
13.