Bayati performs in “So You Think You Can Belly Dance" at Common Chord -- April 26 and 27.
Bayati Performance: Saturday, April 26, 7 p.m.
Belly Dance Workshop: Sunday, April 27, 11 a.m.
Common Chord, 129 Main Street, Davenport IA
A celebration of exhilarating Middle Eastern music and likely the most popular of all Middle Eastern dance forms, Davenport's Common Chord will host the two-day event So You Think You Can Belly Dance on April 26 and 27, the weekend experience boasting a concert with the Missouri ensemble of Bayati on Saturday and a belly-dancing workshop with live music on Sunday.
Having originated in Egypt, the Western-coined exonym "belly dance" features movements of the hips and is also referred tas Middle Eastern dance or Arabic dance. Over the years, it has evolved to take many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style; with the styles and costumes of Egypt being the most recognized worldwide due to Egyptian cinema. Belly dancing in its various forms and styles is popular across the globe where it is taught by a multitude of schools of dance.
Belly dancing is believed to have had a long history in the Middle East. Several Greek and Roman sources including Juvenal and Martial describe dancers from Asia Minor and Spain using undulating movements, playing castanets, and sinking to the floor with "quivering thighs," descriptions that are certainly suggestive of the movements that are today associated with belly dance. Later, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, European travellers in the Middle East such as Edward Lane and Flaubert wrote extensively of the dancers they saw there, including the Awalim and Ghawazi of Egypt.
Belly dance today is employed by various music artists, among them Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Fergie. However, the greatest representative of this dance is the Colombian singer Shakira, who led this dance to position it as her trademark with her songs "Whenever Wherever" and "Ojos Así." Thanks to the song "Hips Don't Lie," Shakira's hip-dance skills became known worldwide. Also, thanks to "Whenever Wherever" in 2001, the belly dance fever began popularizing it in a large part of Latin America, eventually traveling to the United States.
Performing Saturday night's So You Think You Can Dance concert, Bayati is a band formed of musicians local to Kansas City focused on playing classic songs from the Middle East, Turkey, and Greece. Percussion is a large part of the music, and rhythms are intricate, with many types of drums and drummers playing at once. All members of Bayati came together through their membership in the Traditional Music Society of Kansas City, a not-for profit aimed at providing music and dance classes and showcases to the community, and care about the core values of sharing these musical and dance traditions with the public. For Bayati, music and dance act as a way to build community and come together. Drumming and dance traditions in these cultures act as a way to form bonds and share experiences. The group aims to provide beauty to the community and a shared experience by introducing the community to another cultural tradition that can be shared.
Taking place in Common Chord's Redstone Room on April 26, the Bayati concert of Middle Eastern classics begins at 7 p.m., with admission $40 in advance or at the door. On April 27, the belly-dancing workshop will take place on the venue's second floor, participation in the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. presentation $25 at the door or in advance at RaqstarDance.com. For more information on, and tickets to, the So You Think You Can Belly Dance weekend events, call (563)326-1333 and visit CommonChordQC.org.
