Workshop Review: Karim Nagi
I had never taken a workshop with Karim, and only decided to go to this one at the last minute, but I am so glad I did! I got a ton out of this workshop. Like after every workshop I take, I yet again have a great big teacher crush.
He holds the attention of the room well, without being stern or harsh. He has a great sense of humor, and really set everyone at ease.
This has nothing to do with anything, but he wore a belt buckle shaped like a flying monkey from the Wizard of Oz.
Organization
The workshop was held on the campus of SIU in Carbondale. Because of other events on campus the same weekend, different parts of the workshop were held in different rooms on campus. The organizers were good about helping make sure everyone ended up in the right place at the right time.
Lunch is "on your own", but there are a fair number of restaurants in the area. Bottled water and some fruit and chocolate were provided.
There was very little vending, a handful of CDs from Dahlal, and of course Karim's own vending. He was selling one of his own CDs and his two volumes of drum instructional DVDs.
Karim has prepared handouts for each of his classes. Instead of handing them out the day of the class, he asked us all to provide our email addresses, and sent them out a few days later. The notes are well organized and comprehensive, much better than any notes I would have taken myself.
Unfortunately, each topic was only covered for two hours, which was barely enough time to scratch the surface on each of these topics. It was a great overview of Karim's areas expertise, but I would gladly take a whole weekend workshop on most of these subjects.
Saturday Morning - Arab Folkdance
Karim covered two topics in this two hour class: Tahteeb and debke.
He started us out with a history of tahteeb and raks assaya, as well as an introduction to Arabic pronunciation. He brought straight wooden dowels for us to use instead of the hooked canes most of us had brought. Using the straight sticks allowed us to hold the stick from either end, this was important since he taught us how to flip the cane, which I had never learned anywhere else.
He had us repeating his combinations over and over until we could get through the whole sequence without anybody dropping their cane. This sometimes meant many repetitions. I think it was a valuable teaching method, since it forced us to concentrate on getting it. While I was already familiar with spinning the cane, a lot of the other cane techniques he taught were new to me, and I really feel like they will add some new depth to my cane dancing.
He unfortunately only had about 45 minutes left to teach us to debke, which is a shame. I would have happily spent several days learning about it. It is really ridiculously fun.
He started us with some history and context of debke, as well as introducing us to the history and significance of the kafiya (the black and white or red and white scarves worn by men in the Levant and Arabian peninsula) It helped us get a feel for what we were learning.
He got us all in a circle to learn a handful of step patterns, then played music and had us actually dancing. There is no way to explain in this review how much fun it was to dance and stomp, especially when Karim got out his drum and played for us while we were dancing.
Saturday Afternoon - Musicality for Dancers
This workshop is a revelation! I already felt like I knew a fair amount about the structure of classical Egyptian music, learned through workshops with other instructors, as well as my own reading an research, but I still feel like I learned several of those important subtleties that are crucial to taking my dance to the next level.
Again, two hours was barely enough time to scratch the surface of the topic. He only covered two concepts: lawazim, the musical swells in between the singing in classical Arabic songs, and interpreting musical taqsims through the dancer's body.
This class also included an extremely memorable illustration of how changing a single note turns "Mary had a little lamb" from a song about a happy lamb, to a song about a suicidal lamb. (You had to be there.) Also, during breaks, Karim treated us to selections such as "Tequila" and "That's The Way (I Like It)" on the oud.
Karim encouraged us to interpret the music ourselves, instead of following along with his movements. He both drummed for us, and played the oud, and it's always wonderful to dance to live music. He had us dancing the whole time, guiding us to modify our movements to reflect the concepts he was teaching.
This workshop is a fantastic resource for anybody who dances solo Egyptian style, but I think it would be valuable for anybody who wants to expand their musical interpretation. As a musician, he brings a very different perspective to musical interpretation than most dance teachers.
Saturday Evening - Showcase Performance
The show was such a breath of fresh air. Every set was performed to Middle Eastern music, which is unfortunately rare among the shows I go to. Nile Dreams dance company is committed to presenting the dance in the context of music and Middle Eastern culture, and it shows. The auditorium where it was held was an older building, but it had a very nice stage.
Karim ended the first half performing tahtib, and his performance was a joy to watch. He ended the 2nd half performing on the drum and dancing. This performance had the crowd, including myself, going crazy! He's an extraordinarily charismatic performer.
