Aziza Sa'id's FAQ - Dance Styles

Morocco: I asked Dr. Abderrahamn es Shaffey, the director of the Firq'a Masr el Samer - as close to the real folklore & *folks* as one could get - & he said he'd heard that but did not know for sure himself, though it's possible because the word Haggal means bird but a bird that flies across the Sinai Dessert and when it steps on the sand, it does a funny walk because the sand is hot. Some say that this is the walk imitated by Haggala dancers ........... & they *do* shake their tailfeathers ....... I like this version/ explanation, but who knows for sure?!?

Roberta: In Arabic, the word "haggalah" is the dialect pronunciation of a word from the root H-j-l (emphatic "h") and may literally (and rather pedantically) mean something along the lines of "she who habitually gambols." The verb Hajala means "to hop, skip, leap, or gambol." Other words from the same root are: Hajl (anklet, pl. Hujuul), Hajal (partridge, pl. Hijlaan), Hajalah (curtained canopy, or alcove, for the bride; pl. Hijaal), muHajjal (wearing anklets [of women]; being white-footed [of a horse]; also bright, brilliant, radiant). The phrase "la'bat al-Hajlah" means "hopscotch."

Morocco: I was also lucky enough to talk a couple of old women into doing it for me in Matruh on 2 occasions & what they did was exactly as I'll describe below. I've never had the opportunity of seeing it in Libya, though I've talked a few older Libyan women into demonstrating a bit in Tunisia, thanks to the idiocy of male-dominated patriarchal b.s. politics.

This is versus the very Moscow-on-the-Nile version by the Firqua Kawmiyya (Nat'l 'Folk' Troupe of Egypt) & the somewhat less-so, but still nowhere near authentic version by wonderful Mahmoud Reda, who at least admits that its his own inspiration! These are the versions most repeated (if an Egyptian does it, it MUST be real....). Repetition of a theater fantasy does not "authentic" make...

The Hagallah is from Libya & used to be also found in Mersa Matruh in Egypt. In Libya, it was a sort of celebration of coming-of-age for the 'Hagallah', a young girl, wherein she would dance solo, with her head & face fully covered with a scarf, in front of a line of men. ALL the men stand in a line & clap (called Kefafim or clappers!) hands rhythmically (& wonderfully) & chant encouragement & compliments to her, as she dances in front of them, up & down the line. It is the men who start the Hagallah with their clapping & chanting: THAT is the real/ sole accompaniment - there is NO traditional Haggala "music" as such.

The line of men, the "Kefaffin" (clappers) do NOT dance (they do not do a Ukrainian Hopak, a la Moiseyev/Beryozka - like the men in the Kawmiyya, or a gymnastic exhibition of acrobatic skills - like the men in the Reda Troupe). The “Hagallah” does a steady, unwavering side/side-up2/up2 shimmy (3/4 shimmy) up & down in a line in front of them, taking very small steps. She has either a small stick or a handkerchief in her hands. If it is a stick, it is just held, not twirled or manipulated in any way resembling Raks al Assaya! The "Hagallah" might choose one of the men to dance with for a bit, but it is basically her solo.

The men chant about how she is growing up & will soon be a beautiful woman: look, she is growing hips & breasts & soon will be able to get married & make somebody very happy & have children. Beautiful. She might stop in front of one young man & hand him the other end of the scarf or stick, while she dances around it. He might offer her a bracelet as a sort of 'proposal', altho' neither of these 'mights' is a given & the young man she stops in front of might be her brother.

When it is done for real, the "haggala" (the doer/dancer) often singles out one man to dance with her for a minute or so, who then presents her with a bracelet - either as a dowry present, if she is a REAL "Haggala" - the young girl - or payment, if she is a hired professional at a wedding or Moulid celebration. However, if she is a real Haggala, she has not picked the man she dances with herself - if it is her future husband, it has been prearranged by the families *&* if there is no "fiance", she might dance with her brother or uncle: the dance is often to sort of declare that she is now "eligible", because even though her face is covered, everybody knows who she is .... Her friends have brothers & uncles & do tell them .....

Occasionally, a professional is hired as a performance, in which case, she picks the leader of the Kefafeen, who is usually the one who hired her, hands him the cane or stick & after she dances around it a bit, she kneels & mimes taking off her bracelets (or really does), one at a time. He mimes giving her an additional bracelet or 2 (or really does) & she mimes putting all the bracelets back on (o.r.d.).

In Mersa Matruh, the same was usually true, although it became the custom to hire a professional "Hagallah", who, in the middle of her dance (also with head/face fully covered by a scarf) would mime removing her bracelets in front of one of the men & he would add a bracelet or two to the pile as "pay" & she would put them all back on. Hasn't been done in Matruh since those horrible pseudo-fundos moved in with their total misinterpretation of Islam.

When the Hagallah is a professional, she shares the social stigma attached to professional entertainers, but as late as the '80s - the last time I was in Matruh - it was still sometimes done by the specific adolescing daughter of the family .... who was definitely NOT a professional & this might be the only time she would ever be seen dancing by any men outside her immediate/ permissible family. When it was an "emissary" it was either the mother, aunt or a *younger* sister ....

Sahra Kent: I have two dresses, one glitzy gold for Cairo's nightclub stage and the one I wore at OCC which is folkloric style that I wore for an appearance at AUC (University in Cairo). Both costumes can be seen in Sahra Saeeda Performance Video #3. It is somewhat of a copy of the dress that Farida Fahmy wore in the Reda Troupe's hagalla. Obviously, the dress worn indigenously is very different. The dancer's head and face are often covered completely and what we wear on the stage as a hip flounce is actually a twisted and tied men's toga-like wrap.

Andrea Deagon: In a film I saw, the hagalla dancer seemed to be wearing a bustle that went all the way around her hips, under her dress, to emphasize the motion. (This was not a theatrical performance.) I would like to see this duplicated on the American stage! ;-) ;-) ;-) Also she wore a semi-transparent (but not gauzy) cloth over her head. Incredible hypnotic hip motion! The bustle made it look really different, though the moves would have been great whatever she wore. The "ritual" sense really came through -- it looked really special, not like an ordinary dance. That's one thing theatricalizations of folk dances do -- make them look similar and hide some of what makes them meaningful. On the other hand, they're usually a lot prettier!

Morocco: The postcard I have of a woman doing Hagallah in Matruh shows her in a simple long dress with long sleeves, with a wide, muffler-like heavy fabric wrapped around her hips: no fringe, bow, etc. In Libya, there'd be a peplum skirt, with a buffer under the top part of the peplum, so that it would move more visibly or a scarf around the hips. Not the modern net see-through confections with 2 rows of ruffles & a band of long beaded fringe. But, hey: theater is theater & you have to be seen to be appreciated, right?

The costume director of the Kawmiyya told me that they used a "bumper" under the peplum & over the dress (for Hagallah) similar to what the ***Banat Maazin*** Ghawazee of Luxor (to distinguish them from the fact that not all Ghawazi wore the same sort of things in the same era ... & even the Banat Maazin stopped wearing those elaborate skirts in the late 1980s...) wore under their 4-meter wide tier-fringed tulle overskirts, so that it would be held out a bit from their hips & not be pulled down by the sheer weight of the beadwork, so that the "peplum" would swing more freely & easily with the hipwork - that he had dreamed this idea up & thought it was very clever of himself to figure that out.

The often net-based confection with a biiiiig crescent necklace embroidered over the chest part & ruffles on the skirt part with some fringe sewn on at the hips is a totally recent & totally *invented* bit of pseudo-fluff, partially for the night club & tourist ship total fakelore "troupes" in Cairo, that has been bought & brought back almost entirely by American, German, Swedish & Finnish dancers. It is NOT "authentic" Hagallah, but then NEITHER are the heavy cloth costumes of the Firqua Kawmiyya NOR the softer, satin-ish one of the Reda Troupe. The Kawmiyya costumes are closer to "authentic", while the female in the Reda version's dance is closer than the Kawmiyya's. We tend to assume anything made "over there" is automatically "authentic". Sorry to have to bust that bubble, bunkies, but lots & lots of it was *dreamed up, designed & made especially for US - the foreign DANCERS*.

In Mersa Matruh, where the dance originates, shoes are typical women's fancy-occasion shoes of this area. They are high-topped (kind of like Victorian boots) but flat-soled, in white or yellow leather with embroidered designs in alternating triangles of red, blue, green, yellow (the same color scheme as in embroidery work from Siwa).

The "real" ones I saw tied it tightly around their hips, often with the ends left loose/ freer to move. In the film Edwina & I saw at the Markay l'F'nun Shaabiyya in 1977 or '78, the dancer also had a wide shawl (like a typical Libyan man’s shawl) tied around her hips - no peplum at all.

From Arabesque Magazine: Magda Saleh: Preserving the Dance by Adam Lahm, Arabesque, Vol. IV, No. VI, Mar.-Apr. 1979 This article discusses Magda Saleh's extraordinary film project, "Egypt Dances," where she documented on film, 17 Egyptian dances - one of these the Hagallah. This incredible film can be viewed at the New York Public Library. It is a MUST-SEE. You'll see an authentic Hagallah dance done right in the desert.

From Arabesque Magazine: Habiba (Barbara Siegel) authored Dance Archaeology Orientalia: The Hagallah Revisited, Arabesque, Vol. XV, No. 6, Mar.-Apr. 90. In this article, she states: "The Hagallah is found among the Bedouins of the western desert, who are called, in Arabic, Mugharba (Western Arabs). The largest and most important of these is a group of tribes known collectively as Awlad Ali. At present they occupy the north coast of Egypt from Salum to Alexandria. They are descendents of the Beni Suleim and the Beni Hilal, Arab invaders from the Najd in the Rub al Khali Desert (Saudi Arabia) who swept through North Africa in the 11th century. Although they have intermarried with Berbers, their identity is based in Bedouin ancestry. They settled originally in Libya (Cyrenaica) and started moving into Egypt about 200 years ago." This is great article with lots of background information concerning the Hagallah. Much of the background information for her article, Habiba, quoted from Dr. Magda Saleh's Ph.D. dissertation, A Documentation of the Ethnic Dance Traditions of the Arab Republic of Egypt, New York University.

From Arabesque Magazine: "Egypt Dances," Mada Saleh, Arabesque, Vol. VII, No. II, July-Aug., 1981. This article includes a still picture of the Haggalah dance.

From Arabesque Magazine: May/Aug 87, Arabesque, Vol. XIII, No. 1, News Flash: Controversy in Egypt, also by Habiba - includes several pictures of the Hagallah, Mahmound Reda staging and style.