Dance Like an Egyptian

Last Wednesday, we were pleased to welcome Habiba (a.k.a. Barbara Siegel) to teach us about traditional Egyptian dancing. The program was arranged through the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which has a really wonderful outreach lecture program. I picked this program to tie in with the summer theme of Express Yourself, and 12 brave teens came out to learn how to dance like an Egyptian villager. Habiba teaches dance at her studio in Philadelphia, so you could even take another class with her sometime! I personally had a great time dancing in this style and would love to do it more often.

Habiba tied a traditional turban on this guy, but he was too tall to wear the clothes that went with it!

To set the tone, Habiba dressed up two teens in some traditional Egyptian clothing.

Habiba taught us about the arm movements immortalized in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. They are much more fluid than the stone carving style would lead you to believe.

In addition to teaching us, Habiba did a demonstration dance.



Something new on our blog...I took a little dance video! This is a dance movement based on the idea of greeting.



Here's another video of the group doing some movements in a circle.