The rumors of the origins of Raks Al-Sharqi, the oriental dance, are many. Some attribute it to birth rituals; others say it was originally a religious dance of temple priestesses while still others ascribe it to the folkloric dances of the indigenous people of Upper Egypt. Though the legends are manifold, Suha Deeb, known as one of the few remaining performers of “vintage” oriental dance told NOW that not everything or anyone who can, “shake, meant it was oriental dance.”

Suha Deeb performed last week, on April 3, with singer Sobhi Abdo and his band at Masrah al Madinah in Hamra as part of the first performance of the Musiqa 3 festival.  The annual festival is the third of its kind hosted by IRAB, a non-profit association whose aim is to “address the striking lack of availability and awareness regarding the rich musical heritage and contemporary production of Oriental music,” in Lebanon’s capital. The organization is trying to find and encourage artists that produce the dying art form. Though it is proving to be a difficult task, there are still few that have stayed true to their derbekehs (drums) and have left oriental music and dance to be performed as it is meant to be without the additional trance beats and acrobatic tricks.

Deeb, one of the few expressed sadness that the art form, which is a “major aspect of our heritage…has suffered.” In particular, oriental dance, Deeb said “is in a sorry state and has gone off on two tangents. It has either become vulgar or you have modern dance and jazz performers performing with an eastern flavor and calling it oriental dance, but pure Arabic dance pretty much vanished in the 70s.”

What do we mean exactly by pure dance? The third-generation dancer explained that pure Raks al-Sharqi, whatever its distant origins, was first polished for the performance onstage at The Casino Opera in Egypt, Cairo in the 1920s. The opera house, which was opened by a Lebanese woman, became popular during something of a Levantine golden age, an environment conducive to the refinement of such art.

“This was the golden era in which the style and technique of the pure oriental dance was developed… its peak being in the 40s and 50s.”

However, Deeb, who, recognized as a performer of this purest style of the “golden age,” says that the dance “is currently being combined with western elements that I believe diminished its beauty.” Especially in Beirut, a city that she and IRAB considers to be suffering one of the severest declines in the production of oriental art and music, Deeb says is a result of “entertainment in Beirut becoming very commercial and exploitative, and sexual in a blatant way, because that guarantees exposure very quickly and wealth. Artists here don’t want to invest.”

This is the gap that Deeb says IRAB is trying to fill, as it is trying to create a market for oriental artists like herself that is “barely extinct and where true artists are being marginalized.”

Beirutis were, she says, “very very responsive. I think older people especially are extremely surprised to see this again, and for young people who aren’t familiar with it, it is defiantly something new to them… even though it’s not.”

Deeb’s “vintage” dancing style and the classic songs played by Abdo and his band performed last weekend woke a hint of nostalgia in the older attendees. Besides the improved microphone and speaker technology the event's resemblance to the concerts of the mid 20th century was a strong one. As the older crowd enthusiastically sang along and stood clapping for the majority of the performance, the younger and foreign attendees may have been a bit disappointed if they were not able to appreciate the performance for its pure and technical quality. For those expecting an oriental/latin/modern fusion remix with a few extra neon lights and back flips added to the mix then they best look beyond Masrah al Madinah.

The next Musiqa 3 event will be held at Masrah al Madinah on Friday, April 10 where Syrian singer and composer of Sufi music, Bachar Zarkan will peform with his band.  The following Thursday, April 16 Ramzi Abu Radwan and the Da’louna Musical Group will perform at UNESCO and on Thursday, April 23 the Lebanese Army Orchestra will give a free performance at UNESCO.

More details may be found at www.irabmusic.org
More about Suha at http://suhadeeb.com/