Fifi Abdo vs. Mahmoud Reda
Last night I did one of my Fifi Abdo Dallas workshop DVDs, the first half of the Sunday workshop. I think I had known it was cane but had forgotten. It was a really interesting contrast to work on Fifi style cane after Mohammed Shahin's Reda style cane choreography on Saturday. Fifi's not strictly baladi as she's really her own creature, but I felt that kind of opposition between high and low culture. Reda style is about control and elegance, whereas Fifi's style was more about letting go, although always within the music. Performance doesn't have to be authentic with her but it is always from the heart, and has as much humor as beauty. I suppose Reda style is heartfelt in its own way too, but there's a certain artificialness to it that leaves me a little cold, there's too much emphasis on perfection and little perceivable spontaneity. Possibly I feel this way only because currently I am trying to get rid of some of my Reda-esque ingrained habits. Fifi is just the right influence, spontaneous to a big lovely generous fault. Amira Jamal has remarked to me in the past that I often looked like I was dancing in a troupe even when I was performing solo; that's the kind of thing I'm talking about trying to move away from. I think I've made big strides in that regard but it's still something I'm aware of needing to counter. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to improvise my Shimmies for a Cure cane piece this year, because in some ways cane is one of the hardest places to break that excessive self-control.
I did learn in the course of the workshop why Fifi always spins her cane backwards: it's because you take up less space that way. Makes sense, because if you hold your hand in the same place whichever way you spin it, then the cane spends more of its circle alongside your body when you are spinning it backwards. I spun backwards right along with her; I usually spin frontwards but after an hour I got pretty comfortable with backwards and will use it more often.
She talks a lot and jokes around while teaching, but to me that seems like part of the package of learning from Fifi Abdo. You learn what it is to be her, and that's as big a part of her dancing as her technique is. I wanna be her when I grow up.
I did learn in the course of the workshop why Fifi always spins her cane backwards: it's because you take up less space that way. Makes sense, because if you hold your hand in the same place whichever way you spin it, then the cane spends more of its circle alongside your body when you are spinning it backwards. I spun backwards right along with her; I usually spin frontwards but after an hour I got pretty comfortable with backwards and will use it more often.
She talks a lot and jokes around while teaching, but to me that seems like part of the package of learning from Fifi Abdo. You learn what it is to be her, and that's as big a part of her dancing as her technique is. I wanna be her when I grow up.