Basics of Ghawazee With Khariya Maazin

This intensive will take you on a journey to Luxor in Egypt, a home place of famous ghawazee style dancer Khariya Maazin. Khariya is the last dancer from Maazin family who is still teaching classes, and spreading knowledge about the dance tradition of her family.

Ghawazee dance in general is a part of pre-belly dance history. It’s a style that informed many belly dance movements, but also influenced dance as a profession, because unlike many other folk dances that were simply social dances of the communities, ghawazee dancers worked as professional entertainers hired by people to perform at their parties and celebrations.

There are many things to say about the importance of learning about ghawazee style, and we’ll definitely explore its history and significance, but I’m really happy to give you this introduction and taste of what you can experience in a class with Khariya.

You will find here a couple of tutorials with me on the basic ghawazee steps, as well as introduction to zills, and how to do basic dance steps while accompany yourself with zills. All these will be leading towards the actual class with Khariya. And for you to understand that her way of teaching is one of the most traditional ways in Egyptian culture: you learn by observing. There is no breakdown of steps, or any explanations, or dance combos. She just dances and you are trying to follow her, and it’s a truly beautiful experience with its own unique magic. So to prepare you for this, you first will have a few tutorials with me explaining the basic moves, and then you’ll be ready to enjoy the class with Khariya, also observing interactions between me and her during our improvised dancing.

And lastly I want to mention that for me this intensive is special not only due to the fact that we were able to do some documentation of Khariya dancing, and spread awareness about her dance with you, but also as a way of support to Khariya Maazin. Ghawazee as dancers don’t have much respect from local communities, that’s why many of them quit dancing, and as for Khariya, she doesn’t have any other support or income other than teaching private classes to foreigner who sometimes visit Luxor. So my hope is that this intensive will not only inspire you to learn more about the style, but also encourage you to actively support Khariya, and take classes with her whenever you have a chance to visit Luxor. Because she is definitely part of the dance history of Egypt.

So let’s our journey begin.