Part 1
Fiora Touliatou is a gorgeous dancer, who hails from Greece, but is currently residing in Wales. She teaches many different styles of Middle Eastern dance and can be contacted via Facebook. If you type in Fiora Tatitallou, her name will come up.
I had great pleasure in joining her at one of her workshops at the Fantasia Festival in Chiswick, London, December 2010. It was a Zambra Mora workshop. Before going into the review, I’ll quickly discuss what Zambra is, and what it’s not.
As some of you may know, I am both a flamenco and bellydancer, and I started both these styles, in 1998, some months apart, so both forms of dance are very important and inseparable to me. I mention flamenco here, because Zambra has connections with flamenco.
The origins of Zambra and its controversies- A Short Introduction
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I will briefly look at two strands of thinking, regarding the Zambra, which has the added mystique of obscure origins and evolutions.
It is generally agreed that the word Zambra has Arabic origins, meaning “party” in general, as it dates back to Moorish Spain ( c. 800- 1492 CE), when the Arabs and Berbers in Spain( The Moors) took to having wonderfully raucous parties (!) (much frowned upon by the rest of the Arab world)- there was much festivity, eating, drinking, dancing and general merriment and noise, often going on for days (Totton). Zambras were essentially a Spanish phenomona, at that time. The word Mora is Spanish for Moorish, so Zambra Mora literally means” Moorish Party”.
In the end , long after the Moors left, or were expelled or were absorbed into the general Spanish population, Zambras were a word for a party. Essentially, it became re-invented in the Andalucian countrysides and mountains, where the Gitano (Spanish gypsy population, who arrived in Spain around the 1500’s) incorporated a form of dance in 3 parts, at their weddings . ( See www.esflamenco.com for more details on this: see Susan Navolon’s article on Zambra )
2
Now at the same time, Zambra also came to mean the music used for these wedding dances. It is in 4/4 time and has retained its Arabic cadences/melodic structures, so sounds the most “oriental” of all Flamenco music. Those Moors who escaped exile from Spain, or conversion to Christianity, fled to the Andalucian mountains, along with the Spanish Jews. The continuation of Moorish/Jewish cultures developed, which in turn evolved into flamenco art, dance, music sensibilities and mythologies, when the Gitanos, persecuted too, joined them.
During the 19th Century, Flamenco as a professional art started being recognised, and places like the Alhmabra were being rediscovered as tourist attractions ,and as inpsirations to the Orientalist Art movement, then current in Europe.
During the 1940’s, the Zambra musical form was used to create romantic music and flamenco choreography, and it appears this is where it becomes shrouded in mystery. While it is recognised as both music form and wedding dance, some artists argues, it IS not an ancient form of flamenco dance. The 1940’s perhaps, made it possible that dancers could seek creative expression with it, and an idea that it was a mixture of Arabic dance and flamenco dance evolved. Perhaps, it was a development of a false history. Though it is seen as a romantic idea , in reality, most flamenco dancers have never heard of it ( (apart from it being a musical form, or a wedding dance form) and also Zambra is seen as a Romany dance for the tourists to watch.
Therefore it is perhaps, not regarded very highly by many dancers or some of the public alike. Perhaps, prejudice and stereotyping mar true appreciation of what Zambra is, was and has been and could be.
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However, bearing all of this in mind, there is a second theory to contend with. In Puela Lunaris’ beautiful Video Flamenca Zambra, Puela ( herself an experienced and trained flamenco dancer) talks about the Zambra having such hidden roots and associations, that there is indeed a secret history. Due to the fact, that all things Moorish were despised, any form of Arabic dancing or music that went on, would have been discouraged, to the point it would been performed in deadly secret. If Zambra dance, did exist, and there are theories which say it did(because it was known as the “forbidden dance”) then this is something that needs research. Puela herself said she danced Zambra as a child, and her interpretation of it, to the background of 1940’s Zambra music, shows a dynamic, sinuous flamenco form. There are theories which see Zambra as one of the oldest forms of/precursor to flamenco, but to get that information corroborated, one should seek expert knowledge from flamenco academics and ethnologists themselves.
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In the US, recent interest in the zambra has added further, to its mystique, and many Oriental dancers are creating dance fusion forms with bellydance AND flamenco movements or softened flamenco/fiery bellydance movements. However, to recap Zambra, if seen as a musical form, as such, does not have that old or ancient dance history and yet there seems to be hints there does have a secret history, where it has had a past as a dance form, now lost to all time. Maybe it is what it is and nothing more or maybe all theories are true…….
But it doesn’t stop dancers from exploring it and making it their own, and with the proviso, it is not an ancient/authentic dance, as more needs to be researched on it.
For more reading and understanding of the Zambra Mora, if your appetite has been whetted ( which I hope it has) please read the following:
www.geocities.com/alahabibi , with Ana Ruiz’s well researched arguments on the Zambra,on being a music form, and the issues of anything Moorish being driven under grounded, therefore made hidden ,
my own articles on the Zambra Mora : Why Middle Eastern dance and Flamenco are connected, parts 1,2 and 3 , on www.myspace.com/qurtubiyya , and also Zambra articles on my tribe.net : www.people.tribe.net/maureen-theresa, The Zambra (Also known as Danza Mora) which looks at differing theories about the Zambra Mora, with Ana Ruiz’s research and website details.
www.maria.amaya.com: the Danza Mora ( Maria Amaya is a dancer from New Mexico, who specialises in Belly dance and Flamenco, and has produced some highly instructive and informative videos on the Danza Mora /Zambra Mora- Gypsy Fire Volumes 1 and 2. Her article has her interpretation on the Danza Mora talks about Arab/Moorish artists/dancers etc and their crafts, and their place in Spain, with reference to the dance, before and after 1492. Worth reading. )
www.puelalunaris.com for the delicious Flamenca Zambra video (instruction/drilling and choreography)
Morocco’s articles on Flamenco and middle eastern dance : www.casbahdance.org/
R. Totton’s description of the origins of Zambra in the Song of the Outcasts (highly recommended book on flamenco with CD)
www.esflamenco.com -Zambra by Susan Navalon
PS Find out more about Birmingham’s Belly dancing Festival http://www.bamba.org.uk/news_festivals.htm
