I work with a guy named Michael who teaches salsa at LetZ Dance Academy. They also teach bellydance. We often have dance related conversations. He asked me the origin of the Zaghareet (the LI LI LI LI LI Li LI LI LI!!!! sound one makes when they like a bellydancer.) I figured I should know in case one of my students asks me. I fould this article about the propper way and the ediquite related to it... still looking for the acctual "origin". Enjoy:
I thought of a another reason
you should be bellydancing. It’s the zaghareet…it’s this funny
ululation bellydancers make when they want to cheer for something. Let
me tell you how to do it, in case you are ever watching a bellydance
performance and you hear all these people making this crazy noise and
you wonder what that’s all about. Okay, first, just go “Loo loo loo loo
loo loo loo!” in your normal voice. If you’re doing this at your desk
in your office, do so quietly because you don’t want people thinking
you’re some sort of howler monkey. “Loo loo loo loo loo loo loo loo!”
Got it? See how your tongue touches the backside of your front teeth?
That’s important. Practice that until you get it right. It’s not hard,
I know you can do it.
Okay, now that you’ve got “Loo loo loo loo loo loo loo loo!” down,
speed it up and do it at a higher pitch, or note, or whatever. You
should open your mouth a little more to do this…but you know, still
keep it down in case the other forklift operators are trying to
concentrate. Now the sound you are making should sound more like
“Luhluhluhluhluhluhluhluhluh!” Isn’t this fun?
“Luhluhluhluhluhluhluhluhluhluh!” Remember it has to be high pitched
and you might want to add a big “Ahhhh!” in the beginning so really
it should sound like “Ahhhhhluluhluhluhluhluhluhluhluh!” Okay, and this
is important, you need to cover your mouth when you do this because
otherwise (you may have noticed this already if you have a mirror by
your desk or the docks or the caboose or wherever you work) it looks
really, really dirty. Now, obviously, if you just smack your hand over
your mouth no one is going to be able to hear you going
“Ahhhhhluluhluhluhluhluhluhluhluh!” and that will defeat the whole
point and your co-workers are going to think you’re all weird for no
reason at all. So what you do is flatten your right hand and stick it
over your top lip horizontally and this not only makes the
whole thing a lot less pornographic but also makes a little echo
chamber to make the zaghareet go further, which the bellydancers will
appreciate very much.
So now that you’ve got ululation down, you can also spice up your
vocal accompaniments with a couple of other sounds. If you’re dancing
in chorus formation and you see the girls who are out in front do
something cool, you can go “Aowa!” (It’s pronounced “Aay-oh WA!”) This
means something like “You go!” in Arabic, supposedly, but I think
dancers just say it because it’s sort of cute. Aowa! You can say it in
a couple of tones of voice for maximum effect; either really cute and
perky which is more of a “Yay!” feel or more drawn out, like you’re
really impressed, like “Aaaayyy-ooohhhhh-waaaaaaaahhhhh” which is more
like saying “Damn, girl! You good!” Also you can go “Ya la!” or “Ya
habibi!” at any point while people are dancing, again just to show
appreciation. You probably should wait until someone does something
pretty impressive, like a cool backbend or a crazy full-body shimmy or
something like that. Don’t just do it every time someone does a hip
circle or something because not only will you lose your voice before
the night is through but you will also annoy the dancers. Ululating is
a delicate thing. You have to use it appropriately.
Oh, and if a dancer does something really undulative and snaky with her hips or arms or something, you can hiss at her. In a good way. Just go “Tss tsss tsss tsss ssssssssss!” As if you’re some sort of asp
or something. That is lots of fun. The dancers, whether you are dancing
with them or just watching them, will love it. If you’re the one
dancing, don’t forget to do little yells from time to time. I don’t do
this much myself unless I’m leading a move that has a vocal cue but
that’s mostly because I have to concentrate so hard on the actual moves
that I can’t do much embellishment. It’s very cool when dancers get so
into what they’re dancing and are having such a good time that they
just let loose with “Ayyyyy yooop!” or whatever. Note that this is what
tribal dancers do; I have no idea if any of this is appropriate for
cabaret dancers. You will just have to take your chances.
ANOTHER GOOD PAGE FOR THE NON-BELLYDANCER:
http://halas-place.com/glossary.html
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