I’m going to make myself very unpopular with my flamenco dancer friends – because I don’t think flamenco dancing, as it exists today, can really be called a Spanish folk dance.

The video above shows a Spanish folk dance – compare it with the flamenco clip below:

It seems far more likely that flamenco comes from somewhere else altogether.   We speculate about it’s being a gypsy dance, having traveled from the far east with the Romanies rather than being innately Spanish, but the fact is that we really don’t know – although the clip below does show some startling similiaries with Indian dance.

One problem with flamenco dance is the fact we have no proof that it’s ancient at all:  the first records of flamenco dance (as opposed to flamenco music) don’t start to appear till the late nineteenth century!  

Personally, I think it’s no coincidence that flamenco developed in the part of Spain occupied by the Moors (Arabs) for hundreds of years.  No one could miss the plaintive Moorish influence in the music.  Flamenco is much more likely, in my view, to be a melange of many influences.  And the dance which started appearing in theatres in the 1890′s may have been so stylised that it may bear little resemblance to whatever was danced in the gypsy encampments. 

But there is another kind of Greek folk dancing, one which surprises many people.  It’s belly dancing!    

The Greek word for their style of belly dance is Tsifteteli.  It comes from the Turkish Chifteteli. Greeks will tell you that Greek belly dancing existed long before the Turks invaded Greece – my first reaction was to suspect that was only national pride talking, as there’s still animosity between the two countries. Greece was occupied by Turkey for over 400 years, and you can clearly see Turkish influences in their food and other customs, so why wouldn’t some of it rub off on their dancing as well?

However, Greek belly dancing doesn’t have much in common with modern Turkish belly dance, so maybe there is something in it…

When I took some Greek belly dancing classes, the first thing I noticed was the lack of hip shimmies and the enormous amount of upper body work – my shoulders and chest were sore from all the shoulder shimmies and arm movements!

According to Chryssanthi (the bellydancer in the clip below), the most common moves in Greek belly dance are:

• Shoulder Shimmy

• Vertical backwards figure 8

• Hip circles, semi-circles and variations

• Hip lifts

• Half camel

Unfortunately if you go to see a professional Greek bellydancer these days, they’re more  likely to be dancing American Cabaret or Egyptian styles, or a mixture, than pure Tsiftetelli.

As with any other type of music, folk songs have progressed with the times with various artists who bring them to life. Of course in modern times, there have been folk artists who have shared their songs for commercial purposes. And while they make money off of producing CDs and albums, they aren’t as heavily associated with the industry as a rock ‘n roll or hip-hop artists. The fact is folk songs will never be as commercial as other leading forms of music, and that’s why it’s still considered one of the most pure.

Unfortunately, folk music is falling by the wayside in many aspects of popular culture. This is due to a variety of reasons and one of them is the current state of music technology and how far it has developed. There are some artists who have taken up the mantle of folk music, but it’s getting harder and harder to find new ones. Fans of this particular type of music were probably excited when Bon Iver recently won the best new artist Grammy for his work. For all intents and purposes, he is as close to a folk singer as we have in today’s music industry. It’s evident that there are still fans of this brand of music, but there is so much competition from other genres.

One interesting way that you can spread your love and appreciation of this music is with current technology like karaoke. While most people would not immediately associate karaoke with folk music, it’s important to change with the times if you expect your brand of music to survive. With the incorporation of karaoke, whether at a bar or singing at home, you can show people why folk songs are so great. You can get up on stage and give a great performance and have people wondering “what was that song”? In this way you can spread musical appreciation and show the world what you’ve known all along – that folk music continues to be important and it should be shared with everyone you know.