Oooo, what could this be? A visual aid? A metaphor for one's understanding of the world? Artsy and out of focus! That has to mean something!

Wow, a whole month of silence. I’m quite awful at this, aren’t I? Anyway, as promised, something new:

I’m a huge fan of folk music. It can be the Bob Dylan-Joan Baez- 60s resurgence-heavily poetic-style or the countrified-Avetts-possibly incorporating banjos and bluegrass-style. Both have their merits; one can be danced to, the other can make one appear deep and thoughtful and unique just like everyone else. However, neither have the most, well, active status in my future post. Jeddah may be many things, but a folk music center (in the Westernized sense described above, anyway) it is not. Hip hop is flourishing there, but that’s beside the point.

I was much too thick in the skull to use Google, it seems.

Given what I thought was the Kingdom’s stance with most of the presentational arts, I was honestly surprised to discover that a folk music tradition existed at all – much less a vibrant community of professional performers, many of whom have spent decades learning some of the more complicated and nuanced folk dances.

What is this “ardah” (Arabic for “performance” or “display)?  It blends poetry with singing, drumming, music, and dance movements — the ‘ardah is a symbol of traditional Saudi Arabian culture. While variations are also performed in other countries of the western Gulf region, the ‘ardah’s origins lay in the Arabian desert among the Bedouin.

In the old days before the unification of the kingdom, the ‘ardah used to be called al-faza‘, or ‘fright.’ Much like Mel Gibson’s big speech in Braveheart, this was a practice designed to get warriors pumped for battle — and before the days of the monarchy, there was plenty of it.

After Abdulaziz officially established Saudi proper, it became known as al-‘ardah al-najdiyyah, since it is well known in Najd, or central Saudi Arabia. If you saw the Frontline special on the House of Saud, you might remember seeing an old clip of al-faza; circular of men moving, dancing, and stomping in synchronization, their automatic weapons hoisted high.The ‘ardah is one of many Saudi folk-music traditions that referred to collectively as al-funun al-sha‘abiyyah, the folk arts, or more simply (and transliterated), al-fulklur, folklore.

One can catch a glimpse of the ‘ardah today on YouTube, at Middle Eastern cultural exhibitions, and in live television broadcasts of the folk-life festival at Janadriyah, held each year outside Riyadh. The festival opens with a rendition of an official ‘ardah, as well as a performance of other folk music and dance styles that are part of a multimedia stage show called the Operette. The only difference is the groups trade out the AK-47s for wooden poles or sometimes (and this is where it looks AWESOME) swords.

Why did I choose to break my e-silence on a topic that, quite frankly, most people reading this probably wouldn’t care about? Perhaps I’m just trying to find some sense of commonality between what I know and what I’m headed into — a culture so vastly different from anything I’ve ever experienced. And, in so doing, perhaps share some of the more interesting experiences and take the edge off the inevitable culture shock.

Or, it could be that the rerun of A Prairie Home Companion has been playing folk music all morning and I’m due to give a presentation on this subject on Tuesday.