Yemen is very rich in its cultural heritage of the folklore of the folk dances
and songs. The popular song has become an artistic reference for many lyrical
schools not only in Yemen but also in the entire Gulf region and Arabian
Peninsula.
Yemen’s geographic location has played a substantial role in making its culture
an interactive subject with the cultures of the others due to its strategic
location that enabled Yemenis since the beginning of the humankind civilization
to contact with other nations such as Indian , Greek , Egyptian , Babellian and
Ashorite as well as African in the eastern coast of Africa so that Yemeni
folklore had influenced by some aspects of those nations cultures .
Yemeni folklore thus, influenced by the geographical features of the country
since Yemen
is consisted of four geographical regions:
Mountainous Region. -
Central Highlands. -
- Coastal Plains.
Desert Region .-
Each of the above regions includes a lot of its own folklorick hints. For
example , in the region of Huddramout which is one of the coastal regions used
to have constant contacts with the Southeastern of Asia and the eastern of
Africa there are a wide variety of folkdances however, it can be said that there
are three main features of the folk dances in the Huddramout .
- Dances of pure Yemeni nature .
- Afro-Yemeni Dances .
- - Asian-Yemeni Dances.
-
- Due to the large area of the Huddramout there are five types of the folk dance
each one of them belongs to one region.
1- Dances of the Wadi Huddramout.
2- Dances of the Coastal Strip.
3- Dances of the Wadi Doa’an .
4- Dances of the Wadi Huger.
5- Dances of the Huddramout Desert.
The above mentioned Dances used to be accompanied with popular songs and folk
music. Similarly the three other regions, namely the Mountainous, the Central
Highlands and Desert each one contains several forms of the Folk Dance.
It is said that has got around one hundred of the folk dances, however, all this
large variety could be confined to three general forms of dance:
1-Al-Zaffean : This Type of the folk dance used to be performed by a couple of
men or man and woman and it is accompanied with the tunes and the rhythms of the
folk music instruments .
Audiences of this dance used to sit or stand in a circular or rectangular shape.
2-Al-Sharrh: This Type is used to by accompanied with the rhythm in the middle
of the viewers who should stand in a circular shape and participate in singing
and clapping. The dance is performed by a couple of men and perhaps, man and
woman as it are in some regions.
3-Al-Barra: It is a tribal dance used to be accompanied by the rhythm of the
percussion instruments of the folk music.
The viewers used to gather and stand in a circular shape while the dancers
perform the dance in side the circle of the viewers.
The dancer used to hold the Janbbia (dagger) while he is dancing .This sort of
dancing is known as war’s dance.
It is worthwhile mentioning that there are sorts of dances attributed to men as
War’s dances and Hunt’s dances thus Al-Shabbwani dances in Huddramout and
Al-Farasani dances in the north of the Tehhama as well as Al-qorra’a and
Al-Aoddah dances in the region of Byhhan.
There are also dances attributed to women such as Alloabah dance in the region
of Yaffea, Al-Razha dance in the region of Shabbwa, Al-Humdani dance in Aden,
Al-Feah dance in Huddramout and Al-Tabbah in Hoddeidah. It is also worthy to be
mentioned that there are dances performed by men and women like some of
Al-Zaffean and Al-
Sharrh dances.
- POPULAR SONGS.
Popular songs in Yemen can be classified into two main categories:
1-Songs of Handicrafts and Occupations.
2-Songs of Social Rites.
Of course, there is category of titles of the above songs such as the following:
- Al-Ssinnawa Songs. Folk songs used to be sung while water is being pulled out
with a pocket from the wells.
- Grazing’s Songs.
- Agriculture’s Songs.
- Gammallah’s Songs. Folk songs used to be sung by men while they’re ridding
camels.
- Flood’s Songs .Songs used to be sung while floods are flowing after the
rainfalls.
- Al-Nikhallah’s Songs .Folk songs used to be sung by men while they’re working
on the palm trees.
- Grinding’s Songs .Songs used to be sung by women or men while they’re grinding
the grains.
- Al-Rahy’s Songs.
- Handicrafts’ s Songs.
- Fishermen’s songs.
- Al-Tug lop’s Songs. A sort of folk songs attributed to women in the coastal
strip of Huddramout governorate.
- Al-Hodhod’s Songs.
- Children’s Songs.
- Joy’s Songs.
