Today in class we sing the Palestinian/Lebanese party song “YaHalaly Yamalay” — the capital H indicates a throaty Arabic pronunciation. We don’t just dance the dabke though, as we would at a wedding or any wild party, we focus on the diversity of Arabic rhythms. In class the teacher calls out a number of beats — 5! 9! 15! — and the kids stomp that many times, remembering that 7 is generally a lucky number, 13 not as much.
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
