The drum solo can certainly be one of the most challenging aspects of belly dance, regardless of the style being performed. The American belly dancer's drum solo does not differ dramatically from the Egyptian, Turkish or Lebanese version. All dancers are trying to accomplish the same thing, which is a pysical and emotional interaction with the drumming, and if the band is live, with the drummer as well.

In drum solo there is often as much going on as when there is a full orchestra. When several drums are playing at once, it can be very confusing! There might be a very strong beat that accents rhythm, with a continuous rhythm rolling around in the background. Sometimes there are one or more counter-rhythms playing as well. The dancer is supposed to be the physical manifestation of all of this at once!

In a situation where there is more than one drum playing, there are two ways in which the music is generally dealt with. The first is common to all forms of the dance. The second is seem predominantly in the Egyptian style. The first technique is the accent the strongest drum beat. This is the one that is most readily heard and felt by the dancer and by the audience. The dancer does not layer movement, but instead moves to accentuate the strongest beat.

The second technique is to layer movements. This is a technique widely used in Egyptian dance and tends to be a more complete interpretation of the music, although it is impossible to layer every level of music at all times. A typical example would be keeping up a continuous freeze shimmy with the hips to emphasize a background rhythm, while accenting with the chest to acknowledge a strong beat in the foreground.

When dancing to taped music, it is good to spend a lot of time facing the audience, since there is no drummer to interact with. The dancer will want to stand in one spot for most of the drum solo, if not all of it. When using a tape it is easier to do a good job of synchronization with the music, because the dancer knows exactly what the drummer will do! This gives the dancer an edge for some truly fine technique.

However, the situation changes when the dancer is performing with live music. In the States, we are hardly ever lucky enough to have our own bands to work with all of the time. Keep in mind that a live drummer may or may not care about working with the dancer to do a great show. It is very helpful to face the drummer and do a lot of interaction during a live solo. The dancer can see what the musician is doing and anticipate some of the accents and other drum techniqiues. The drummer might be improvising (taxim) or following a musical score, either loosely or strictly. An example of how the score might be loosely followed can be heard in comparing the drum solos on Dahlena's "Sohair Zaki Live in Egypt" and "Suhair Zaki", the live performance in Germany. The solos are the same music with a lot of improvisation.

Finally, you might ask, why stand in one place? Covering ground might be easy at first, but as the solo becomes more intense, it is easier to execute clean, sharp movements if one is stationary. This is especially true if movement is layered. Secondly, standing in one place lends better psychologically to the nature of the drum solo, which is in effect a personal interaction between drum and dancer.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to work with the music at your own level of expertise. Choose music that will accentuate the positive in your own style of dance. Remember always that the belly dancer is the physical manifestation of and visual compliment to the music. During drum solo and all other aspects of the dance, work to do justice to that concept.