What is Tribal Bellydance?
ATS-inspired Tribal costume
(without turban)
The Tribal aesthetic as we know it today was pioneered by Jamila Salimpour and her troupe Bal Anat in the late 1960s and later brought together and re-imagined in the form of American Tribal Style by Carolina Nericchio and her troupe FatChanceBellyDance.
Any typical audience member can immediately recognize the differences between the Tribal aesthetic and that of most other bellydance styles. American Tribal Style dancers usually wear no beaded fringe or sequins in their costuming, preferring coins, tassels, textiles from Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and heavy silver jewelry from various Asian and North African cultures as means of adornment. Many ATS dancers also wear full turbans covered in flowers, headdresses, and pendants.
Costuming aesthetics are not the only way in which Tribal is different than other styles of bellydance. Tribal moves and combinations are designed to be used in a group of dancers for improvisation. Each dancer learns how to recognize what the leader of the group will do next based on both explicit cues (hand signals, etc), body language, and intuition. While these moves and combinations can be used for solo performances as well as choreography they were developed by groups such as FatChanceBellyDance and Gypsy Caravan with group improv in mind.
Many people describe Tribal dancing as "earthy" or "grounded" because it is usually performed on flat feet, rather than on the toes or in high heels, and features fewer floaty-flirty movements.
Fusion costuming
Many dancers do not adhere strictly to the conventions of American Tribal Style, performing an amalgam of that style with other forms of bellydance, as well as other regional styles, such as Indian Classical, Flamenco, and recently Thai and other East Asian dances. This dance form is usually known as Tribal Fusion, Modern Tribal or World Fusion bellydance. Usually, costuming in these styles is a more pared-down version of the ATS costume-- coin bra and pantaloons or flared pants with a mirror or textile work belt, no turban, less jewelry-- but sometimes is equally ornate in its own sense, as is The Indigo's costuming.
What style do you perform and teach?
While I love and admire American Tribal Style and its practitioners, I am by no means qualified to be an ATS instructor. (If you are interested in learning ATS in the Triangle area, you should look into taking classes with my troupemate Nandana of Blue Moon Dance Company.) In CORE class, I teach what I call Group Improv Tribal. The emphasis is still on group improvisation, but I draw from a larger vocabulary of moves than are featured in ATS. I also teach some movements slightly differently than the way they would be taught by a certified ATS instructor.
My movement vocabulary is derived mostly from other dancers who call themselves "Tribal" or "Tribal Fusion", although, especially in recent years, I have been influenced more and more by other styles of bellydance as well. Nevertheless, there is a specific posture and energy to Tribal that I believe is its core, and I try to embody that in my personal style-- and in CORE class (hee hee). I try to bring out this spirit in my students by encouraging group cooperation both in improv and just in general during my classes and through my projects.
Orientale ("cabaret") costuming
Outside of CORE class and other situations in which I am doing group improv, I do not give myself headaches worrying if a specific move or costume or whatever is "Tribal enough". I just dance however I like. Thus, most of my solo work, my choreography, and everything I teach in FLOW class should probably be considered fusion.
A Brief and Unsolicited Rant about Genre
When I was a "baby dancer", the only distinctions I ever heard people talking about were "tribal" and "cabaret" (and within "cabaret", the various regional differences like Egyptian and Turkish). Today, perhaps as a result of the explosion of the online bellydance community, a slew of names have emerged that people now use to describe different variations within Tribal: ATS, ITS (Improv Tribal Style), Modern Tribal Style, Tribal Fusion, Tribalternative, World Fusion, Tribaret, Old-School Tribal, New-School Tribal, East Coast Tribal, West Coast Tribal... and I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch of others. Arguments over what nomenclature is appropriate to use for what style and when abound online and in person.
While I am absolutely a fan of honesty in advertising, I am less fond of the excessive and confusing terminology that has accumulated around this dance form. Very few of the above phrases mean much of anything, at least to anyone other than the person or troupe who coined them.
I find the term "Tribal Fusion" particularly problematic. I understand why people want to use it-- it's widely-recognized, used by people like the Bellydance Superstars, etc. etc.-- but try as I might, I just can't like it. In my estimation, "Tribal" is fusion. ATS is fusion. FatChance took a bunch of movements from dances from the Middle East and North Africa and fused them together into a new dance. Dances inspired by ATS, as a result, are also fusion.
Tribal hair, jewelry
and makeup
Since "Tribal" is in itself fusion, the term "Tribal Fusion" is either redundant, or its implication must be that the Tribal element is being fused with something else. This is where my issue with the term originates. Many "Tribal Fusion" dancers, myself included, do not fuse their bellydance with anything other than other bellydance, except in specific, infrequent instances. Even FatChanceBellyDance does an Indian fusion choreography from time to time, but no one is running around calling them "Tribal Fusion".
Equally frustrating is the general trend towards labeling otherwise uncategorizable bellydance-- which resembles neither ATS nor older Tribal styles in any way shape or form-- "Tribal Fusion". In my opinion, these mystery styles are not "Tribal Fusion". They're just fusion, and that's OK.
I suppose if I wanted to get really specific about my personal style, I could label it Tribal-Folkloric Fusion with Subtle Orientale Influences. This would be basically equivalent to saying that I'm a bellydancer who doesn't throw in a whole lot of other dance styles into her vocabulary.
I understand the desire to call things what they are, and, moreover, to try to understand the subtleties within the Tribal and Fusion genres. However, I think what is more helpful in describing your style than trying to use some obtuse, arcane or vague terminology is to cite the dancers that have significantly influenced or inspired you. For me, those dancers are my first teacher Nandana, Jill Parker of Ultra Gypsy, Carolena Nericchio of FatChanceBellyDance, the dancers of Zafira Dance Company, John Compton, and Rachel Brice.
ATS-inspired Tribal costume
(without turban)
The Tribal aesthetic as we know it today was pioneered by Jamila Salimpour and her troupe Bal Anat in the late 1960s and later brought together and re-imagined in the form of American Tribal Style by Carolina Nericchio and her troupe FatChanceBellyDance.
Any typical audience member can immediately recognize the differences between the Tribal aesthetic and that of most other bellydance styles. American Tribal Style dancers usually wear no beaded fringe or sequins in their costuming, preferring coins, tassels, textiles from Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and heavy silver jewelry from various Asian and North African cultures as means of adornment. Many ATS dancers also wear full turbans covered in flowers, headdresses, and pendants.
Costuming aesthetics are not the only way in which Tribal is different than other styles of bellydance. Tribal moves and combinations are designed to be used in a group of dancers for improvisation. Each dancer learns how to recognize what the leader of the group will do next based on both explicit cues (hand signals, etc), body language, and intuition. While these moves and combinations can be used for solo performances as well as choreography they were developed by groups such as FatChanceBellyDance and Gypsy Caravan with group improv in mind.
Many people describe Tribal dancing as "earthy" or "grounded" because it is usually performed on flat feet, rather than on the toes or in high heels, and features fewer floaty-flirty movements.
Fusion costuming
Many dancers do not adhere strictly to the conventions of American Tribal Style, performing an amalgam of that style with other forms of bellydance, as well as other regional styles, such as Indian Classical, Flamenco, and recently Thai and other East Asian dances. This dance form is usually known as Tribal Fusion, Modern Tribal or World Fusion bellydance. Usually, costuming in these styles is a more pared-down version of the ATS costume-- coin bra and pantaloons or flared pants with a mirror or textile work belt, no turban, less jewelry-- but sometimes is equally ornate in its own sense, as is The Indigo's costuming.
What style do you perform and teach?
While I love and admire American Tribal Style and its practitioners, I am by no means qualified to be an ATS instructor. (If you are interested in learning ATS in the Triangle area, you should look into taking classes with my troupemate Nandana of Blue Moon Dance Company.) In CORE class, I teach what I call Group Improv Tribal. The emphasis is still on group improvisation, but I draw from a larger vocabulary of moves than are featured in ATS. I also teach some movements slightly differently than the way they would be taught by a certified ATS instructor.
My movement vocabulary is derived mostly from other dancers who call themselves "Tribal" or "Tribal Fusion", although, especially in recent years, I have been influenced more and more by other styles of bellydance as well. Nevertheless, there is a specific posture and energy to Tribal that I believe is its core, and I try to embody that in my personal style-- and in CORE class (hee hee). I try to bring out this spirit in my students by encouraging group cooperation both in improv and just in general during my classes and through my projects.
Orientale ("cabaret") costuming
Outside of CORE class and other situations in which I am doing group improv, I do not give myself headaches worrying if a specific move or costume or whatever is "Tribal enough". I just dance however I like. Thus, most of my solo work, my choreography, and everything I teach in FLOW class should probably be considered fusion.
A Brief and Unsolicited Rant about Genre
When I was a "baby dancer", the only distinctions I ever heard people talking about were "tribal" and "cabaret" (and within "cabaret", the various regional differences like Egyptian and Turkish). Today, perhaps as a result of the explosion of the online bellydance community, a slew of names have emerged that people now use to describe different variations within Tribal: ATS, ITS (Improv Tribal Style), Modern Tribal Style, Tribal Fusion, Tribalternative, World Fusion, Tribaret, Old-School Tribal, New-School Tribal, East Coast Tribal, West Coast Tribal... and I'm sure I'm leaving out a bunch of others. Arguments over what nomenclature is appropriate to use for what style and when abound online and in person.
While I am absolutely a fan of honesty in advertising, I am less fond of the excessive and confusing terminology that has accumulated around this dance form. Very few of the above phrases mean much of anything, at least to anyone other than the person or troupe who coined them.
I find the term "Tribal Fusion" particularly problematic. I understand why people want to use it-- it's widely-recognized, used by people like the Bellydance Superstars, etc. etc.-- but try as I might, I just can't like it. In my estimation, "Tribal" is fusion. ATS is fusion. FatChance took a bunch of movements from dances from the Middle East and North Africa and fused them together into a new dance. Dances inspired by ATS, as a result, are also fusion.
Tribal hair, jewelry
and makeup
Since "Tribal" is in itself fusion, the term "Tribal Fusion" is either redundant, or its implication must be that the Tribal element is being fused with something else. This is where my issue with the term originates. Many "Tribal Fusion" dancers, myself included, do not fuse their bellydance with anything other than other bellydance, except in specific, infrequent instances. Even FatChanceBellyDance does an Indian fusion choreography from time to time, but no one is running around calling them "Tribal Fusion".
Equally frustrating is the general trend towards labeling otherwise uncategorizable bellydance-- which resembles neither ATS nor older Tribal styles in any way shape or form-- "Tribal Fusion". In my opinion, these mystery styles are not "Tribal Fusion". They're just fusion, and that's OK.
I suppose if I wanted to get really specific about my personal style, I could label it Tribal-Folkloric Fusion with Subtle Orientale Influences. This would be basically equivalent to saying that I'm a bellydancer who doesn't throw in a whole lot of other dance styles into her vocabulary.
I understand the desire to call things what they are, and, moreover, to try to understand the subtleties within the Tribal and Fusion genres. However, I think what is more helpful in describing your style than trying to use some obtuse, arcane or vague terminology is to cite the dancers that have significantly influenced or inspired you. For me, those dancers are my first teacher Nandana, Jill Parker of Ultra Gypsy, Carolena Nericchio of FatChanceBellyDance, the dancers of Zafira Dance Company, John Compton, and Rachel Brice.