Bellydance, as we know
it, has gone through many transitions over its history, both in its
name and stylings. Throughout history, Middle Eastern cultures held sacred
the concept of fertility, a value shared by many agricultural societies
even today.
Every facet of life was in some
way directed towards promoting the fruitfulness of their farmland, their
family, and their way of life, from the functions of their deities to the
songs they sang and even to the dances they shared. As the human embodiment
of fertility and life, women danced together to celebrate the joy of any
occasion, from weddings to childbirth rituals.
Bellydance has come
a long way from its ancient folk roots, however. What we see today is the
product of a long evolution of crowd-pleasing and stage shows. Bellydance
came to the United States in 1893 at the Great Columbia Exposition in Chicago,
where the growing American fascination with the ‘exotics’ of the East led
entertainers to ‘spice up’ the Egyptian style dancing with bright, flashy
costumes and flirty movements.
This “belly dancing” hit the American
cabaret nightclub scene with even more burlesque-style costumes and dance
stylizations. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, some of these Americanized
costumes were adopted (including high heels) into the ever-growing (but
more proper) entertainment industry there. The style re-adapted in the
Middle East is what you mostly see today, called “classical Egyptian cabaret,”
though each region of the Middle East has its own stylizations of the dance.
American Tribal Style (ATS)was
a rebirth of the traditional fom of bellydance in the 1960s in the San
Francisco Bay area. Jamila Salimpour is credited with sparking this rebirth.
The dance troupe Salimpour directed,Bal Anat, fused elements of traditional
dances from around the Middle East and North Africa into an original style
of bellydance.
Later, one of her students,
Masha Archer, would push the evolution a little further by taking the dance
out of the restaurant and nightclub scene, making the Salimpour stylizations
more uniform, and adding her original artistic costuming elements that,
like the dancing, fused elements from around the world. It was not
until Carolena Nericcio that American Tribal Style as we know it today
came together completely. Nericcio, founder of FatChance Bellydance,
took elements from both Salimpour and Archer and put them together.
The tribal style format came from
Jamila:
"...the chorus, the set up of the
half moon chorus and the dancers coming out individually to do a small
two or three minute routine and then going back into the chorus."26
They follow Jamila's style of using
heavy costuming but Masha's style of having the same fusion look for everyone.
Carolena impresses to her students the same demanding stage presence and
personality in public that Masha and Jamila taught. She also carries over
the intensity of the dancers' encouragement of each other with zhagareets
(the vocal ululation) during a performance. A direct linkage to Masha is
the posture, keeping the chest lifted and graceful, and maintaining a sense
of integrity.*
ATS takes its inspiration from traditional
dances around the world, mostly North African, Middle eastern, India, Central
Asia, and even Latin America. ATS reflects the folk element of dancing
for oneself and the entertainment of the sisters in your troupe, rather
than solely on entertaining an audience. Much of ATS is improvisational,
or made up on the spot in the joy of the moment.
“It has nothing to do with representing
a particular tribe, but it combines movement vocabularies and regional
costuming to form one cohesive presentation. The "American" part of the
label acknowledges that the dancers are continents away from the culture
that created the dance form and are taking artistic license with it. Yet
they still must acknowledge, respect and honor the roots.1 The look of
American Tribal Style seems authentic because of its resemblance to various
gypsy tribes throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and India. Often,
Arabs comment that the style reminds them of 'home'. However, the costumes
are not authentic but give the feeling of home."*
Tribal fusion is the collective
term used to categorize any bellydance that draws from the ATS stylizations
but does not adhere to the group improvisational nature of Nericcio’s ATS.
Fusion dancers have no rules – any form of dancing or costuming is fair
game as long as the roots of bellydance movements, costuming and concepts
are at its core. Tribal fusion takes its inspiration from dances of our
ancient sisters, but adds pieces of the dancer’s individuality as a modern
dancer.
*These quotes are taken from “A
History of American Tribal Style Bellydance” by Rina Orellana Rall of FatChance
BellyDance. The article in its entirety can be found on the FCBD website:
http://www.fcbd.com/about/history_rr.shtml#
