The dance which we have come to know as “bellydance” 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#