American Tribal Style Belly Dance

Tribal Style Belly Dance or American Tribal Style Belly Dance (commonly knows as ATS) is a recent movement in the USA that has addressed the feminist philosophy of empowerment of women through belly dance. The general category Tribal Style is accredited to Suhaila Salimpour who fostered a fusion of folkloric dances styles from the Middle East and North Africa and began teaching what she knew and performing all over California and the West Coast. Utilizing traditional folkloric dance elements and costumes inspired by traditional and ethnographic traditions, she presented a colorful company on stage which included musicians, singers and dancers to create a "souk" or almost circus feel. Taking what she herself had learned from native dancers from Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who were dancing in the United States, she began to catalogue "belly dance movement" and began creating a basic repertoire terminology which is still the basis for Tribal Style and American Tribal Style repertoire. Tribal Style today represents everything from Folkloric inspired dances to a fusion of ancient dance techniques from North India, the Middle East and Africa. As a general category Tribal Style covers many flavors of American Belly Dance both the folkloric inspired like Hahbi Ru and Dalia Carella and fusion and cross over styles which explore modern, jazz, dance theatre, and hip hop with Belly Dance, as well as fusion with traditional classical ethnic dance forms like Bhangra, Bharata Natyam, Flamenco and now even Polynesian and West African Dance. Contemporary innovators in this art form are Carolena Nericcio's Fat Chance Belly Dance, Carolena's partner - Megha Gavin's Devyani Dance Company, Jill Parker's Ultra Gypsy, Paulette Rees Dennis and Gypsy Caravan, Heather Stants and Urban Tribal Dance, Rachel Brice, Kajira Djoumanha's Black Sheep Belly Dance, Ziah's Awalim Dance Company, Amy Sigil and Unmata, Domba, Read My Hips, Palika's Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance, Sharon Moore's Infusion Belly Dance, and many more.

ATS is a very specific and exacting dance form created by Carolena Nericcio of Fat Chance Belly Dance of San Francisco. ATS is a wholly improvised form of group dance, where the dancers share a repertory of movements both fast and slow which are cued in the moment using subtle movements of the body, such as a lift of the arm, turn of the head or shoulder, a shifting of the weight and even the slighlest energetic change in movement. The "dance" is not choreographed ahead of time nor rehearsed, rather the dancers create everchanging pods of duets, trios, and quads with a leader in the front of the formation who then "leads" the improv while the others "follow" her movements. The goal is to have the group move seamlessly as one unit because they are completely present and connected with one another in the moment, relying on peripheral vision, intuition, a shared repertoire and interpretation of rhythmic elements and the committed intention to move as one cohesive - mind, body and spirit connected group. Every angle of head, hand, arm, torso and hip are meant to be aligned and the tight formations create a feeling of fluidity and onesness that pulls both the dancers and the audience into it's trance like spell. There is no choreography per se, just what the dancers create and build in the moment.

Tribal Style dancers like Raqs Sharqi dancers often use finger cymbals, but the focus is a group as opposed to emphasizing solo performance. Tribal STyle does feature solos within the group as well as call-and-answer performance with another dancer (duos), or as a whole group. Often there is a chorus which provides a "drone" in the background while the featured pod is the focal point. Both the pod and the chorus are improvised in the moment. The style is also characterized by costumes derived from many "folkloric" sources and is often composed of large tiered skirts or 10 meter/yard skirts, a short choli often with a plunging neckline, a visible bra decorated with coins and textiles, turbaned head, hip scarf with yarn tassles or fringe, and a heavy layering of oxidized silver jewelry. The jewelry commonly originates from Central Asia, from any number of nomadic tribes or empires (e.g. Kuchi, Turkoman, Rajasthan) and is often large and set with semi-precious stones or, when mass-produced, with glass. Dancers frequently "tattoo" their faces with kohl or kajal. Make-up is usually eye focused with heavy kajal. For prime examples of techniques and costuming of American Tribal Style (ATS), look to FatChanceBellyDance or Heavy Hips Tribal Belly Dance. Today however the Tribal Style Fusion groups can wear just about anything.

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