BELLY DANCE IN THE UNITED STATES

With its emergence at the 1893 World’s Fair, the last four decades of the 20th century moved belly dance in the U.S. more into the mainstream. The current interest in the dance can be traced back to the 1950s and ’60s. It was in the ethnic nightclubs in major cities like New York, that most Americans first became acquainted with the dance. These clubs were owned, operated and patronized by members of the ethnic communities of Mediterranean countries like Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. At the time, most of the dancers were Greek or Turkish, but in time their ranks would grow to include Americans as well.

In the late 1960s and early ’70s many of these dancers began offering dance classes. With increasing exploration of the East in the late 1960s, many people became interested in everything Eastern, including dance. Many touring Middle Eastern or Eastern bands took dancers with them as they toured to provide a visual representation of their music, which helped to spark interest in the dance. The increased interest in belly dancing created diverse names for the same simple movements and the need to have a “style” as each teacher tried to distinguish differences in their way of teaching from other teachers. This has hampered belly dance from acceptance with the more established dance forms because there is no nationally recognized choreography terminology that can be used to create repeatable dances.

A recent movement in the U.S. called American Tribal Style Belly Dance, or ATS, represents everything from folklore-inspired dances to the fusion of ancient dance techniques from North India, the Middle East, and Africa. Created in 1987 by Carolena Nericcio, founder of FatChanceBellydance in San Francisco, ATS has a format consisting of a vocabulary of steps that are designed to be performed improvisationally in a lead-follow manner. ATS is performed in a group, typically with a chorus of dancers using zills, or finger cymbals, as accompaniment. The music can be folkloric or modern, and the costume is heavily layered, evoking traditions of any or all of its fusion of cultural influences.
Multicultural trends that have shaped Western and U.S. belly dance are still at work. Ever evolving, this versatile dance keeps absorbing a blend of influences; modern fashion, film and television imagery, the worlds of country, rock, reggae, r&b, jazz, clubhouse, and hip hop music, underground subcultures, and many other contemporary influences. The umbrella term used to describe these hybrid forms of belly dance is “belly dance fusion”. One of the newest belly dance fusion trends is tribal fusion, which combines many different dance forms, including traditional ‘Egyptian’ or ‘Cabaret’ belly dance, poppinggothic belly dance that incorporates many belly dance styles and motifs and seeks to express the darkness of the unknown that has inspired the music, philosophies, and lifestyles of the Goth subculture.

AMERICAN TRIBAL BELLY DANCE

Tribal style belly dance is a completely new style, invented in the West coast of the USA in the 1970s.

As opposed to raks sharki, where dancers often perform solo, American Tribal Style is performed by groups of dancers who improvise their dance and perform mainly in theatres or during festivals.
Usually one of the dancers leads the improvisation and gives signals and cues to the other dancers, to indicate which movement she is going to perform next. Thus, the dance looks seamless and fluid without interruptions. A tribal performance can also include pieces where the focus is on one or two dancers performing a duet or a solo, while the others provide background. American tribal belly dancers perform with or without props, such as finger cymbals or swords. Buy finger cimbals.

Origins of American Tribal belly dance

The precursor of tribal style belly dance is Jamila Salimpour, a California based dancer. Jamila, in the 60s, decided to incorporate different styles of dance into her own style, drawing from various Northern African and Middle Eastern countries. Jamia Salimpour incorporated in particular folkloric and ethnographic elements into the dance and the costumes and she founded a troupe, called Bal Anat.

Following Jamila’s example, other dancers mixed various folkloric elements together, to create a new and unique style. One of the oldest and most famous American tribal groups is Fat Chance Bellydance, founded by Carolena Nericcio. During the last two decades, American Tribal style has become popular all over the world and it is featured in the repertoire of many dancing groups, including the ‘Belly dance Superstars’. Two famous tribal dancers who perform with the BELLY DANCE SUPERSTARS are Sharon Kihara and Rachel Brice.

Belly Dance Tribal Costumes

The Costumes that tribal dancers wear are also a fusion of various traditions, deriving from many folkloric sources, such as tribes from Central Asia and Northern Africa. American tribal belly dancers usually wear gypsy style long layered skirts, a short choli, a bra decorated with coins, hip scarves with fringes, heavy silver jewellery and turbans. Tribal dancers also often paint their faces with khol or kajal and sometimes tattoo their bodies. Buy Belly Dance Tribal Costumes.

Tribal belly dance music

American tribal belly dancers dance to a great variety of music, both traditional and pop, from various countries including India, Egypt, Northern African and Middle Eastern countries. Western contemporary electronic music, hip hop and rock are also used.

(Article Courtesy of: www.worldbellydance.com)