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LillyBoPeep -> RE: Sexxxaaaay (6/17/2011 6:01:00 PM)
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Asharah is a bloody genius. she has a blog at bdpaladin.com; i like to drop in and read it and occasionally comment. she talks about all sorts of history.
Rachel Brice is essentially credited as being THE one who popularized tribal fusion, when she formed The Indigo and went touring with Belly Dance Superstars..
*puts on belly dance teacher coin scarf*
In the 70s there was a dancer called Jamila Salimpour (she was once a performer with Ringling Bros. circus) who had a stage act called Bal Anat. It was meant as a more folkloric contrast to the nightclub belly dance that was what most people saw in America at the time. Bal Anat would perform at renfaires and things like that, dance to more "ethnic-sounding" music and wear more "ethnic" costumes than the beaded bedlahs the nightclub dancers were wearing. It combined a lot of different kinds of dancing; sword dances, tray dances, etc etc, and fused a lot of ethnic dances.
People really dug the style of Bal Anat and wanted to learn more about it -- Masha Archer was one of these students who further melded a lot of the fused dances together and began teaching herself later on. (There was another one also called John Compton, who dances with his troupe Habhi 'Ru -- seriously look him up; he's a wonderful dancer and he's absolutely hilarious. I will never forget meeting him.) One of her students, Carolena Nericcio, is the one mostly credited with creating what became known as American Tribal Style Bellydance, or ATS, and built up a troupe around it called Fat Chance Bellydance. (sometimes also called ITS by people who do similar dancing but without being a FCBD sister studio -- there's a lot of drama there, and that's another long, long LONG story =p)
ATS is a modern fusionary style that combines movements from dances found along the Silk Route. there are moves from the Ghawazee people who were found in the Egypt area, moves inspired by the Rajasthani people of India, Spanish flamenco (most notably in the body posture and arms) etc etc. It's an improvisational dance based on cues and muscle memory -- you can build entire performances without really having a clue what you're going to do because everyone knows the cues and what they mean. Carolena was hoping to create something that people could do with each other all over the world, and you really can go nuts and dance carefree and happily with another tribal dancer from, say, the Czech Republic, because you both know the same vocabulary -- that's a pretty awesome feeling!
ATS really isn't an "authentic" ethnic style of dance, though, but the costuming and movements give it a more earthy feel.
Okay so ANYWAY, ATS caught on pretty wildly, but as with anything, there are those who want to innovate. Enter Rachel Brice. Rachel began as a cabaret dancer, but then started studying with John Compton of Habhi 'Ru. She later joined Ultra Gypsy which was the first "tribal fusion" troupe, created by Jill Parker. Following her time with them, she met Mardi Love who was part of another troupe, and Zoe Jakes and formed The Indigo. They are the ones who really started the tribal fusion "revolution" because when they went touring with Miles Copeland's BDSS, no one had really seen anything like that before. Tribal fusion, up until then, was pretty much only seen in California, but going touring with the BDSS took it all over the world.
Tribal fusion is a mixture of ATS and other forms of dance, primarily cabaret/traditional styles. It also has some hip-hop elements (pop & lock stuff), breakdancing, honestly now it's become so enormous, it includes all kinds of stuff. =p
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