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American
Tribal Style Belly dance is a fairly new dance form with its origins
in traditional
Middle Eastern dance. The components of this history include the
gypsy dancers that
inspired the Orientalists of the nineteenth century and the introduction
of the dance into
the United States at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The gypsy
dance then transformed
into an urban cabaret dance style to please a colonial audience
in Egypt. Also included in
this history are the teachers of the last fifty years that are the
direct lineage of what is
presently known as American Tribal Style: Jamila Salimpour, director
of Bal-Anat, Masha
Archer, director of the San Francisco Classic Dance Troupe, and
Carolena Nericcio, director
of FatChanceBellyDance. Belly dance in the modern era has always
modified to suit the
expectations of its audiences and that is what links nineteenth
century gypsy dancers of
the Middle East with twentieth century modern American dancers.
Brief Overview of Belly dance and Definition of American
Tribal Style
When a particular dance is taken out of its cultural context and
placed on a stage, it
changes. It does so to satisfy its new audience and their expectations.
Belly dance as
secular entertainment from the Middle East, however, has always
adapted and changed
to fit the expectations of its audiences. The impetus for the adaptability
is an economic
one. It is to encourage the audiences to give more money to the
dancers. This is true for
the gypsy dancers who originated it, true for the Arab cabaret dancers
who transformed it,
and true for the American dancers who have adopted it. My focus
here is to study American
Tribal Style Belly dance, which has its roots in the gypsy dances
of the Middle East, but
carries the modern touch of American artistic sensibilities.
A prime
example of American Tribal Style performed today is from FatChanceBellyDance,
of which I am the assistant director and have been performing with
since 1989. I have a
tendency to want to use the dance form as my own vehicle of self-expression
without
paying much attention to the cultural context. However, I know that
without the cultural
background I never would have been given the dance for inspiration.
Therefore, I will focus
on the direct lineage that led up to FatChance's style and the cultural
context from which
the dance form originated.
The lineage begins with the gypsy dancers of North Africa, particularly
the Ghawazee of
Egypt and the Ouled Nail of Algeria. The gypsy dancers were introduced
to the United
States in 1893 at the Great Columbia Exposition in Chicago. The
stir that these dancers
created spawned into burlesque shows and inspired a whole new Hollywood
genre of the
vamp. Arabic dancers were attracted to this glamour and wanted to
emulate Western
ideals. Therefore they adopted the Hollywood version as their own.
Thus, traditional
modern Egyptian cabaret belly dance is an American construct that
was modified by
Arabs for their own artistic and economic needs.
Jamila Salimpour, an American, is considered the originator of American
Tribal Style Belly
dance. Her dance group, Bal-Anat, paved the way for others to use
a fusion of the various
regional dances of the Middle East and North Africa as inspiration
for their own version of
belly dance. Masha Archer, a former student of Jamila, added more
uniformity to the new
style by not distinguishing between the regions and simply identifying
it as belly dance.
Carolena Nericcio formed FatChanceBellyDance after studying with
Masha and blends the
methodologies of the two teachers. What these American artists have
in common with their
gypsy originators is that they all adapted the dance to suit their
needs for survival and for
entertainment value.
Belly dance has many different names and many different styles from
various regions. Here
in the United States, the most popular style performed is the traditional
Egyptian cabaret
style known as Raks al Sharki or Oriental Dance. However, a new
style has emerged,
especially on the west coast, American Tribal Style Belly dance.
It is an ethnic fusion style,
influenced by Middle Eastern dance but inspired by American artistic
sensibilities. 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 honour the roots. 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.
The Gypsy Past
Belly dance has origins in ancient fertility cults and assisting
child birth at a time when
religion was an integral part of daily life and had relevance to
every aspect of human
existence. However, the female pelvic dance died out in many parts
of the world, but
remained in areas such as the Middle East and North Africa. It then
progressed from a
religious sphere into the realm of spectacle and entertainment by
a new class of
professional dancers.
The acceptability of dance in the Middle East has been entwined
with women's role in
society. No well-bred Egyptian woman would ever consider dancing
in public. Dance as a
social past time in the confines of the home was acceptable for
women only to entertain
each other.
Professional
dance was the domain of the lower classes as it was limited to "gypsies,
minority communities and the poorer members of society." These
dancers were distrusted
for their rebellious ways, yet they were welcomed into the homes
of the upper classes to
animate family festivities.
Gypsies have always assimilated local customs and traditions and
made them their own.
They polished and amplified the local dance and music in order to
use them as a means of
livelihood. Therefore, when the French found the dance in North
Africa in 1798 during
Napoleon's invasion, the gypsy dancers soon discovered that the
French soldiers were a
new and bountiful source of revenue. They adapted their repertoire
to entice more income.
The French saw the Ouled Nail of Algeria and the Ghawazee of Egypt
and generically named
their gypsy dances danse du ventre, dance of the stomach. The direct
English translation
of belly dance became adopted by Westerners although there are various
names given to
the dances of the distinct regions. The European foreigners were
the first to document the
Ghawazee and the Ouled Nail. The native elite and educated did not
feel that the dance
was respectable nor important enough to record. Naturally, the dancers
became an
obsession for many Western travellers because of the supposed forbidden
sensuality the
dancers represented.
*I
would like to thank Carolena for allowing me to use some of the
information from her website.
For more information about Carolena and FatChanceBellyDance please
visit: |
