Pedralta magazine

Belly dance / Tribal Belly Dance / Tribal Fusion
- What's the difference?

Belly dance

Belly dance is a very lose term used to describe dances originating in the Middle East and North Africa, though their origins could be world-wide.

Our stereotypical image of this dance comes from movies or foreign holidays. In the West, we mainly envisage a solo dancer in a bedleh (two piece bra and belt set) with a floaty chiffon skirt. This dress style was heavily influenced by the emergence of the cinema in Egypt during the 1950's. As the dance originated with itinerant dancers, they previously used whatever was available for costuming, often carrying their wealth on their person, in the form of jewellery.

There are many different forms of this dance. They include Raqs Shaki developed in the 1940's night-clubs of Cairo, Baladi (of my country), referring to the dances common to a certain area or tribal group, Dabka and other line dances, Saaidi is danced by men or women, mimicking a form of martial art, using a stick.

These dances are either choreographed for a group of dancers or take the form of an improvised or choreographed solo.

Tribal belly dance

(Tribal tuition, click here)

(Tribal costume, click here)

American Tribal Style is defined by improvisational group dance. To achieve this style the group needs a common, learned vocabulary of moves. It has its roots in the FatChance BellyDance style, created and developed by Carolena Nerriccio of San Francisco. Other groups like Gypsy Caravan and Domba, have developed their own versions of ATS but have their roots are in the FatChance style. The moves have a powerful feel, borrowing heavily from Indian Khatak, Flamenco and Romany tradition.

Dancers rely on cues that should be indistinguishable to an audience, such as the phrasing of the music, the “chemistry” between the dancers, eye contact, and the angle of an arm to create a seamless transition.

“Watching a Tribal troupe do their thing well can be spell-binding, hypnotic, trance-inducing. Like watching a flock of birds that shift and turn at once, with no visible communication.” Aziza Said

A very small amount of choreography may be needed or desirable to suit a particular performance but ATS the dance is mainly improvised.

Tribal Fusion originally described styles that evolved from ATS and incorporated other strong ethnic influences, Indian Tribal Fusion, Spanish Tribal Fusion. Dancers take moves from American Tribal Style and use them to create choreographed dances or dance as soloists. Troupes may use a mix of choreography and improvisation.

Probably the best-known innovator of Tribal Fusion is Rachel Brice who also trained with FatChance, and tribal fusion has become synonymous with Rachel’s individual style - though it incorporates many and varied styles.

Tribal Style has become the “catch all” for both styles and a mixture of any ATS style.

Pedralta Dance teach and perform ATS, grounded in the FatChance format and also their own unique style of fusion, using moves, attitude and style derived from original dance forms such as Flamenco, Sevillanas and Saaidi, the earthy style from Upper Egypt, sometimes incorporating sticks. They incorporate other dance props such as swords, veils and finger cymbals.