Tribal Fusion Dance

Tribal Fusion: Belly Dance for the Modern World

Dance is communication through physical expression, although the type of expression and frequency differs vastly from culture to culture. Belly dance has an interesting history, one that dancer and instructor Susan Diamond states started “thousands of years ago” (Diamond, Belly Dancing). Today, however, belly dancing is gaining popularity and there are many different “branches” of the dance form that have evolved over merging two or more dance forms. While researching belly dance I found that my particular “flavor” happens to be Tribal Fusion.

Tribal Fusion dance is the love child of American Tribal Style and American Cabaret Belly Dance. American Tribal Style was created by Carolena Nericcio-Bohlman,

founder of “Fat Chance Belly Dance” (About.) A leading belly dance instructional institution “Datura Online,” founded by popular Rachel Brice, describes American Tribal as being “… clearly defined and documented with the primary characteristics being that of group improvisation, a distinct vocabulary and costume, and specific guidelines for leading and following” (Brice.) Cabaret is defined as:
American Cabaret or American Restaurant belly dancing has developed its own distinctive theatrical style, often using traditional Turkish and Egyptian movements to modern or traditional music. American Cabaret belly dance is also known for props used while dancing and encouraging audience interaction (Brice.)
Lastly, Tribal Fusion is defined as:
A style of dance that originated around 2000.

Often it fuses American Cabaret with American Tribal styles, but is known to fuse contemporary, Indian, and Hip Hop influences into its style. Classes are usually high energy, with a strong focus on strength and flexibility (Brice.)

Tribal fusion is the dance form that I have been studying for the past three months with Rachel Brice, Zoe Jakes and Ashley Lopez through the online academy “Datura Online.” The style called out to me because of the alternative-friendly style. Tattoos and piercings are “allowed” and it is a much more modern style of dance compared to the classic cabaret style.

Cabaret utilizes a lot of veil work, and is what many people think of when belly dance is mentioned. It is a classic costume with the moves that do it justice. ATS style, however, utilizes zills, or finger cymbals, and swords (that are balanced on top of the head, mostly) and has a lot of floor work. The focus in on the extra theatrics instead of in the postures and poses that Cabaret boasts about. Tribal Fusion takes all of those elements, plus hip hops “popping and locking” and elaborate costumes and headdresses and combines it all into a very fun, and sensual dance form. Even though Brice, Jakes and Lopez make the dancing look easy, it is anything but. All of my dance sessions start out with an intense warm up – what most people use as a work out in and of itself. If you feel daring, try out Lopez’ dance sessions, which many times warm up with yoga and

Pilates.
Tribal Fusion not only has classic belly dance moves that students must learn, but if you go towards Zoe Jakes’ dancing then you will be learning a lot of popping and locking, tummy flutters (that I still have not even begun to master) and using lots of theatrics. Brice, on the other hand, loves to get your muscles quivering with slow, sensuous and smoky moves, and is famous for her incredible control over her tummy flutters and hip pops. This dance form is a lot of hard work, but the outcome is absolutely spectacular, and I have loved watching videos and doing my best at learning the choreography that the three teachers have laid out for me during class time. It is incredibly hard to keep posture in mind, while having complete control over muscles that I do not use as intensely as dance time requires, like in “Snake Arms.” While performing this move, timing is key, and the slower you go, the better it looks. However, the slower you move, the more your muscles feel like giving up. Snakes arms most commonly start in the shoulder, travel down to the elbow, then down to the wrist and finally the fingers in a slow, sometimes agonizing undulation. It is not a move that we do in our everyday lives, for the most part, and practicing it is one of the most painful parts of dance.
Another thing I have found while practicing this dance form is that even after three months of dancing, I am still not ready to perform. One would think that three months’ worth of near daily dancing would have given me some sort of confidence and skill, but that just was not the case. I tried to put together a small choreography for the final presentation, and I was not happy with anything that came out. Either my hip pops were popping enough, my Snake Arms were not fluid enough or something else just did not look “right.” Even though that somewhat negative experience, though, I learned that once again, this is not as easy as the professionals make it look. It opened my eyes to all dancers, and knowing that no matter how small a choreography is, it took a lot of time and effort to creating it. Even for improvisation dances – skill and time goes into learning the moves that you need to put together to create a fluid dance.
The midterm for this class got me started in belly dance, and this final will keep me going with the form, if only because I have realized that I do not know nearly enough to be satisfied. I have been bitten by the dance bug and I am happy that I was open-minded enough to try something that I did not think I would ever do.