American Tribal Style Belly Dancing

Tribal Style Belly Dance or American Tribal Style Belly Dance (commonly known as ATS) is a recent movement in the USA that has addressed the feminist philosophy of empowerment of women through Middle Eastern belly dance.

Tribal Belly Dancing - General Information

In defining Tribal Style Belly Dance and/or American Tribal Style Belly Dance, it is extremely important to note that Tribal Style is a larger category under which American Tribal Style (ATS) appears. ATS is a specific form of Tribal Style Belly Dance that is clearly defined and documented. "Tribal Style" can describe many other styles that are not necessarily ATS.

The general category Tribal Style is accredited to Jamila Salimpour who fostered a fusion of folkloric dances styles from the Middle East and North Africa and began teaching what she knew and performing all over California and the West Coast. Utilizing traditional folkloric dance elements and costumes inspired by traditional and ethnographic traditions, she presented on stage through Bal Anat a colorful dance company which included musicians, singers and dancers to create a "souk" or almost circus feel. Taking what she herself had learned from native dancers from Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who were dancing in the United States, she began to catalogue "belly dance movement" and began creating a basic repertoire terminology which is still the basis for Tribal Style and American Tribal Style repertoire.

Tribal Style today represents everything from Folkloric inspired dances to a fusion of ancient dance techniques from North India, the Middle East and Africa. As a general category, Tribal Style covers many flavors of American Belly Dance both the folkloric inspired like Dalia Carella and fusion and cross over styles which explore modern, jazz, dance theatre, and hip hop with belly dance, as well as fusion with traditional classical ethnic dance forms like Bhangra, Bharata Natyam, Flamenco and now even Polynesian and West African Dance.

Tribal Style dancers (like Raqs Sharqi dancers) often use finger cymbals, but the focus is on the group as opposed to emphasizing solo performance. Tribal Style does feature solos within the group as well as call-and-answer performance with another dancer (duets), or as a whole group. Often there is a chorus which provides a "drone" in the background while the featured pod is the focal point. Both the pod and the chorus are improvised in the moment. Staging for the pod and the chorus is also formalized within the ATS form to maximize dancer visibility on behalf of the audience and likewise maximizing group visibility of the leader.

There are several American Tribal Style Belly Dance troupes in the United States. FatChanceBellyDance is one of the largest dance troupe companies, providing lessons, videos, music, costumes and more. The company was formed in 1987 by Carolena Nericcio. Their website provides another perspective on the history of American Tribal Style:

Bellydance has many different names and many different styles from various regions. 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 Bellydance. 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.