Introductory Statement
American Tribal Style Bellydance 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 FatChance
BellyDance. Bellydance 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 Bellydance 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.
Bellydance 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 Bellydance,
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 FatChance BellyDance, 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 bellydance 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 Bellydance. 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 bellydance. 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 bellydance. Carolena Nericcio
formed FatChance BellyDance 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.
Bellydance 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
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. Yet they still must acknowledge,
respect and honor the roots.1 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.2
The Gypsy Past
Bellydance 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.3 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.4 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."5
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.6
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 bellydance 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 travelers because of the
supposed forbidden sensuality the dancers represented.
Introduction of Bellydance to the United States
Most records of Arabic dance, written and visual,
were from Western artists and travelers, mainly from
the nineteenth century, the Orientalist Age. They
depicted themes connected with women, especially the
dancers, to express a languid life in the harsh heat
of the East. Orientalism can be described as a projection
of exotic fantasy over the reality of life in the
East and offers an escape to the repressed confinement
of nineteenth century Europe and the United States.
The distorted fantasy of exoticism, ignorance, and
exploitation was preferred because it better suited
the Orientalist's personal vision or artistic purpose.
It was against this background that the danse du ventre
arrived in Chicago, "as a cultural exhibit, as
an amusement for the masses, and as a means to offset
the gigantic costs of the exposition."7 It was
here that the dance would alter itself again for economic
motives. This time not by the dancers' choice but
by the promoters' choice.
The Great Columbia Exposition in Chicago occurred
in 1893 and offered troupes of indigenous entertainers
in its entertainment section, the Midway Plaisance:
a Moorish palace, Turkish and Persian theaters and
a street from Cairo. The Cairo Street attracted capacity
crowds where the performers were simply 'dancing girls'
doing the 'hootchie-kootchie'.8 The Ghawazee dancers,
particularly a mysterious dancer named Little Egypt,
performed at the fair to titillated and scandalized
audiences. Yet the dancers also disappointed those
who expected to see the glorified fantasies of the
Orientalist paintings.9 The financial success of the
1893 ethnological exhibits of foreign customs and
pastimes quickly gave way to peep shows inspired by
the exotic East. Cultural tradition was disregarded
with the new burlesque entertainment. After 1893,
many dancers claimed to be Little Egypt and performed
in burlesque shows more boldly and more outrageously
than the original had at the Chicago Fair. Carnivals
began to spring up containing shows that featured
one version or another of "the dance that shocked
Chicago."10 They soon became a staple for the
booming amusement industry and the dance's notoriety
was secured with the unsavory reputation of the burlesque
business.
While the dance was bastardized into the "hootchie
kootchie" in the United States, back in Egypt,
the dance was being transformed into a proper city
entertainment. The cabaret style developed in the
clubs of Algiers, Beirut, and Cairo, mainly to satisfy
the demands of a colonial audience. In the 1920's
the cabaret costume in the Middle East also adapted
to satisfy this new audience. The costume "owed
its inspiration to Hollywood, where female allure
was associated with the vamp."11 The Arab dancers
adopted the new cabaret uniform of bra, low-slung
gauzy skirt with side slits and bare midriff. Films
also became popular at this time and featured cabaret
dancing as a brief diversion. However, Hollywood exerted
the greatest influence on Arabic film. The Oriental
dance fantasy filtered through and "was taken
up and unconsciously parodied by Arab dancers in their
desire to emulate Western behavior and modes of fashion."12
Jamila Salimpour
It was this style of dance that first attracted Jamila
Salimpour. She is credited by many for starting the
revival of bellydance in the United States and being
the originator of what is now known as American Tribal
Style. She also developed a method of verbal breakdown
and terminology for the movements she learned from
visiting performers of the Middle East. Her introduction
to the dance came with her father's descriptions of
Ghawazee dancers in Egypt while he was stationed there
with the Sicilian military. She also accompanied her
Egyptian landlady to Egyptian movies where dance was
featured. She tried to remember every move she had
seen: "And so, from my father's recollections,
my landlady's firsthand knowledge, and from the movie's
examples, this was how I got my dance information."13
She began teaching dance in the early 1950's, but
had difficulty because she had never formally learned
the dance and did not know how to teach it. It was
until she began dancing in San Francisco in the 1960's
and owned the Bagdad Cabaret on Broadway that she
was exposed to dancers hired from different countries
in the Middle East. At this point she began to catalogue
movements and create a usable dance vocabulary:
As I worked with and watched dancer after dancer,
I would try to describe to my dancer friends some
of the things I had seen that were different. If
a movement was similar or related in some form,
I categorized it as a family. I mentally catalogued
as much as I could remember and included it in my
format.14
The accumulation of information created a vast repertoire
for her students to choreograph their own pieces.
Jamila had concentrated on the traditional cabaret
style that was suitable for nightclubs, but in 1967
she began losing some of her students. She learned
they were going in costume to the Renaissance Pleasure
Faire in Northern California and performing spontaneously
throughout the Faire. The organizer of the Faire pleaded
with her to control the situation. Therefore, she
formed the group Bal-Anat to organize the dancers
for performing at the Faire and to keep her students.15
Jamila's experience as an acrobat with the Ringling
Brothers Circus while she was a teenager became essential
training for the new group's format. She patterned
the troupe after a circus-like variety show that someone
might see at a bazaar in the Middle East. The variety
show contained dance numbers that were three to five
minutes in length and represented a cross-section
of old styles from the Middle East. Her American students
represented musicians from Egypt and Morocco, an Ouled
Nail dancer from Algeria, Turkish dancers and male
tray dancers.16 Bal-Anat's style was not identified
at the time because each member represented a different
regional dance and wore the appropriate costume. However,
they could be identified as American Tribal Style
because of the ethnic fusion definition, and because
they modified their show for an American audience
on an American stage. 17
The format of Bal-Anat was imitated all over the
United States, even though the new practitioners usually
did not know from where the style originated. "Indeed,
many people thought it was the 'real thing' when in
fact it was half real and half hokum."18 The
audiences at the Faire thought that they were witnessing
authentic dances even though the leaflet informed
them the group was from many tribes. Jamila speculates
that is where the expression "tribal dancing"
originated. While directing Bal-Anat for the Renaissance
Pleasure Faire, Jamila continued to train her students
in the cabaret style. She often sent them to perform
at the various nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay
Area even after she retired from performing.
Masha Archer
Masha Archer discontinued her studies with Jamila
once she was ready to be funneled into the clubs.
She studied with Jamila Salimpour for two and a half
years before founding the San Francisco Classic Dance
Troupe which existed for fourteen years (1970's through
mid 1980's). According to Masha, Jamila felt that
the dance deserved a better venue than restaurants
and bars, but there was nothing that could be done
about it: "She was imparting that as disgusting
as the scene may be, you have to put up with it because
that's the only game in town."19 Also, if you
were a teacher, you must teach your students to tolerate
the situation and cooperate.
Masha adopted the dance but had a different vision
of interpreting it. She is a controversial figure
because of her views of the maintenance and expression
of this dance form. She feels that Middle Easterners
are unfit for the job of caretakers of this dance.
The culture is ashamed of the dance and abusive towards
women. Also, the dance has been controlled by their
government and disrespected by male club owners.20
She feels that American women have honored it more
and deserve to adopt it.
Masha's original discipline had been drawing and
she used the dance to express the lines she imagined.
She considers it her artistic heritage to be inspired
by something and responsibly use whatever part one
likes:
What's right is that we take what we find and
do the best we can. We won't do anything but bring
it, our culture, their culture, and our own experience
higher and show this higher experience to the audience
and move their experience to a higher plane.21
She did not use any label at the time to define her
style. It was simply "bellydance". Carolena
Nericcio, member of her troupe for seven years, jokingly
calls Masha's style, "Tribal Art Noveau, because
she wanted her costuming to reflect more of a European
art mixture."22
Masha's approach to costuming was influenced by Jamila,
but she took it further "into a mad, rapacious,
acquisitive eclecticism. We looked like some sort
of European, Parisian-Tunisians with a very strong
Byzantine tribal look, which was completely invented."23
Masha maintained that the look was seemingly authentic
because of the tribal jewelry and antique pieces from
the Middle East and Europe. She referred to it, though,
as "Authentic Modern American" because of
the American concept of taking liberties with authenticity
and origins.
Masha also had an American attitude for choosing
different types of music for bellydancing. She found
that only using the popular music of the Middle East
for the dance, which was expected, was a narrow way
of looking at it. She decided that there were many
sources of music that had related expressions, such
as folkloric musical sources from other countries,
even opera and classical music.24
Masha refused to perform in bars and restaurants
and preferred to perform at cultural events. By doing
this, she brought about an awareness that there were
other places that bellydance could be shown besides
restaurants and bars. Bellydance can be a part of
theater where people go for the purpose of seeing
art performed. However, she did not refer only to
a formal stage. She maintained that the Renaissance
Faire was an excellent environment for the dance because
people expected to see a show from the dancers and
not have them merely as an erotic enhancement to dinner.
"We are to be considered timeless dancers of
this world."25 Masha was very aware that she
was taking extreme liberties with this dance and its
cultural roots, but she felt strongly that the dance
form was so special and so deserving of respect that
no matter what she did with it, it would be beautiful.
That was the ultimate legacy that she imparted to
her students.
Carolena Nericcio
Carolena Nericcio began studying with Masha Archer
at the age of fourteen. She trained with her for seven
years before starting FatChance BellyDance in 1987.
FatChance is a blend of the two methodologies in terms
of costuming and stage format. The tribal style format
came from Jamila: "...the chorus, the set up
of the half moon chorus and the dancers coming out
individually to do a small two or three minute routine
and then going back into the chorus."26 They
follow Jamila's style of using heavy costuming but
Masha's style of having the same fusion look for everyone.
Carolena impresses to her students the same demanding
stage presence and personality in public that Masha
and Jamila taught. She also carries over the intensity
of the dancers' encouragement of each other with zhagareets
(the vocal ululation) during a performance. A direct
linkage to Masha is the posture, keeping the chest
lifted and graceful, and maintaining a sense of integrity.27
Masha took liberties with this form because she felt
it was permitted by her artistic heritage. Carolena,
however, brought the dance closer to its cultural
roots by using mainly North African and Middle Eastern
folkloric music and keeping the movements basic to
bellydance:
Given the dance style and given Masha's training
and then given my own opportunity to go out there,
I didn't feel I could keep creating more and more
of it. Then it really would become modern dance
and it wouldn't be bellydance at a certain point.28
Carolena has a profound respect for the culture from
where bellydance originates. But she also considers
herself an artist that wants to piece together desirable
pieces: "I want to be able to push that culture
into more creative ideas but I also want to defend
it from people that would take apart the structure
of it."29 True to the gypsy nature of adaptability
for survival, the main emphasis in her structure is
an "aesthetically pleasing style,"30 that
provides a good show. FatChance dances to music that
inspires them and contributes to the folkloric, tribal
feeling of the troupe.
When asked if she sees American Tribal Style as purely
American or as a different form of the cultural context,
Carolena replies that it is both. Sometimes it is
more American and sometimes it is more Egyptian:
Sometimes when we're presenting something to an
American audience, they don't really understand
it, even though all the cultural mystery has been
pulled out of it so that it's as easy as possible
for an American to understand. They still don't
get it. Same thing when an Egyptian sees us, they
probably get confused because they're accustomed
to seeing one kind of gesturing and they're seeing
something else.31
What is most important, though, is that the dancers
keep the spirit true to the culture.
Carolena knows the importance of staying true to
the cultural context, but she knows that American
Tribal Style is here to stay and it will constantly
evolve. She acknowledges that the dancers have a responsibility
to bring more integrity to the dance and to maintain
the spirit of the cultural roots. However, she has
opposing feelings about how she would like to see
this dance evolve in the next fifty years. Part of
her would like to see the dance gain respectable theatrical
status on the stage. But she also realizes that an
important part would be lost because the dance's essence
is the interaction with the people "right there
on the street."32 However, she would like to
see a standardized protocol for hiring bellydancers
so that they would automatically receive those items
necessary for performing: "... where it would
be respected, where the sound system would be real,
and the surfaces we danced on were real."33
The American lineage of this dance form represented
varying circumstances for its evolution. Jamila Salimpour
started Bal-Anat out of economic necessity and represented
various regions in her dance repertoire. Masha Archer
was more concerned with the beauty of the dance form
and disengaged herself from the original culture.
Carolena Nericcio modifies the dance to keep the audience
entertained but always maintains the spirit of the
culture of Middle Eastern gypsies. The uniting factor
of the three teachers in the American Tribal Style
lineage is the passion for the essence of the dance
form as opposed to representing an exact replica of
the original gypsy dancers.
Conclusion
Bellydance has progressed on its own in the last
hundred years from being a gypsy dance meant to entice
soldiers to empty their pockets, to being a cabaret
dance form with Hollywood as its influence. The last
fifty years have shown that Americans have adopted
it and modified it for their own artistic inspirations
while still acknowledging its cultural roots. American
Tribal Style is only one variation of the many forms
of the generic word bellydance. The facts of this
secular dance form is that it is meant for entertainment
and will always evolve to suit the expectations of
its audience. Jamila sums up the unstoppable evolution
of bellydance: "Tradition is not static. Every
generation draws from the past. Evolving from the
salon and street performer, to the night club, and
concert hall,...the Oriental dance will endure...
I don't object to anything as long as it is entertaining."34
*submitted, San Francisco State University, 1997
End Notes
1 Zussman, Mira. "Far from the Pink Chiffon:
Reshaping Erotic Bellydance." Whole Earth Review.
Number 85 (Spring 1995), p. 35.
2 ibid.
3 Harding, Karol Henderson. "The World's Oldest
Dance: The Origins of Oriental Dance." On The
Belly Dance Home Page, www.bdancer.com/history/Bdhist1.html,
1993.
4 Buonaventura, Wendy. Serpent of the Nile: Women
and Dance in the Arab World. London: Saqi Books, 1989.
P. 44.
5 ibid., p. 11.
6 Harding.
7 Carlton, Donna. Looking for Little Egypt. Bloomington,
IN: IDD Books, 1994. P.25.
8 ibid., p. 40.
9 Buonaventura, p. 105.
10 Carlton, p. 56.
11 Buonaventura, p. 152.
12 ibid. P. 148.
13 Salimpour, Jamila. Copy of speech presented at
The International Conference on Middle Eastern Dance,
Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA, May 16-18, 1997.
Compiled by the Salimpour School of Dance.
14 ibid.
15 ibid.
16 ibid.
17 Nericcio, Carolena. Tape recorded interview with
Rina Rall. San Francisco: Thirty minutes, April 20,
1998.
18 Salimpour.
19 Archer, Masha. Video taped interview with Julia
Terr. San Francisco: Two hours, 1995.
20 ibid.
21 ibid.
22 Nericcio.
23 Archer.
24 ibid.
25 ibid.
26 Nericcio.
27 ibid.
28 ibid.
29 ibid.
30 Khastagir, Nadia and Carolena Nericcio. "Survival
of the Fittest: The Evolution of FatChance BellyDance."
Tribal Talk. Premiere Issue (Spring 1997), p. 2.
31 Nericcio.
32 ibid.
33 ibid.
34 Salimpour.
for more information on sources, see the annotated
bibliography
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