Turbans, Cholli Tops, and Gypsy Skirts...
The Changing Face of Belly Dance in the U. S.

by Zarifa Sa’id

The phenomenon of American Tribal Dance has become too obtrusive to ignore, if number of participants at Maja’s “Gathering of the Tribes” workshop is any indicator. I had intended to write an article comparing the “American Tribal” with the “early” tribal dance styles. Thanks to Maja, prior to writing this article I had the experience of viewing many of the top dance troupes who characterize themselves as American Tribal in one weekend workshop - both performing and teaching. And there was also the main representation of what I would call “early” tribal - “early” referring to that time prior to the development of American Tribal. I am writing a very different article than I had intended because I came away with an appreciation for the performing quality of some of the troupes and with an understanding of the broader meaning that participating in such a group holds for its members.

First a definition. Defining American Tribal dance brings to mind the parable of the blind wise men and the elephant, who each thought the elephant comparable to something different depending on what part of the elephant’s anatomy they had felt. One’s concept of American Tribal dance depends on which group one has been exposed to. That is why Maja’s weekend Gathering was so important for me. I was able to see several top groups and many other lessor known practitioners as well.

One might look to the term “tribal” to attempt a definition. The problem is that most of Middle Eastern belly dance is performed, not by tribes but by Arab, Turkish or Greek people living in towns and cities. Whatever tribes inhabit the region may or may not perform raqs sharki, the term by which “belly dance” is known there. The concept of American tribal, as well as “early” tribal, has come out of Renaissance Faires (Ren Faires) created by the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). As such, the concept is a romanticized construct which allows the incorporation of belly dancers as entertainers in the Ren Faires. Since there is little historical documentation for “Arab tribal” wanderings in Medieval Europe, performers had license to be creative with costuming and dance styles. And since the historic roots are difficult to ascertain, the groups relied on the Western concept of “oriental” as depicted on old post cards and paintings from the late 1800s and earlier. “Early tribal” groups worked to recreate the style and mood of those reflections of the orient. Some examples of “early tribal” includes Jamila Salimpour’s Bal Anat troupe which performed in San Francisco in the 1960s and the Hahbi’ Ru group, co-directed by John Compton, which continues in that tradition. There were other “early tribal” groups that performed in Ren Faires across the U. S. in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, as belly dancers sought venues in which to perform and developed costumes and performance styles that fit the Ren Faire format.

As things evolved, American performers have sought to fulfill their own individual construct of “tribal”. In doing so, groups have developed costume styling that blends dress elements from many different ethnic groups, including the turbans patterned after Turkish and North African turbans of the late 1800s; cholli tops similar to those worn by Indian women with their Saris, and big, full gypsy style skirts. The costumes are colorful and ornamented and often the dancers have tatoos. While tatooing is still seen in some areas on Arab women, the kinds of tatoos on American dancers are generally those designs current in American styles of tatoo rather than tribal symbols.

Possibly one could look to the dance styles and music to define American tribal? Let’s see. There was a fine group that used what I believe to be Central Asian music and folkloric dance movements and patterns. This group had fused some belly dance movements very effectively into the dance. Then there was a group that used modern Middle Eastern belly dance music and belly dance movements. Their dance worked well, but would have worked equally well in typical belly dance costumes. There were groups that used modern Western (American or European) music and their movements used some belly dance movements combined with dance movements and patterns from Western modern or jazz dance. There were groups that used fusion music, such as “Turku” and others used music that seemed to have strong Indian (Hindu) influence. The latter group used dance movements that also seemed influenced by Indian dance. For the music then, it seems that “anything goes”. With respect to the dance styles, it also seems that anything goes. There seems to be, however, one common theme which is that the arm movements are basically from Western dance forms. Fat Chance Belly Dance was one of the first to use this in the American tribal format and it seems to have caught on. Another theme for many of the groups is that movements are highly simplistic and very repetitive. I noticed that in many of the classes there was much more emphasis on showing how members of a group would move in floor patterns than there was on dance technique.

So we are left with the question, “what makes it American tribal”? I am indebted to discussions with a dancer friend, Julianne Battaglia, for some of the following observations. It seems that the groups who dance in the American tribal tradition often see themselves as creating a unity among themselves. The dance acts as a medium for this connectedness. One of the teaching groups at the workshop stated that the purpose of the group was not to perform but to do the dances. That the “doing” provided a means of “being in the moment” and experiencing a connectedness with the group. These groups satisfy some need for connecting with other people and belonging to a group. The use of the term “tribal” helps to create that intent because it brings to mind the construct of “tribe” - a group of people who belong to each other and have some common purpose. I’m not sure how this is different from a belly dance troupe, since many of them experience the feeling of being a “family”. But possibly, thinking of themselves as a tribe may strengthen the experience.

Why has this form become so popular? I believe that the key is in the preceding paragraph. America is a fragmented society. There are sociological texts written about the search for spiritual roots and connections as fueling the development of religious movements. I believe this fragmentation also fuels the development of American tribal dance as a popular way to be connected with something. Beyond that, in many cases the approach to dance is more Western than Middle Eastern, which makes this form more accessible to Americans. Like any fusion dance piece, however, the fusion can become an excuse for not taking the trouble to learn much depth about any of the dance forms being “fused”. I personally think that the more successful groups, from a performing standpoint, have a lot of knowledge about the forms that they use. However, if the purpose is in the doing rather than the performing, then the American tribal dance form follows in the tradition of “folk dance”. In folk dance the joy is in dancing together in a group using repetitive patterns. If it looks good as a performance piece, so much the better, but that’s not the point.

As for me, if my troupe decides to do something in the direction of “tribal”, beyond the ethnic pieces that we already do, I would go the direction of Hahbi’Ru. My call to belly dance was the Turkish, Greek and Arab music and the specific movements that Mediterranean peoples do to that music. Those are my roots in raqs sharqi, and it is a rich enough tradition that one can study for decades and not have seen it all.

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