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BellyNut Tribal Home
of Bodhaia Tribal Performance Troupe |
American Tribal Style Bellydance (ATS) is a group formation dance that is improvised, but also synchronised. Using a common vocabularly of moves together with a physical cueing system, a lead dancer 'cues' to the followers what move they are going to go into next. These cues are concealed within the moves themselves and make the fact that the dance is improvised, completely invisible. The audience just see the amazing dynamics. This is the ATS format. It is a beautiful blend of middle eastern dance movements with spicy flavours of flamenco, and it invokes feelings of beauty, femininity, power, and earthiness in both the dancers and the audience. The amazing thing about this ATS format is that any ATS dancer the world over knows the same moves and cues, so two people who have just met for the first time can get up and perform beautifully together. This creates an incredible feeling of community, and makes haflas great fun!
Tribal Fusion is where the ATS format of leading and following is kept, but the vocabulary of moves are different. They are created by individual teachers who fuse 'flavours' of other dance styles into the format. So, the dance is still improvised, it's still cued, and there is still a great connection between the group, but moves can include elements of hip-hop, street, african, contemporary, jazz, gothic, ghawazee, egyptian, bollywood, bhangra... there are no limits! My recognised style is to apply the ATS format to props, such as sword, skirt, candle, palm flame, finger veil, cane... and there are more to come!
What To Expect From
Tribal Classes with Nicola Atkin
For me although the movement technique and posture is incredibly important,
so is the connection between the dancers. This is what makes tribal what
it is, rather than just bellydance. I run a 'one level fits all'
mixed class structure to encourage this very connection, and my aim is
to help students to see past the bellydance norm of just wanting to learn
move after move, or simply aiming for being more 'advanced' than others;
to want to support each other regardless of what differences there are
in ability or level; to create a space and ethos where everybody is equal,
where nobody is right or wrong, where nobody is climbing over anybody
else for their own gains, where people are happy and willing to give up
their ego for the chance for somebody else to shine, where people know
that connections between us are much more important than personal achievement
(and in fact if you foster those connections the personal achievement
wll come on in leaps and bounds!).
We all like a chance to shine, but we all do shine when we give others
a chance to do so first.