American Tribal belly dance
BUY tribal music from our USA Shop or from our UK Shop
Tribal style belly dance is a completely new style, invented in the West coast of the USA in the 1970s. As opposed to raks sharki, where dancers often perform solo, American Tribal Style is performed by groups of dancers who improvise their dance and perform mainly in theatres or during festivals.
Usually one of the dancers leads the improvisation and gives signals and cues to the other dancers, to indicate which movement she is going to perform next. Thus, the dance looks seamless and fluid without interruptions. A tribal performance can also include pieces where the focus is on one or two dancers performing a duet or a solo, while the others provide background. American tribal belly dancers perform with or without props, such as finger cymbals or swords.
Origins of American Tribal belly dance
The precursor of tribal style belly dance is Jamila Salimpour, a California based dancer. Jamila, in the 60s, decided to incorporate different styles of dance into her own style, drawing from various Northern African and Middle Eastern countries. Jamia Salimpour incorporated in particular 
folkloric and ethnographic elements into the dance and the costumes and she founded a troupe, called Bal Anat.
Following Jamila’s example, other dancers mixed various folkloric elements together, to create a new and unique style. One of the oldest and most famous American tribal groups is Fat Chance Bellydance, founded by Carolena Nericcio. During the last two decades, American Tribal style has become popular all over the world and it is featured in the repertoire of many dancing groups, including the ‘Belly dance Superstars’. Two famous tribal dancers who perform with the Bellydance Superstars are Sharon Kihara and Rachel Brice.
Tribal costumes
The costumes that tribal dancers wear are also a fusion of various traditions, deriving from many folkloric sources, such as tribes from Central Asia and Northern Africa. American tribal belly dancers usually wear gypsy style long layered skirts, a short choli, a bra decorated with coins, hip scarves with fringes, heavy silver jewellery and turbans. Tribal dancers also often paint their faces with khol or kajal and sometimes tattoo their bodies.
Tribal belly dance music
American tribal belly dancers dance to a great variety of music, both traditional and pop, from various countries including India, Egypt, Northern African and Middle Eastern countries. Western contemporary electronic music, hip hop and rock are also used.
