A History of American Tribal Style Bellydance *

by Rina Orellana Rall, principal dancer FCBD, 1988-1998

http://www.fcbd.com/about/history_rr.shtml#
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