Tribal Fusion Dance

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Tribal Fusion: Belly Dance for the Modern World Dance is communication through physical expression, although the type of expression and frequency differs vastly from culture to culture. Belly dance has an interesting history, one that dancer and instructor Susan Diamond states started “thousands of years ago” (Diamond, Belly Dancing). Today, however, belly dancing is gaining popularity and there are many different “branches” of the dance form that have evolved over merging two or more dance forms. While researching belly dance I found that my particular “flavor” happens to be Tribal Fusion. Tribal Fusion dance is the love child of American Tribal Style and American Cabaret Belly Dance. American Tribal Style was created by Carolena Nericcio-Bohlman, …show more content…

Often it fuses American Cabaret with American Tribal styles, but is known to fuse contemporary, Indian, and Hip Hop influences into its style. Classes are usually high energy, with a strong focus on strength and flexibility (Brice.) Tribal fusion is the dance form that I have been studying for the past three months with Rachel Brice, Zoe Jakes and Ashley Lopez through the online academy “Datura Online.” The style called out to me because of the alternative-friendly style. Tattoos and piercings are “allowed” and it is a much more modern style of dance compared to the classic cabaret style. Cabaret utilizes a lot of veil work, and is what many people think of when belly dance is mentioned. It is a classic costume with the moves that do it justice. ATS style, however, utilizes zills, or finger cymbals, and swords (that are balanced on top of the head, mostly) and has a lot of floor work. The focus in on the extra theatrics instead of in the postures and poses that Cabaret boasts about. Tribal Fusion takes all of those elements, plus hip hops “popping and locking” and elaborate costumes and headdresses and combines it all into a very fun, and sensual dance form. Even though Brice, Jakes and Lopez make the dancing look easy, it is anything but. All of my dance sessions start out with an intense warm up – what most people use as a work out in and of itself. If you feel daring, try out Lopez’ dance sessions, which many times warm up with yoga and

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