Welcome to my Website!
I have been teaching American Tribal Style (ATS) Belly Dance since 2005, and continue to conduct classes and workshops in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area of New South Wales, Australia.
Have you heard of Fat Chance Belly Dance? Check out their website www.fcbd.com and you will begin to get an idea of what ATS is all about.
There are several excellent ATS performing troupes and dance schools around Australia, in all the capital cities and in provincal locations as well. Due to the actual size of the Australian land mass, it stands to reason that our ATS tribes are far apart. Regularly we get together at festivals, concerts and haflas to share this fabulous dance. It truly is a dance to share.
What does ATS look like? Well you can answer that with several descriptions using words like folkloric, gypsy, gothic ... and these will be terms that come up a lot in trying to describe what ATS is.
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The one thing that makes ATS stand out is that while some public performances are choroeographed, ATS is mostly improvised. That means that in a group, there is a leader and followers, and they take turns to lead. Imagine dancing and not having a set choroeography! Sounds like bliss to me. Some people press me for a choroeography, but I think if you have a good grounding in ATS within your troupe, you can have fantastic fun dancing, without worrying about remembering a choroeography!
The costuming for ATS is usually a little more modest than other styles of belly dance. This is one of the reasons it has become popular for not only younger women, but those who do not wish to uncover more than their torso and backs. The costuming is very elegant and the Fat Chance Belly Dance costuming was designed gradually by both Carolena Nericcio and some of her fellow troupe members.
To get that seamless change from one leader to another and from one dance step to another takes trust with your fellow dancers, familiarity with the steps and courage to have a go and know that you are supported by your troupe members. This is why ATS dancers tend to dance and socialise together. We look for every opportunity to talk about music, costuming, practice dancing together. These are some of the reason why ATS works. It takes a team effort - but then, if you know the vocabulary of steps, then you can improve with dancers from another troupe. LIKE MAGIC !!
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My tribal troupe, Black Diamond, performed at Wollongong in March this year. The event was the tribal soiree hosted by Tribal Jewells (Jacqueline Peperkamp). Throughout the weekend, Paulette Rees-Denis of Gypsy Caravan (Oregon) gave workshops and performed for us on Saturday night.
The quality of performers was extremely high (Ghawazi Caravan, Urban Qabila, Aziff, Tribal Jewells, as well as Hilary Cinnis (formerly Urban Turban) and Ileana. I am proud to say that Black Diamond likewise was brilliant, so that we have made our presence in the tribal community known, in a way that makes me very proud. Congratulations to TJ, Colleen, Jennifer, Antonia and Kelly for such polished performances. They worked very hard to be able to perform, seeing that the fixed term classes started only in February. They learned a choroeography, in a dance style that was not familiar to them, made tribal costumes eg. coin bra and tassel belt - a lot of work in such a short time. I think they may now appreciate improvisational dancing - no need to learn a choroeography with FCBD ATS.
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