Mm Mm Monday - UJBABA at Tribal Fest 2014

The videos have been pouring in from Tribal Fest 2014. As usual, they run the gamut of tribal interpretations. A real standout for me was UJBABA from Russia. I have enjoyed their videos many times before, and this one is no exception. They take it old school in the costuming, rocking the turbans with tassel belts no less. They dance to one of my favorite songs, and blend classic with modern ATS seamlessly and with complete poise. Enjoy!

Mm Mm Monday - Carolena Interview from 1997

Talk about a blast from the past. It is so interesting to see how things evolve and change over time, and how many things stay very much the same. Enjoy 40 entire minutes of this interview from Delilah's Visionary Dance retreat in Hawaii!

What ATS is and isn't - according to Z'iah of Awalim

Z'iah posted this quick n' dirty personal take on what ATS is to her.

"Like any language you are only as good as you practice. I speak many other dance languages/styles and don’t get to practice this one as often as I would like so I am not as fluent as I would like. I am regionally removed from where this language originated so my dialect tends to be a bit different than its originators. I have been speaking it within a small group for 17 years so we have developed slang that is only understood within our group, it is difficult to drop our slang terms when dancing with people outside our group but I am better about that lately. One of my main hindrances in ATS is that I learned the language a long time ago and so my dialect tends to contain lots of old terminology and not much new. Even with all those hindrances I can still dance with thousands of other dancers in the world at the drop of a hat with little, to no, prep ahead of time. That is just fun dammit."

Read the whole blog post here:
http://www.tribalbellydance.com/what-ats-is-to-me/

What is ATS to YOU? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Mm Mm Monday - Kalbeliya Reunion

A dance from Rajasthan, India which is part of the fusion roots of tribal bellydance as we know it today. Enjoy the movement, the sounds, the colors, the energy of this amazing dance!

Mm Mm Monday - Ujbaba ATS in Moscow!

This video is of Ujbaba from Moscow, the first FC Sister Studio in Russia.

Right near the beginning of this performance (in Beijing, China!) is one of my favorite examples of the "lazy susan" turn that I talk about in class--the idea that you are on a smooth turntable, no attention brought to the feet, smooth, level, graceful turning. Their posture is so lovely, and it is interesting to see little nuances in interpretation--the "telephone game"--that naturally occur when time and distance separate an ATS group from the source, combined with an individual director and/or troupe's personal aesthetics. It showcases the versatility of the ATS format, and the room for personal voice within even a "strict" ATS presentation. Isn't that exciting?

An ATS Bellydance Quiz - Level 1

First let me say, HAPPY 4th OF JULY to all my American readers. I hope this holiday finds you enjoying all the many freedoms and joys our country affords us. Let's celebrate the truly positive today! Now, on to today's post:

In a previous post (A Thousand Words - Body Lines in ATS) we had a  quiz to match up photos with movements in the ATS vocabulary. It was a very popular post, so it looks like we have some dance trivia geeks out there who enjoy a little game from time to time. So here is a Level 1 ATS Quiz for anyone who wants to play along.

This is not meant to be a quiz to determine eligibility of a student to move on to upper levels, or be a comprehensive view of what one should learn from taking Level 1. Instead, it is a cross-section of the kind of information I personally feel is valuable for students to know after a few sessions of Level 1 when studying with me (I will note that some specific terminology may not be what your teacher uses in your class). And if you find you don’t know the answers, I hope you are curious to learn them, and more!   
If you are a teacher and want to share this quiz with your students, please ask permission first, and make sure to link back to *Deep Roots Dance - www.deeprootsdance.com* on any printed materials.

Mm Mm Monday - Blue Diamonds, FC Student Troupe

An inspiring piece of work by students from the FatChance studio, performed at Rakassah just last week. Enjoy and be motivated to be just as graceful, joyful, and connected!

ATS Teacher Certification Stamp

During a decompression meal after my FCBD ATS® Teacher Training intensive down in San Francisco in 2008, Sooz, Carla, Carrie, Quinn, and I were at a  restaurant where they had paper on all the tables which you could jot on with crayons, pens, and pencils.  We were making all kinds of doodles as we talked and laughed.  We each were going home from the intensive with different plans--Carrie and Sooz were planning to be FCBD Sister Studios; while Quinn, Carla, and I wished to stay independent studios and stick with the FCBD Teacher Certified Studio moniker. We were talking about how it was great that all of us were going home with an official "stamp of approval" from Carolena to go forth and teach FCBD ATS in our classes and workshops. As we talked about our plans, I made a little sketch of a stamp, which you see here.

We talked about how cool it would be if that were part of the certification "reward"--that you got a shirt or a bag or something with the official "certified" stamp on it.  I said I could whip one up when I got home to see what it might look like.

So once home, I sat down to my handy dandy Adobe Illustrator and made a sample stamp, which is what you see to the right.  I put it up on the private ATSGSTT tribe (at the time, maybe 25 members) and we talked about how cool it would be if Carolena would use it or something like it on schwag.  Through discussion in the tribe about it, we were clear that this was not an official FCBD® logo, but just something I had designed for fun. People asked if they could use it, and I said absolutely, but please with credit to the designer.  Carolena said she didn't mind us using it so long as we didn't claim it was an official logo from FC. So a few people grabbed the image and put it on their websites with credit/note/link to my page.

Well you know what happens on the internet, right? People see it, they want it, they grab it and spread it around without the original artist's credit, and without understanding that this was not an official logo.  Carolena did contact me a while back asking permission to use the logo, and I did give her permission, but she has never used it or released it in any official capacity.  In the time since, this image has spread around, and many people have even tried to chop it up or re-color it to fit their site designs. Since it is a very low-res version that was never meant for those uses, in some cases it looks pretty shabby. Still other people have taken the design as a template and made their own versions of it, not understanding the story behind the original logo...basically it is now everywhere.

So rather than watch the image further degrade with slapdash edits, I have made a new version which should be more versatile. It is the exact same original design file, but I have removed the year for flexibility of use, added the registered trademark which Carolena has asked us to use, tweaked it to look more "stamp-like", and made it a transparent png so it should layer much more gracefully over both light and dark backgrounds. 

I still respectfully ask that you use it with credit. A link back to http://www.deeprootsdance.com would be greatly appreciated. You see, I am not just a dancer, but also a web and graphic designer.  So when something as popular as this design gets spread around, it would be kind and ethical to link back to the designer who created it, yeah? Thanks so much for your consideration.

So here it is, in a transparent png format, approx 400px square, 200dpi (should print around 2 inches square). You can pull it down here and it should be a good large size which can be resized for web sites and small print projects. If you have need of it for larger print projects, I do not recommend you use this version.

Use it with pride, credit it clearly and thoughtfully, and continue to teach and dance with joy!

I *heart* ATS Month begins this week!

Just a reminder that  I *heart* ATS Month: A Tribal Intensive begins this Sunday, February 5th at m'illumino.   We will have two hour workshops every Sunday evening during the month of February, focusing on ATS-based group improvisational bellydance and its fusion offshoots. We will spend time on strength and flexibility work, individual movement technique, partner concepts, history, costuming, and more.

If you haven't registered yet, head on over to the workshops page and sign up now!
http://www.deeprootsdance.com/p/workshops.html

Sundays in February
6:30-8:30pm at m'illumino (U-District/Roosevelt area)
6921 Roosevelt Way NE

Single workshop (2 hours): $35
Full ATS Intensive (8 hours): $120

Week 1: A Brief History of ATS and Level 1 Foundations
Week 2: ATS Costuming Lesson, Level 2 Variations & Partner Concepts
Week 3: Level 2 Repertoire Cont'd,  Finger Cymbals, Group Staging & Trunk Show Shopping!
Week 4: Level 3 Deep Roots Signature Moves*, More Finger Cymbals & Final Group Jam Time

Interviews with Carolena by PinkCoinBelt

In my recent wanderings around the ATS dancer blogosphere, I came across the Pink Coin Belt Chronicles, which is a blog written by Yuska, a male *gasp*ATS dancer at FCBD studios.  More than that, he just became the newest member of BlueDiamondsBellyDance earlier this month--a student troupe at FC studios.  It's a fun blog seem through the eyes of an enthusiastic student of tribal bellydance.

Among the entertaining blog posts was a 5 part series of an interview he did with Carolena earlier this year, in which he asks about dance, life, religion, and everything.  I have included some of my favorite snippets from each of the segments, with links to read the complete interview below.  Enjoy!

"Let’s begin with the hardest ones first. Could you tell us the typical process of creation of a movement? From the conceptualization until it’s out there in the ATS vocabulary.

Well, the core movements that you see in Tribal Basics volume 1 are the movements I learned from Masha Archer. Basically, for a movement to be admitted to the ATS vocabulary, everyone has to accept it first, in that it has to be doable. Because everyone has different bodies, it is important that the movement is created so that they complement to these different types of bodies. This also applies to the range of motion. Dancers must be able to do a move, otherwise it will just get sidetracked because no one’s using it because no one can do it.

Tell me, what do I have to do do to make sure I don’t get kicked out and banned from FCBD’s studio?

(Laughs). Show up on time, leave your baggage at the door, be open minded, be in a good mood, allow your mood to be transformed, follow directions and be polite to the teacher and be helpful to other students, but don’t micromanage the others.

We really frown on people teaching when a teacher is teaching, and commenting when a teacher is presenting. What is planned for the day is whatever the teacher is planned for the day.

What do you think is the worst thing an ATS teacher could do?

I’d say that it probably has to do with what they say, not necessarily what they’re doing. If he or she is overly critical of other dance styles and saying that other teachers are wrong, that’s really frowned on. Also if the teacher is overly critical of the students and doesn’t build a good rapport with the students,

A really good instructor, I think, would be magnanimous, confident, able to manage things as they come and go, creative, open minded all the while staying with the philosophy (of ATS). If a teacher has so much creativity within him or her that makes the teacher go completely off the ATS map, then ATS is not the right dance. Perhaps fusion will be more rewarding, because what makes ATS so great is the boundaries of this dance."
Read the rest of Part 2 (really is Part 1 of the interview) HERE

It continues in the next installment:

"So what keeps you relentless and perseverant? What keeps motivating you in doing ATS?

I feel like I was given this dance (by the Goddess Quan-Yin) and that it’s my job to move it forward. I just wake up every day and feel that there’s always something else to do. So there’s really no need for motivation.

However, every now and then, there is this debilitating feeling of not wanting to go, but it’s more because of what people say.

Fifteen years ago, when Fusion was the thing and everyone was learning fusion with different styles of Tribal, I was like, “What are they doing?” And people were nasty to each other and it wasn’t fun or conducive for the dance. So, I felt deflated because of that and I just thought of quitting.

...

But I guess what motivates me is the idea of happiness that ATS brings. It has brought so much joy to the lives of so many people. I feel the need to share the dance. The dance itself is fabulous. But as soon as people start to open their mouths…"

 Read the rest of Part 2 HERE

 Part 3 is HERE
And a snippet from the final part:

"What do you think is the most gratifying aspect of performing?

Being able to entertain the audience – it was only until recently, during the second Taiwan trip in 2008 that I discovered to just let everything go and have fun on the stage. I used to resent the audience and the idea of me having to entertain them. So, my conscience and I decided to have a talk. I had lots of moments when my Self and I would say, “Let’s have a talk because this thing isn’t working.”

One time, my Self told me to let everything go when I’m performing. I used to think that when people came up to me and ask where I bought my choli or what music I danced to, people weren’t paying attention to me, but to what I wear and the song I dance to. My Self said, “That’s right!” So, at that moment, I decided to just dance and I was so into it.

At the end of the performance, I was there, with people taking hundreds of photos with me. I used to dislike people taking photos of me because I felt they were stealing a bit of my soul, but I realized this made them happy. So I just stood there until everyone was gone, still smiling, asking if everyone’s sure they don’t want to have another photo with me.

And what do you think is the most gratifying aspect of teaching?

It is so good to have that lightbulb experience and lightbulb look on the faces of the students. It’s so good to know that they can connect to what you are teaching.

It doesn’t have to be in the class or about a move you’re currently teaching, but it can also be about the body image. Some people who are really conservative could put on a costume and just have that lightbulb moment when they feel that it is just natural for them to bare their stomach and dance in something that could be too revealing for most people."

Read the rest of part 4 HERE

The Tribal Code

THE TRIBAL CODE
* Written/Created by the lovely and talented ladies of FatChanceBellyDance:

Commitment: Be there for your dance sisters. Whether it’s making sure your cues are strong or getting to a gig on time, we all need to depend on one another.

Communication: Ask questions and learn from the more experienced dancers and teachers. Also, don’t let things fester. Express yourself in a constructive, respectful way.

Awareness: Be aware of how your words or actions can affect others. What makes sense to you may be understood differently by someone else. Take considerations to think before you speak or act.

Teflon: Don’t take things personally! There are too many unique individuals in this group to avoid minor misunderstandings. Let things slide off your ego – don’t let things stick!

Humility: We all can benefit from going to Level 1 and Level 2 classes and working on technique. We can also benefit from allowing room for all our personalities to exist.

Trust: This dance form is founded on trust, on and off the dance floor. Earn people’s trust and give yours as well.

Respect: Treat your fellow dancers (and human beings) with compassionate respect and be mindful of others’ talents and limitations. Respect the dance form for what it is rather than how you would change it.

Support: Come to the shows of FatChanceBellyDance (and Deep Roots Dance!) and of your fellow dancers. Not only does it support the dancers, it is a great way to learn about performance!

Joy: Dance for the love of it! Enjoy yourself and the company of others.

What it takes to perform with an ATS group.

Wendy Allen of FCBD wrote a fantastic article on what it takes to perform ATS.  For anyone who wants to better understand the kind of consistency, patience, and commitment it takes, I have excerpted some of the best bits below:

"When people start taking classes in American Tribal Style dance, often one of the first questions is, 'When do I get to join the troupe/perform?'

The answer is, not for awhile. While you may have a desire to get up on stage and express yourself, you have a responsibility to your fellow dancers and your audience. 

The first thing to learn about performing ATS is that it is not all about you. It's about the group.

You may think you are well versed enough in the format to jump in after a long absence.  Think again. If you haven't been around class for awhile, we need to get used to dancing with you again.  

You may think that because you have other belly dance training you don't need basics. Think again.

You may think that because you are Arab/Egyptian/Turkish, etc, you won't need basics.  Think again.

This is a specific format with its own vocabulary.  You must learn the basics before you can advance. It's not fair to the people who have put in the time and effort to allow inexperienced dancers into the advanced levels. Again, it's not about you, its about the group. Keep reminding yourself of that. Make that your mantra. 

(Our troupe) does not audition, nor do our student troupes. Well, I take that back. We do audition, but that audition starts in Level 1 and continues throughout your education in our classes.  The teachers do pay attention, and we do observe.  

...

If you want to perform with an ATS group, here's what you do. Show up consistently to class. Have a good attitude, don't be a diva. Focus, do your best to fit in with the culture of the classes. And no matter how experienced you become, always go back to Level 1 and Level 2, because in spite of what you may think, you have never learned everything there is to learn about any one move.  If you think you know everything, you're sorely mistaken. "

ATS Old/New - Another take

Nancy Young posted a really articulate and well-considered response to Carolena's message, and I wanted to share my favorite part of it:

"By giving this gift, you have, it seems to me, officially acknowledged ATS, your baby, as a mature art form with a life of its own and sent it off with your blessing. For me—and maybe this is just me—the gift also feels like your official acknowledgment of us, the ATS community, not just as acolytes practicing your dance but as artists inspired by your vision."

See the rest of her post on Monday, September 27th, HERE.

ATS Old/New - My Take

I have been engaged in many discussions about the New/Old ATS announcement, on Tribe and on Facebook and in mails with friends, and even had a chat with Carolena today. I haven't said too much about my thoughts on this publicly, as I have wanted to let them percolate a little while. I didn't want anyone to feel shut down or otherwise distracted from feeling what they felt, or add to their mental burdens as they try and figure out quite *what* they feel.  And of course, I wanted to figure out what I felt, and try to speak from my heart and mind in tandem, rather than purely from one or the other alone. Sorry it's so long, but it's been a week of deep discussion with a lot of awesome women, and a lot of meditation on what this all means to me personally.  Let me start with a leetle story...

My last troupe, inFusion Tribal, performed in collaborations at several high-profile events with another ATS-based troupe from Bend, OR, Gypsy Fire directed by Quinn Fradet (hi Quinn!). Both of our groups were not strictly ATS troupes, though we were each well versed in ATS terminology (Quinn started many years ago in FC classes in SF, and she and I  have completed not only General Skills, but two levels of Teacher Training, and teach ATS-based repertoire in our classes and in our troupes), but we each had robust languages of our own, as well as some minor variations on the ATS vocabulary we had made to suit our tastes.  Since we lived so far apart, we directors would discuss music and staging through e-mail, but we only had one rehearsal all-together, 2-3 hours in length, the day before or the day of the performance itself, to prepare a half an hour set using both our troupes separately and together.

A Not So Radical Idea (ATS Old School vs. New School)

I am definitely seeing and hearing a lot of confusion and frustration and fear surrounding the old vs. new announcement made this week. And I completely understand the mix of emotions this is stirring up. BUT...

Maybe (it's worth trying at least...) if we concentrate on the spirit of the announcement--the idea that dancing should be fun and creative and empowering, not super-strict and limited and single-pathed (hey I made up a word!)--we can manifest it in ourselves and in the community. 

I know that sounds really Pollyanna, and it will not make all of our mixed and confused feelings go away, but think of it as a meditative practice to help come to a place of balance as everyone is hammering out their feelings.

ATS - The new definition from Carolena

At about 5pm this evening, Carolena has officially expanded her definition of ATS. Here is the latter portion of her announcement this evening. I would love to hear what you think.

"There is still some confusion about what is ATS and what is any variety of Tribal, but that's OK. We have Sister Studios, teachers that adhere to the philosophy of FatChanceBellyDance in their ATS classes, 98 at the time of this writing. We have TribalStar Galactica, my attempt in getting all the "tribes" together in one place, no matter of the genre, 247 at the time of this letter.

It's finally time for me to give the gift that I had intended at the filming of Dance Fundamentals-be creative and have fun.

There are so many new steps and concepts being presented to me that I feel the need to broaden our definition of ATS. I propose that the steps from Tribal Basics Vol. 1 Dance Fundamentals and Tribal Basics Vol. 4 Embellishments and Variations be considered ATS Old School, as they are the foundation of what we do. Everything else, including our Tribal Basics Vol. 7 Creative Steps and Combinations, are to be considered ATS New Style.

Rachel Brice on Tribal Fusion

Gotta love it:

"There are very few rules in Tribal Fusion, but in my humble opinion the one constant is that the dancer or group is versed in American Tribal Style as taught by Carolena Nericcio. Her stylistic approach to existing vocabulary, her theatrical approach to costuming, and the incredible invention of group improvisation, has allowed infinite variations that all have one thing in common: powerful presentation. The strength that American Tribal Style communicates through its posture, arm placement, and costuming was a revelation for me as a feminist. Without Fat Chance, I can honestly say I wouldn’t be dancing today."

-Rachel Brice
Full article below

An article on ATS/fusion.

Dear readers, I am curious what your thoughts are on this summation of ATS, ITS, and fusion.
http://www.4dancers.org/tag/bal-anat/

Renee's look at ATS

Today I stumbled across a tribal discussion on Bhuz from back in June which I missed (I was on vacation for my anniversary around that time), in which my co-director Renee was making some observations about tribal bellydance in the context of a discussion where another dancer asked about the difference between cabaret and tribal. I really enjoyed her perspective, and she is such an eloquent writer, I thought I would share.

The full discussion can be found HERE (must be a member to read, but Bhuz is a great resource--you SHOULD be a member and participate!).

From a technical perspective, everything done is tribal is geared towards enhancing and facilitating the group dynamic. Arms have fixed positions (frequently uplifted and away from the body) in relation to the corresponding hip and body movements because they are the primary cue mechanism. Formations are placed so that everyone can see the lead as well as be seen by the audience. There is not often a great deal of footwork or lateral traveling movements because you can't count on having the space to move an entire formation. Movements are kept simple and uncluttered to best emphasize the unsion of the dancers.

On The Importance Of Dancing With Beginners

On doing some dance reading around the 'net, I came across this brief article randomly and really loved it. It is about ballroom dancing/partner dancing, but was so absolutely true for Tribal Group Improv/ATS I bookmarked it for later reference. Thought I would share it with you here!

"On The Importance Of Dancing With Beginners
While there is no question that dancing with a better partner will make you *look* good, and that with such a partner you can concentrate more on styling details and so on because the lead and follow doesn't need so much attention, it is not the best way to practice lead/follow skills. If learning leaders only dance with accomplished followers and vice-versa, they won't develop great leading/following skills, because they won't *need* to. Now let's suppose that YOU are a great leader or follower. What happens if you dance only with other great dancers? Your lead and follow skills will gradually *deteriorate* -- because you're not working them very hard. After some months without exposure to beginners, you may be surprised to find that you can't dance with them very well, even though they seem to do okay with other beginners.

You learn how to dance better by dancing with more experienced partners. But you learn how to lead/follow better by dancing with less experienced partners. Your skills are put much more to the test dancing with a beginner than with an experienced dancer. It is easy to lead/follow a great dancer. All your weaknesses as a leader/follower show up with beginners. Dance with them and ask yourself why each incorrectly led/followed figure didn't work and when you figure it out, work on incorporating the fixes into all your dancing!

You cannot become a good dancer by dancing _only_ with the same person. Dancing only with each other, you will become good at dancing with each other with all the mistakes and bad habits that become "correct" for you.

There is a certain type of character (leader) that one encounters again and again if one has been dancing for any length of time: the guy who only wants to dance with the best followers because he believes they are the only partners who can match his high skill level. Often what is REALLY going on is that only the best followers can compensate for his mistakes or idiosyncrasies. They make him look good. But the guy continues to think he's the tops because he insulates himself from feedback. *Dancing with poor to average followers is a good reality check.* If none but the best can follow your leads, I respectfully suggest your leads could use some work.Also, that kind of thinking ultimately harms their dancing. I've seen guys overestimate their ability and abandon the study of technique FAR too soon. Consequently it will take them a lot longer to reach the next level of skill.

(This file is part of the lead/follow FAQ list. These are articles compiled from the newsgroup rec.arts.dance by Mark Balzer.)

(You may link to this page and make copies for private use in any form, but reproduction in any means, including book or CDROM, is not allowed without permission.