If you are familiar with any faction of Tribal Bellydance, you will have noticed that the vast majority of dancers of this style showcase one or more types of body modifications - tattoos and/or pierciengs, with the odd implanted fangs!

So what came first - the dance or the body mods?

A quick trip back in time

San Francisco, Carliforna, the 1980s - Punk bands started to form, creating a really ecletic vibe in the city. The "modern primitives" movement was also going strong there, and there was a LOT of young tattoed people around. One of them would be the founder of what is now known as American Tribal Style Bellydance (or ATS, or Tribal, or what I call it: Tribal Bellydance).

Carolena Nericcio had been bellydancing since 1974, when in 1987 she started her own classes. Carolena was also young and tattooed, and attracted a lot of the attention to this dance form. She and her troupe performed at music gigs, tattoo conventions and started to get really well-known in San Francisco and California.

The name for this post was taken from Carolena's first DVD - named so because that's how she got known - amongst Carlifornia bellydancers in the 1980s, she was "the tattooed one".

Back to the present

Tribal bellydance continues to attract the young (and not so young) tattooed crowd that is out there.

My theory is that this is because Tribal Bellydance broke a lot of rules:

- the dances are improvised, not choreographed
- a system of visual and verbal cues was devised to allow for dancers to perform as a group
- focus is not on the soloist, but on the whole troupe
- the costumes are a big mixture of North African, Indian, Roma and Flamenco pieces put together
- we wear more bling than famous rappers (and often get stuck when a ring or bracelet meets a hip-shawl!)

If you are into body modifications, you either already belong to a tribe of similar people, or you at least decided you do not fit where you were before.

Tribal Bellydance seems to have been the natural progression for the outcasts who liked bellydance but could not identify themselves with the sequined costumes and the overt sexuality often present in the form of the traditional bellydance style performed in the US and Europe.

Conclusion

I don't have one, really.

Tribal Bellydance is an evolving dance form, that has changed a lot in the 22 years of its existence. Western society is also changing, and tattoos and other body mods do not carry the stigma they once did.

Maybe in 20 years time I will report back here...

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