Thread: Belly dance trends

It seems like belly dance fashion, styles and trends differ from continent to continent, country to country and town to town.

What are the trends in your region and how are they influenced?

What is current and what appears dated?

We discussed on another thread music which can appear over used and dated, but what about styles, trends and image?

It's looks as if the trend is away from belly dance with each increasing year. Lots of fusion in belly dance events and lots of tribal and fusion events.

Just as an aside: Competition seems important to some people and linking with that I watched the Miss Bellydance UK 2011 DVD and noting that there are now sections on Fusion/groups/comedy as well as "oriental" solos. It really tilted the balance away from Belly Dance. I enjoyed many performances and in a way , I cannot blame organisers for including such a variety. The event may not have happened without it.

I've been to a lot of haflas over the years ( attending a good few as audience so I could see them in their entirity) and have seen them change from being belly dance and folklore to containing at least half tribal and fusion and the fusion "hafla".
I will say I see no folklore these days but less "generic" bellydance. Most belly dancers here appear to be influenced by Egyptian style and there are a few indivdual Turkish style. I do see more "polished" group dances as dancers have been established longer. There is a real divide between those who dance for fun ,giggling their way through the performance and those who make an obvious effort with rehearsal and presentation. there's a real divide in knowledge with some just "flitting around" with a minimum of moves and others who have made a considered choice of music and really seek to entertain,whatever the level of the students.

I know you're not really about this BUT because of my earlier statement I have to chip in about tribal....When it comes to tribal groups some are very tight in technique and many are very well costumed thes e past couple of years but some have built up a reputation they don't really deserve .They may have learnt all the structured FCBD or GS moves but their posture is poor and although dancing fusion means a freedom to choose music from a whole wide world, you can still make innappropriate choices just as you do in belly dance.Some also appear to be not too concerned about their audience. That is a danger with tribal!

People do still move on to the latest trend but a lot have settled for a more structured tribal or RB inspired acts and Burley-fusion has mostly faded away.There must be redundant feather boas all over the region

More people have invested in more professional-quality costumes and there is less "home -made" for soloists.You also find group dancers who have invested in more uniform costumes.
Tribal dancers seem to spend a lot of money of clothing and jewellery!

You still hear the old favourites in music but there is a much wider use of Egyptian and Turkish music, the use of Western music still remains but is occuring less in belly dance. More and more ME music is accessable after all and people seem less fearful of using it. to be contd...

and....

Too many members of the local comunity are not in it at a serious level and will not invest in further learning. That's their choice,I know.
Some are more serious but haven't the finance.
There are still far too many who don't support events when they themselves are not performing and this does impact on how we move forward and develop if events are not supported.

Watch out for shamadam around here
That's my perspective on an area you know well

Originally Posted by lplmuk

and....

Too many members of the local comunity are not in it at a serious level and will not invest in further learning. That's their choice,I know.
Some are more serious but haven't the finance.
There are still far too many who don't support events when they themselves are not performing and this does impact on how we move forward and develop if events are not supported.

Watch out for shamadam around here
That's my perspective on an area you know well

The same thing has been happening around here... the trend is more toward fusion and tribal styles. Many in the GP have lost interest in classes, shows, and gigs... zumba is the big thing here now. There is still a community, but it's mostly fusion and tribal (and I'm into Egyptian and traditional styles of belly dance, so I can't always perform at certain events). I've had to stop teaching for financial reasons and have been unable to pursue further study with one of the more experienced dancers nearby for the same reasons. It's kinda dismal (the lack of interest and scene and ability to be involved that is). SLC still has a good cabaret community though. As far as their costume trends go, it's mostly bedlah and skirt, but you see some wearing "modern" fitted skirt and bra costumes too.

ETA: The tribal and fusion costuming trends around here are simple... usually flare pants and a homemade bra and fun hair. I don't see many of the fusion/tribal gals doing the full skirts often. The cab and folkloric dancers seem to like to wear what appears to be a mish mash of ATS clothing with SCA garb (big skirts and cholis/peasant tops) with a lot of belly covering.

Looking at the Pathe newsreels, it seems like the first style to become popular here (despite the musicians being largely Egyptian and lebanese) was Turkish. Of cousre I cannot be sure without further investigation but first impressions lead to this.

What came later through teaching was definatley American style belly dance which then posed as Egyptian. Other camps were Wendy B who taught Egyptian styles with names and Suraya Hilal who did the same but in her own style.

The other popular style was an eclectic mix of styles performed to what was available then. There was double veil, sticks, sagat and candles.. it was very prop orientated. Costumes were anything people could get hold of and Indian/Pakistani haberdashery was very accessible so lots of costumes loked Indian belly dance -esque.

From the mid nineties (ish) ands throughout the noughties, organisations like MADN (which later became Mosaic) brought guest teachers. People literally travelled the length of the country to get a few hours with these people who included Shareen El Safy, Mahmoud Reda, Leila Haddad and so on.

Travel to Egypt became very accessible and I took my first group back in 1998.
In the cities, the style began to turn Egyptian. Traders were able to access Egyptian costumes and the tide turned. It turned again less than 10 years ago with the arrival of FCBD in the UK. Festivals started hosting this new brand of belly dance and so it began.

Today, there is the 'Egyptian scene', the scene which still resembles American Style but calls itself Egyptian, FCBD, and the fusion scene.

The largests scene is perhaps the Tribal and Fusion with Egyptian in third place.

I'm not getting the sense there is a really hot trend now. A few years ago, there was a lot of buzz about doing baladi taqsim performances (coinciding with Ranya Renee's DVD release), and that was preceded by a lot of interest in melaya leff, but maybe Turkish now? I don't feel like people are dying to get a shot at any one particular workshop or DVD topic.

I think wings have peaked, but fan veils are still going pretty strong. ATS is definitely not as popular as tribal fusion. Hardcore folkloric isn't particularly popular in my area. The last few shows I've been to have been mostly Egyptianized AmCab and tribal fusion.

The trends I see here are very similar to what others have described. However since I live in a pretty rural area, trends lag a bit behind the rest of the world. I live in Eastern Oregon and include Eastern Washington in my travel area for dance.

The main thing I see is there are few soloists. One big attraction of tribal and fusion is is utility for troupes.

You really can't be an AM Cab dancer or Egyptian STyle or even Turkish if you will not dance solo.

When I started lessons in the mid 90's a troup was a halfway house for soloists. you were in a student troupe for a while then you "graduated" I was astonished at the number of people who urged me to solo when I had only 2 years of instruction.

Which is a bit of a puzzle as to the lack of Folkloric since they are also good troupe numbers. Where I live there is only one dance troupe that does real folkloric numbers and they are in Spokane WA.

I also get an amazing number of compliments whenever I do folkloric as a solo (Melaya, cane, Algerian Etc) or Egyptian Raks Sharki. out side of Spokane I can think of only a handful of people who do any kind of solos at all.

I find that since I am different, I am thought to also be good. Not necessarily true but flattering anyway.

There are not many venues for me to perform out here so I do tend to end up at Haflas rather than professional level shows, but again outside of Spokane there are few professional level dancers.

Marya

Around the approximate hour to 90 minute radius of me is mostly bad tribal fusion, bad Reda-fakelore, and some quite bright shining solo stars in the Egyptianized American cabaret field. But I get the distinct impression that many of these "professional performers" aren't professional, and are just doing it for kicks and giggles. I think there is definitely a trend here towards the "part-time fun and frolic dancer" trying to make a name for herself as a pro.


Talking with some of the "Bobby Dolls" makes me realize there has been a somewhat disturbing trend since at least the 80s:

THEN, those dancers took their stuff seriously. Very seriously. Practice every day. Rehearsal several times a week. The trend then was SERIOUS study. And you didn't dare perform until your instructor told you to, and that was after MANY hours of rigorous practice. "Student Troupe" wasn't an issue, and didn't really exist as far as public performance.

The resources available to those dancers were SLIM: A workshop here and there crowded with 150 people, a couple of books, scratchy bootleg field recordings of music. The costumes were handmade because nobody was really selling them, mass-market. No videos to speak of.

But they really chewed up and digested those resources. I've heard about the discussions after the workshops -- deconstructing and analyzing the material. Deep thought kind of stuff.

Now, we have more resources than we can possibly ever imagine; more than we can even collect (despite Shira's best attempts at owning every video and dvd available!) lol. And yet, it's almost as if dancers now take all that for granted. We rely on dvds to teach us the things we really should be discovering on our own, but lack the kind of instructors who can facilitate that discovery.


I know there are very serious students NOW. Obviously all of the Bhuzzers are! :) Really, I've seen some of you dance and been wowed by you. I'm always impressed when I visit Nashville and Knoxville, TN because the calibre of dancer is so high for those corn/tobacco fields -- I've gotten sort of used to seeing "fun and frolic" dancers that I'm sometimes amazed simply by the dancer who doesn't count out her whole routine as she's performing, or who varies facial expression! Obviously the bar is pretty low here, and it depresses me to think that I'm an "advanced" dancer for my cornfield, but even now I'd still be a continuing beginner if Bobby were still teaching, or if I was studying with Linda of Nashville, or Shahira of Knoxville.

As far as stylistic trending, I think maybe around here we're seeing the demise of the "Gypsy Pastiche" thing (for the most part) which has evolved into a Tribal-"inspired" kind of dance to whatever electronica/gothwave song is currently hot. Also the Burlesque-y Fusion thing seems to have waned, which I can't thank the gods enough for.

Cymbal playing seems to be on the rise, which I actually credit to ATS, and I'm happy to see people are actually much more skilled players at a "younger" dance experience level than I was at that same experience level. Yay!