Tribal Thursday – continuing from the Tribal Bible. Last week we covered the terms folkloric, theatricalized folkloric and Tribal. We established that there was a lot of confusion on what the term “tribal” encompases. We also established that American Tribal Style is not the only style that falls under the “tribal” umbrella. Today we will cover what the book calls “authentic tribal” and “fusion”.

Authentic Tribal is a dance or ritual that is performed in a specific manner, in specific attire, with specific music and under specific circumstances by a specific tribe of people. These tribal people can trace their personal genealogy and are related by bloodline. One cannot choose their tribal affiliation – one is born into it. An example of authentic tribal dance could be one by the Kelaa M’gouna of the Maghreb, and of authentic tribal ritual, the Guedra blessing of a Tuareg tribe of the name who are from Morocco.

Fusion refers to a hybrid style that has carefully been constructed from research of two or more traditional or authentic dance styles. American Tribal is a fusion style, but not all fusion styles are ATS. An excellent example of other popular fusion styles today that are not ATS are Dalia Carella’s “Dunyavi Rom Dance” (a fusion of Turkish, Spanish, and East Endian [Primarily] Romani dance forms) and “El Mundo: (a Spanish-Arabic fusion) as well as the Suhaila Dance company’s presentations (Middle Eastern – American Jazz fusion) Directed by Suhaila Salimpour.

Next week we define Interpretive and Fantasy under the tribal umbrella.

Taken from the Tribal Bible.