PHOTO: “Women dancing for women” is the philosophy of Dana Ross, who will teach Basics of Tribal Belly Dance for Club Ed this fall.
There are reasons something goes on for 5000 years.
That is how long the art of belly dancing has been around. Dana Ross - who leads her troupe Gypsy Moon Dancers - will offer a new Basics of Tribal Belly Dance on Tuesday evenings at Kerrville School of Dance.
Most Americans are familiar with the cabaret style of belly dance, which is meant to be performed for the benefit of an audience. Ross teaches a different kind of dance: improvisational tribal style. It was developed in San Francisco in the 1980s by a dancer who wanted to move beyond performing for ogling men.
“She wanted to return to what belly dance started out as 5000 years ago,” Ross said. “That was women dancing with women for women, expressing the emotions, spirituality, and phases of womanhood."
As the name says, tribal dance is improvisational. Watching the dance, the forms ripple seamlessly through the dancers, all moving as one, but never moving the same way twice. They accomplish this synchronicity through hand cues, with each dancer taking a turn at leading.
“When your hand does a movement then that means your hips are going to do something,” Ross explained. “By reading the hands and body language of the leader, everyone can follow.”
As with all creative work, the tribal style began with a standard vocabulary of moves. Troupes across the country then blended it with their own moves and styles. “Ours is Gypsy Moon,” Ross said. “We can dance with synchronicity without choreography, and it is a lot of fun.”
The physical benefits are well documented. Belly dance keeps you toned and fit. But it goes beyond that. Ross tells of a student who showed up one night and was obviously distraught.
“I knew something was really wrong, but she said she would talk about it later.” During the dancing, Ross noticed tears. “We kept dancing, but I found out her father had died that afternoon. She had a houseful of people, but she jumped up and said, ‘I have to go dance.’ She said they looked at her as if she were crazy, but she told them, ‘It will get me through this.’ Through dance, we can move through our emotions and feel stronger.”
Tribal style belly dance is not geared for public performance as other styles are. During their weekly sessions the dancers spend most of the time in a circle facing each other. But they turn out for a performance party several times a year. They sometimes perform with the drumming circle, and at a public appearance everyone participates, from playing shakers to joining the dance.
For Ross, dance completely changed her life.
“It opened me up, and brings so much more joy.” She recounted her struggles learning to move. “When we started, my rib cage did not move. I would almost cry after class. But when that finally started opening up, my whole heart filled with love.”
“I used to love methodically developing choreography to fit perfectly with each beat of music, memorizing it, then teaching it. But as I get older, I just want to dance!”
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Basics of Tribal Belly Dance begins Tuesday evening, September 7. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.
Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each session, we offer hundreds of enrichment classes and individual training throughout the Texas Hill Country and online. Follow us at ClubEdComments.blogspot.com, on Twitter @clubedtx, and on Facebook at Club Ed!
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