American Tribal Style Belly Dance

Carolena Nericcio started the Fat Chance Belly Dance troupe (a registered trademark), formerly American Tribal.

[3] She fostered a fusion of costumes and folkloric dances styles from the Middle East, North African, Spain, and India (such as the Banjara of Rajasthan).

Jamila's Bal Anat "paved the way for others to use a fusion of dances of the Middle East and North Africa as inspiration for their version of belly-dancing.

"[4] In the 1970s, a former student of Salimpour, Masha Archer, taught and directed a troupe known as San Francisco Classic Dance Company.

She registered American Tribal Style Belly-dance, and for decades, Carolena grew her format,[5] then brought her adaptations to mainstream through videos, compilations, performances, and workshops.

[8] American Tribal Style belly-dancers use finger cymbals or zils, focusing on the group instead of solo performance.

However, for example, if the featured duet trio or quartet are dancing to a Moroccan 6 rhythm, members of the chorus may accompany them through playing their zils.

ATS is characterized by costumes inspired by Middle Eastern, Indian, and North African traditions and cultures.

The jewelry commonly originates from Central Asia, from any number of nomadic tribes or empires (e.g., Kuchi, Turkoman, Rajasthan), and is often large and set with semi-precious stones or, mass-produced, glass.

My teacher, Masha, encouraged us to wear a choli and pantaloons, a fringe shawl, lots of big, chunky jewelry, and a headdress or some sort of embellished hair worn 'up'.

We eventually standardized our look to be choli, bra, pantaloons, skirt, shawl and/or tassel belt, headdress, and lots of jewelry.