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Tribal Essence
This is an excerpt from the introduction of From Turban
to Toe Ring, a book about designing and making tribal style
costumes. The text of this introduction includes my definition
of tribal style costuming, where it comes from and gives a summary
of how the look is created. If you enjoy reading this excerpt,
visit my product pages to own your own
copy.
Defining Tribal Costuming
For some dancers the word tribal is synonymous with a style of
dance and a specific look that originated in the San Francisco
Bay Area of California. It is there that dancers began looking
directly to the Middle East for sources of inspiration for costuming
and movement. While most dancers around the country were wearing
costumes more inspired by Hollywood images and post-Tutenkammen
fantasies of an imagined Middle East, tribal dancers were looking
for contemporary elements imported directly from the source.
They made use of imported textiles, traditional garment types
and authentic jewelry.
However, the look created was a synthetic composite. Each costume
was an amalgam of different design elements from a variety of
different locales. So rather than wearing a costume from a particular
place, they blended items from different areas. An ensemble would
be pulled together from far-flung areas: a skirt from India,
jewelry from Morocco, a hat from Syria and shoes from Egypt.
The look is exotic, evoking the beauty of the Middle East, but
is not a faithful reproduction of any specific location or cultural
group.
I define tribal costuming as the following:
Tribal costuming is a composite look created from traditional
textiles and jewelry pieces produced in countries that have been
touched by Islam but come from small social groups living nomadic,
rural or tribal lifestyles that pull from more ancient traditions.
This definition covers the area from Morocco to India and
from Russia to Arabia. However, this does not mean that all tribal
costume elements are produced by Islamic artisans and people.
Druze women of Syria, Hindu women of India and Coptic women of
Egypt all wear jewelry and textiles that have been influenced
by Islam as a cultural phenomenon rather than directly as a religion.
Tribal does not, in this definition, refer to a particular
style of dancing. There are performers who hear the word tribal
and instantly think of the critically acclaimed performance troupe
FatChanceBellyDance. The creator and artistic director of this
troupe, Carolena Nericcio, founded her own school of American-style
belly dance entitled "American Tribal Style," affectionately
known as ATS. This troupe has done more to promote the tribal
style costume than any other group due to their exceptionally
high level of skill. Videotapes, interviews and articles in magazines
and newsletters, as well as a series of workshops held around
the world have brought the ATS format to dancers everywhere.
However, the tribal style of costume is expansive and reaches
beyond the practitioners of ATS. Dancers who enjoy historical
reenactment events, such as renaissance festivals and events
held by the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) have created
their own unique vision of the tribal style based on contemporary
Middle Eastern tribal jewelry married with historically reproduced
costumes. Their creations fall within this broader definition
of tribal costuming due to the organic nature in which design
elements from the past and from the present are interwoven to
create a costume that echoes a past in which living within tribal
bands was the most important lifestyle.
The Garments
How is the look created? At the most basic level, the tribal
style falls into two major design groups. One style, which is
most closely related to the garment styles of Pakistan and Western
India, features a choli and a skirt. The other common style that
falls under the tribal umbrella is the host of different, long,
torso-covering garments that appear throughout North Africa and
the Middle East. What these two styles have in common are the
details. Both typically wear a headdress composed of either a
turban or a series of scarves. They both are worn with pants
and a hip wrap to accentuate movement. Jewelry for both of these
styles is the same.
The beauty of the tribal style of costuming is that the dancer
doesn't just have one costume with matching accessories. Instead,
the performer assembles a wardrobe of costume pieces over time.
Each costume is totally and completely unique due to the organic
way that each wardrobe is assembled. However, a troupe can easily
establish a "common" theme based upon similar cuts
and fabrics used within their costume pieces. The jewelry worn
by each individual dancer sets them apart as individuals while
their clothing indicates their membership to the troupe. Group
affiliation can also be indicated through other details such
as similar turban wraps, accessories like flowers tucked into
the turban and communal facial tattoos.
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