![\"Shasmsia](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art54\/graphics54\/MarthaTribal\/ShamsiaYarahum.jpg\")
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To dance Tribal Fusion in Mexico is to dance beyond tradition and criticism; there are Oriental dancers who consider \u201ctechnique\u201d a form of folklore and \u201cstylization\u201d as a boundary. Despite their lack of dance education, most Tribal Fusion Belly dancers grow on passion, dedication, and their love for Middle Eastern music.Tribal dancers in Mexico carry their colorful, heavy skirts and their abundant jewelry proudly; turbans and tassels adorn their hips–just as any other \u201cTribal Fusionista\u201d from around the world!<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, how did Tribal Belly dancers in Mexico become educated in their style? Who was the first Tribal Fusion dancer? With whom did she study? Where and how do \u201cFusionistas\u201d arrive there? It has been about a year since I have started traveling around, interviewing several Tribal Belly dancers in my country (Mexico) on a research journey to give to you the history of Tribal Fusion Belly dance here in Mexico.\u00a0 We dancers who live just a few minutes across the border from the US, have found it easy to travel to workshops given by wonderful masters in Tribal and ATS such as Jamila Salimpour<\/span> (back in the 1980s), Jill Parker <\/span>or Carolena Nericcio<\/span> (during the 1990s) but how do dancers even further south of Mexico reach out to learn Tribal Fusion?<\/p>\n Shamsia Yarahum<\/p>\n One of my first Interviews was with Shamsia Yarahum<\/span> who is considered one of the pioneers of Tribal Bellydance in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.\u00a0 In her country, she has studied at seminars and conventions, as well as regular classes and workshops with Belly dancers like Amar Gamal, Yazmina Zarod, Bahira<\/span> from USA. She enrolled in a workshop with Sharon Kerr <\/span>and studied rhythms with Fadii el Saadi <\/span>from Lebanon just to name a few of the contributing\u00a0 teachers\u00a0 (as she stated during our Interview).<\/p>\n She has shared the stage with world-renown dancers like Petite Jamilla<\/strong> (Birmingham Alabama), Sharon Kihara <\/strong>(San Francisco), Sandra <\/strong>(San Francisco), Aziza<\/strong>, Maraia <\/strong>(Argentina), Georgina Distazo<\/strong> (Argentina), Mardi Love<\/strong>, Gayathri Arumugham<\/strong>, Ariellah,<\/strong> and Blanca<\/strong> (New York).<\/p>\n Co-founder of Mexico\u2019s first Arabic-contemporary duet, Viceversa<\/span>, and founder\u00a0 of the Black Velvet Troupe<\/span>. She started her dance education in Jazz dance, then progressed on to Classical Ballet, Contemporary, Hip-hop, Burlesque, and Yoga training, and still continues to increase her educational level as a dancer as she travels from country to country–despite all the cultural barriers a Mexican dancer encounters when she attends workshops or ongoing classes outside of her own country.<\/p>\n Xiaron Kerr and Elsanne Barrows<\/p>\n \nIn my 2009 search to give Tribal Fusion Bellydance a sense of history in Mexico, I got to meet in a workshop at the Divine Dance Bellydance Convention<\/span> in Tijuana\u00a0 Baja California , Mexico, the dancer -teacher Xiaron Kerr<\/span>, US born who learned Belly dance in Cuernavaca , Mexico, with Masha Hojjati<\/span>.\u00a0 Kerr continued her studies for several summers in San Francisco California with Fat Chance Bellydance Troupe <\/span>and now is one of the most renowned Tribal Belly dancers and gifted teachers here in Mexico!<\/p>\n Then in 2003, the Bellydance Superstars<\/span> came on the scene and everybody wanted to become Rachel Brice! So, we started seeing "Tribal Style" Belly dancers popping up on every corner, but what they were doing at first had nothing<\/em> to do with real Tribal Style Belly dance. They just made imitation Rachel Brice costumes and put a few isolation movements and pops into their regular Belly dance choreography and called it \u201cTribal\u201d. It was a mess! Once the Bellydance Superstars came into existence, they started doing workshops all over the globe, and that brought the fusion dancers into the country. Many, many Belly dancers started taking every Tribal fusion workshop they could and soon started teaching Tribal fusion classes. That’s when it sort of all got out of control and anything and everything was called "Tribal."<\/p>\n Then Elsanne started her "Teachers of Tribal Certification Program\u201d. She’s now on her seventh generation of a two-year long program of training Tribal Style Belly dance teachers, still spreading the Tribal love…<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Elsanne Barrows<\/span> and Xiaron Kerr have been advocating Tribal love in the Mexican Belly dance community for over 10 years now, and she is considered one of the pioneers of \u201ctrue\u201d Tribal Style in Mexico, both of them are sending the same message that Carolena Nericcio and Rachel Brice have been sending for years: <\/p>\n If you want to call what you do Tribal or Tribal Fusion, or anything Tribal, you should study ATS (American Tribal Style Belly Dance) and know what true Tribal is before you fuse it with something else.<\/p>\n Elsanne Barrows studied with Troupe Salamat <\/span>in Arizona and is also considered one of the first Tribal dancers and teachers in Mexico.<\/p>\n In Summary:<\/p>\n I remember the first day of one of my Tribal classes in 2003 that I taught in Danceme Academy<\/span>; it was hard because of the lack of information the students had back then. As a teacher, I had to teach bits of historical background between teaching technique, drills, and step-combinations. Today, it is easier to teach, thanks to all the beautiful, famous Tribal dancers around the globe as well as the many videos on web sites.\u00a0 Still, our history of Tribal Fusion Belly dance in Mexico is still in the making because it keeps evolving (side-by-side) with the growing dance community. It is still difficult to perform Tribal Fusion in some places here in Mexico because some people still say that\u00a0 it looks like a Halloween-ish, spooky-fied, Break dance!<\/span><\/p>\n Have a comment? Use or comment section at the bottom of this page or Send us a letter!<\/a> Ready for more?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t<\/p>\n\n
\n Shamsia answered: I danced in regular classes with Carolena Nericcio<\/span> in San Francisco California, workshops on African fusion with Judeen<\/span> in San Diego, California, Jillina<\/span><\/a> and Angelika Nemeth<\/span>\u2019s workshops on choreography, Moorish Gypsy dance with Titanya<\/span>, and also with Mariana<\/span> from San Francisco, California, Tribal Style workshop with Rachel Brice<\/span>, and on-going classes with Melhea<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\n Shamsia said,\u00a0 \u201cDefinitely, Carolena and Bahira grounded my fundamentals based on their discipline,\u00a0 dedication to the dance, and respect for my colleagues, and the culture of the origins of our dance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\nShamsia: At the end of each day, I am grateful to God for giving me the talent to dance as well as all of the tools to share with others the power of dancing throughout my life. Prestige, applause, and awards are just the results of hard work and dedication throughout the years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"Araceli](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art54\/graphics54\/MarthaTribal\/AracelideAndaGuadalajara.jpg\")
Araceli de Anda <\/span>
\nAnother Tribal Fusion Belly dancer in Mexico I Interviewed is Araceli de Anda<\/span>. She is considered one of the most skilled Tribal Fusion Belly dancers in the country; she has studied with masters of Belly dance from The Pineapple Studios<\/span> in\u00a0 London,\u00a0 to Washington, and then, on to San Francisco\u00b4s Shoebox Studios<\/span>. Araceli has received training from Cera Byer<\/a>, Nourhan Sharif, Jamila Salimpour, Suhaila Salimpour, Rose Harden, Rachel Brice<\/a>, Zoe Jakes<\/a>, Mardi Love, Sharon Kihara<\/a>, Amar Gamal, Petite Jamilla<\/a>, Maraia, Mayada, Aziza, Sandra<\/a>, Blanca, Zoe Anwar, Carolena Nericcio, Deb Rubin, Ariellah Aflalo<\/span>, and Amy Sigil<\/a><\/span>–among others.<\/p>\n\n
\nAraceli: Cultural differences are obvious, but they are not something that shocks anyone. In London, I had the same experience. I think it’s something\u00a0 normal in my life, since I suffer from \u201csocial phobias\u201d, and it takes a lot of work for me to Interact with groups of people.\u00a0 I prefer to work with only one or two people at a time. I concentrate on what I like, and I realize what bothers me about people and situations. However,\u00a0 the question of culture, race, or modus vivendi<\/em> is not something that I have because, in San Francisco, I am surrounded by dancers (especially Tribal Fusion dancers) and that makes it much easier for me to see the similarities between Mexican and North American dancers.\u00a0 It is wonderful to share all the experiences\u00a0 we go through, as Tribal Fusion dancers, with all the dancers I chance to meet, and I see how everyone deals with similar problems. Suddenly, the only thing that’s missing for me is that they do not speak my language, Spanish. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n\u00a8I have the impression that Tribal in Mexico is still in the idealistic stage of \u2018we’re-all-one-big-happy-family-sisterhood-Tribal-love and all that\u2019. We have our moments, difficulties and clashes, but in general, we’re all still united and supportive of each other. I’ve heard from US dancers that it’s not that way for them; there is a lot of envy, competition, and ugliness between Tribal dancers. That makes me sad; I thought Tribal would be different.\u00a8<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
\nXiaron answered:\u201c<\/em> It is pretty chaotic, but it seems to be following the same path as it did in the US.\u00a0 At first there were very few of us doing Tribal here. Actually, at first, there were only two of us: Elsanne Barrows<\/span> from San Miguel de Allende and me, Xiaron Kerr, both of us gringas (US citizens). We were looked down upon by the Belly dance community. Belly dancers snubbed us, saying what we did wasn’t "real" Belly dance (as if \u2018real\u2019 Belly dance even exists), that it was simplistic, and unsophisticated. You name it; they said it!\u201d![\"Elsanne](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art54\/graphics54\/MarthaTribal\/ElsanneBarrowsbyJesusLopez.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Lorena](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art54\/graphics54\/MarthaTribal\/LorenaRojas.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mem](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art54\/graphics54\/MarthaTribal\/Memtribe.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Shamina](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art54\/graphics54\/MarthaTribal\/ShaminaTribe.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Xiaron](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/art54\/graphics54\/MarthaTribal\/XiaronKerr.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"use](\"http:\/\/www.gildedserpent.com\/graphics\/acommentbox.jpg\")
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\nCheck the "Letters to the Editor<\/a>" for other possible viewpoints!<\/p>\n\n\n