Carolena and Ghawazi Caravan |
by Devi Mamak
I was truly shocked when I asked an off the cuff question in class
one night.
"So does anyone want to come to America
with me?"
I am still amazed at the response that I got from the other Ghawazi's.
As it turned out 8 of the 10 members of Ghawazi Caravan travelled
to San Francisco in May 2004.
It was important for me to return to the U.S to gain renewed inspiration,
and especially to receive some constructive criticism from Fat
Chance Belly Dance as what we do is based on their format. I
had several months of direct training with Carolena Nerricio and
FCBD in "99" and caught up with Karen Gehrman of FCBD in 2002, but
I wanted to make sure that I was doing and teaching the dance correctly.
We decided on May when Tribal
Fest is held. TF is an annual event held in Sebastopol, California
(approx 1 and half hours, north east from San Francisco). It is
coordinated by Kajira Djoumahna, the director of Black
Sheep Belly Dance and the author of the Tribal Bible. The event
is co sponsored by Ellen Cruz.
Tribal Fest is not unlike our own Sydney
Middle Eastern Festival in that there are tonnes of fabulous
workshops to attend, performances to see and of course loads of
goodies to buy! The difference is that TF is a tribal dance themed
event. Anyway back to the story. More on TF later.
Hangin' out at the FCBD studio |
In San Francisco I had booked many private lessons with Carolena
Nerricio and Jessie Gauld of FCBD, and Jill Parker of Ultra
Gypsy (and former member of FCBD), not to mention heaps of their
regular classes and workshops. Needless to say the schedule was
extremely physically gruelling with very little time to sight see
(we still managed to squeeze in a little). By the end of the trip
we had renamed the troupe "Busted Arse Caravan!"
It was great to reconnect with Carolena and to meet Jessie. Both
were excellent teachers and had a real talent for breaking down
posture, movements and improvisation.
They both seemed very pleased with what we had accomplished and
genuinely impressed with our basic technique. I was so relieved
as Ghawazi Caravan director to know that very little needed correcting.
One of the indicators of this was the joyous feeling of improvising
in class with dancers we had never met before.
Thankyou pressie for Carolena |
Some of us felt that, at first, the FCBD class members were wary
of the piles of Aussie girls turning up to their class but they
quickly accepted us as we proved we could lead, follow and fit into
the class without trouble. It was the true spirit of ATS in action
and proof that Carolena's format works!
Of course we are hoping to have a visit from someone from FCBD in
the near future so keep checking our web site for updates!
A lot of what Jill Parker does may no longer be described as tribal
but is fantastic. Jill has created her own unique style of dance/
theatre, sometimes described as neo-tribal or tribal fusion, but
I don't know if this even fits the bill. She does use the ATS improv
format, but also uses a lot of choreography. Jill has some exciting
new moves and modifications of some we know, often using both left
and right sides of the body and with varied arm positions.
Jill Parker and Devi |
This is what we learnt in her classes along with hard core strength
training exercises.
The other side to Ultra Gypsy is the extension of belly dance into
performance art. Jill created a show thats main aim seems to be
drama, art, storytelling... an emotional movement piece. The costumes
are not tied to an "ethnic" or original tribal style; they were
clad in silver Lycra and chiffon in a costume that looked post apocalyptic!
One night after our FCBD class Jessie took us to Amera (a Fab intimate
venue on Valencia St S.F) to see Rachel Brice and her troup, The
Indigo perform. WOW! What skilled performers. Rachel Brice's
technique is truly amazing. She is also a yoga teacher which is
obvious seeing her back bends, isolations and almost contortion
like movements. you could easily imagine her in Cirque de Soleil.
She is also considered neo-tribal, with the costume a contemporary
mixture of coins, shells, street, feral chick fashion. The movements
and presentation had an edgy and sexy, cabaret feel with more of
a focus on solo performances.
So after two and a half weeks of our gruelling schedule in S.F we
headed off to Sebastopol for TF - but not before seeing Paulette
Rees Denis and her troupe The
Gypsy Caravan perform live in a groovy jazz club in S.F. They
were so beautiful! There is something about Gypsy Caravan that you
just have to experience first hand. I think it is the energy that
comes off the stage from them. You get the feelings that not only
are they having an absolute hoot but that they are all really good
friends. Whatever it is that "Gypsy Caravan vibe" is incredibly
infectious. Oh and did I mention spirited dancing, creative costumes
and of course excellent music? Totally tribal - colourful, tattooed,
wild, consummate performers!
GC ready for a night out |
So it was off to 4th annual Tribal Festival. Sebastopol itself is
quite a small town and very quaint. It is in the heart of the country's
many great wineries and Redwood forests. TF itself is held in the
local community centre. Kajira does a wonderful job at TF. I can
only imagine what an effort it would take to organize such an event.
As far as I could tell everything seemed to run smoothly.
There were so many wonderful workshops at TF to choose from. e.g:
beginners zills, to advanced floor drops to Rajastani dance. Between
myself and the other Ghawazi Caravan members I think that we attended
every one of them.
It was hard to say which was my own personal favourites but I loved
Suhalia Salimpours workshop. She brought us back to basics with
her mother's format. The Jamila Salimpour format (the precursor
to ATS). Suhalia took us back to the hey day of her mother's dance
career and the troupe that her mother founded, Bal
Anat (which Suhalia has since re-invented).
It was interesting for me to hear how belly dance as we know it
came to the US via Jamila and Bobbie Farrah and how Jamila came
about breaking down and naming movements like the Egyptian Basic
and the Arabic and then of course having these steps broken down
by a woman born into belly dance. We saw how some of Jamila's movements
have evolved into the ATS movements we have today. Suhalia defined
which muscles are engaged in each movement as well as suggesting
exercises to build muscular strength necessary to execute them well.
Ghawazi Caravan and The Indigo |
I loved Rachel Brice's workshop. We covered a very interesting snippet
of choreography with plenty of locks and isolations. I sat out most
of the workshop as I had put my neck out but I took heaps of notes
and at least I got to see Rachel dance again.
In between workshops did heaps of shopping! You have to imagine
it. Stalls everywhere dedicated solely to tribal style dance/music.
What's a girl/guy to do?
One of the most exciting elements for me about TF was to be able
to perform for our tribal peers. We came on right after Diaspora
of Western Australia. (All the Aussie girls were lodging together
for most of the trip which was kind of nice).
Our performance went better than I expected. Our first piece we
had performed many times but the second piece we had never performed
before and was still very raw in our muscle memory. All in all I
felt that it went very well. The energy between us was very good,
in that we all felt connected. There was no major stuff ups and
the audience seemed to love us (especially Raine's spontaneous kookaburra
call!).
Jessie Gould teaching
in the FCBD studio |
We had decided on wearing our "summer uniform" which consists of
sari fabric choli and matching pantaloons, no head dress or black
skirt, hair all back with some simple flowers and jewels (well as
simple as tribal ever gets!). I felt that our costumes worked really
well as they were so different to everything else that people were
wearing. The whole gothic/grunge/urban tribal look seemed to be
pretty big.
It was nice to realize that Ghawazi Caravan are not at the bottom
of the tribal food chain (which we were all expecting) not to say
that we don't have heaps to learn. There is always room to grow
and improve in our dance but the audience did really seem to enjoy
us and I have received many wonderful emails about our performance.
The other exciting element was to be able to have an "Aussie jam
session" with Diaspora. Needless to say we were all excited about
our "Aussie invasion" of TF and were looking forward to our improv
session. We didn't have time for a proper rehearsal just a quick
walk through on the balcony of our B&B one afternoon. So anyway...
the other ladies join us on stage, the music starts and wouldn't
you know it, it is the wrong music! Music that Ghawazi Caravan had
never heard before! As you can imagine a lot of what was discussed
on the balcony that afternoon went out the door! That's improv for
you!
Anyway I did think it was nice to have 8 members of Ghawazi Caravan,
5 members of Diaspora and 1 student of mine (who comes to me for
private lessons from Newcastle) all on stage, the Aussie girls,
together. I think people liked to see that and I have also had wonderful
comments about the jam (stuffed up music aside!).
Devi and Rachelle with Cheb
i Sabah
- DJ extrodinaire |
It was very interesting to watch all the other performances. I now
understand when Carolena and FCBD says "yes it's nice but is it
tribal?" and "preserving the tribal identity" (as discussed in Tribal
Talk, vol 5 may 2001). There were many amazing dancers at TF but
a lot of it is very different to FCBD (if you look at them as being
the founders of ATS). This has become so obvious that there are
new labels for these wonderfully different dance styles such as
Urban
Tribal (also the name of a fantastic troupe), neo-tribal, tribal
fusion. The costumes and music are likewise evolving. Think Latcho
Drum to Flashdance to Mad Max.
Devi with Jill Parker and
Dede |
People have seemed to pickup ATS at different points in it's more
than 10 year history and fused it with other dance styles. "Tribal"
in the US seems to be using the structures and discipline of ATS
but also returning to folkloric and cabaret bellydancing with new
costumes and attitude. There were even solo tribal dancers.
Younger dancers wore costumes that are sometimes very dark having
a real gothic/urban/grunge feel to them with lots of black and dreadlocks,
a representation of western culture's subculture tribes. Many have
dispersed with cholis and pantaloons, some troupes simplified right
down to just singlet and jazz pants. A variety of music is used,
often modern with a club or hip hop feel to it. There were also
troupes using almost pure traditional Romany or Flamenco dances
and music with costumes to match.
Of course not everything I saw at TF is going this way. You still
have plenty of your typical ATS style of dance, music and costume
that we know and love. When someone asked me "what styles of dance
did you see at TF"? My response was a mixture of tribal, cabaret,
folkloric, jazz ballet, theatre dance, modern dance, hip hop and
something you would see from Cirque de Soleil!
My personal favourites and why?
- FCBD . For
me it brought it all home that I am following the right dance
path. Movements and posture are powerful, clean, precise and
elegant. Their presentation is utterly professional without
losing that camaraderie and fun that defines ATS. They had beautiful
interaction with live band Helm. Watching Carolena was awe inspiring
as I realised watching her that none of us would be here dancing
this amazing style if not for her visions.
- ULTRA
GYPSY. They are innovative and imaginative. Very artistic
and entertaining. Amazing technique. Gets you thinking of many
possibilities.
- GYPSY
CARAVAN. It's that complete package of dancers/musicians
in the one group. Great dancing, great music, great friends.
Can't beat it.
- BAL ANAT.
Wow! What energy. Suhalia is just lovely to watch. I love that
casual thing that she has going on.
- RACHEL
BRICE. She mesmerizes you. You could actually stop breathing
watching her!
Devi and Susan Ivenar
(formerly Brown) |
After TF was finished I was approached by one of the producers of
BD-TV (Belly Dance
Television Video News Magazine)to give an interview on myself
and Ghawazi Caravan and what brought us to TF all the way from Australia.
It was a lot of fun although by the end of it I was cold and tired.
Anyway I might be in the next issue (although heavily edited I'm
sure). BD-TV is a new concept. It is basically a magazine that you
can view on your television screen; the first issue was already
out during the time of TF 2004. It is worth a look (regardless of
whether I am in it or not!) as I found the first issue very entertaining
and full of great informationon all forms of belly dance.
After TF was over I managed to catch up with Kajira for a private
lesson. She had some very interesting concepts for tribal in 9/8
time. Endless possibilities!
There was so much more that we enjoyed on our trip on a personal
level. Everything that we saw and experienced was just fantastic.
We caught up with Susan Ivenar (formerly Brown) of Tribe! from N.Z.
She is happily married and now living in the U.S. She is a great
friend of mine and it was wonderful to see her again. We also caught
up with Karen Gehrman of FCBD who had a little girl in 2003. What
a cutie!
How do I feel about the trip? Did I get anything out of it? You
bet! These are my highlights:
- I feel so lucky and privileged to dance with the other Ghawazi
Caravan members. They all come at it from different angles but
I can really see how dedicated they are to the dance, to each
other and to me. The feeling is mutual!
- I feel satisfied that I have chosen the right dance path for
myself and Ghawazi Caravan using the FCBD format.
- I feel inspired to try more dance styles to improve on my
technique, knowledge and repertoire.
- I feel challenged to come up with more ideas on dance/music
for myself and Ghawazi Caravan.
- I feel inspired to get back into my other passion, yoga. I
feel challenged to try more asanas, stretches and strength training
to better my body and technique in dance.
- It was great to see all the different styles of dance. Tribal
or otherwise.
- I feel relieved to hear that we are doing well and therefore
more confident in my teaching abilities.
- In particular I was excited to reconnect with some and to
make new connections and great friendships with others.
So how does this past trip to the U.S.A tie in with the future for
Ghawazi Caravan? We have LOTS of ideas but you will have to wait
and see! I will of course be passing on my knowledge with future
workshops so keep checking the website or email me. I intend to
bring out more wonderful talent from the U.S.A. and believe me you
DON'T want to miss out! |
