We didn’t abandon our blog! We’re just traveling and dancing so much
that we didn’t have time to post our adventures, but we have a decent
backlog of pictures and notes from all over Europe and you’ll get them
now in more-or-less chronological order …. and just in time to bring
your attention (and then yourself) to “
Roma Tribal Meeting”
, here’s our impressions from the first edition – Meeting is the right
name for this event, dancers from all over Europe, Tribal Bellydance and
live music from the masters themselves The “Helm” …
The
Roma Tribal Meeting first registered on our
radar in summer, and we were immediately interested. Sent our
application, hoped and waited, and then the invitation came! Few weeks
and one flight later, we were there – in the beautiful old city of Rome,
meeting Tribal dancers from Italy, Europe and beyond.
We arrived on Thursday, which left us enough time to explore the city
and get to know our hosts. Lorenza and Umberto made us feel like at
home and took care of us and made sure we don’t get lost. Lorenza is a
dancer with Da’ira Tribe at San Lo Studios, and Umberto is a drummer
with the amazing Takadum Orchestra. The first lesson in Italian was the
favourite nicknames of Tribal dancers – the older ones are called
“Tribalone” and younger ones “Tribaline”!
The
main show of the Meeting was on Friday evening,
so we dedicated the day to getting friendly with Rome and went to see
the sights. Afterwards, dead on our feet and full of impressions, we met
everyone at the San Lo Studios to prepare for the Show. Wary looks and
shy hellos soon turned into interesting conversations as we got to know
dancers from all over Italy and Europe. After we were all pretty and
dressed, we duck-marched through the streets of Rome to Locanda
Atlantide, the show location not far from the studios. From outside it
was hardly recognisable, only a metal door covered in posters, but
inside was a real rock club with dark stage, huge wine kegs by the walls
and a bar in the side room. The main organiser, Isabel de Lorenzo,
welcomed us while the rehearsals were already running on the stage, and
we met the rest of the performers. It was there that we experienced the
first culture differences, like the fact that time is not so important
in Italy and everyone is laid back and in no hurry. Audience area had
free seating in the literal sense of taking a chair and setting it down
somewhere in the room. All this added to a very relaxed and friendly
atmosphere. The audience enthusiastically supported every performer, and
the whole evening had a cool underground feel, thanks to the rock club
location and also many gothic and contemporary fusions on the stage.
Workshops
San Lo Studios is a FCBD Sister Studio and home of Carovana Tribal.
Open, friendly and offering a wide selection of dance classes in three
studios. Now it was buzzing with excitement as the dancers prepared …
It was hard to decide which workshops to take, because the topics
were all interesting and we wanted to take all of them! First, we landed
in “Improvisational Fusion” with Geneva Bybee. Her style uses a lot of
hiphop and we learned short combinations which we used in ITS – Style
improvisation with other workshop participants.
Next on our list were two parallel workshops – Ling Shien of Helm
taught choreography to Helm’s music, accompanied by zills. “Tribal Dark
Fusion” with Silviah focused on the dramatic dark side of bellydance.
Kimberly Mackoy showed us the basic movements of bellydance in a new
light. Her “Anatomy and Elemental Movement” workshop focused on finding
and using the right muscles, helped by visual examples and simple
exercises. We highly recommend!
Sunday morning it was our turn to teach. Doro made everyone get in
touch with the floor. We worked on fast and surprising or slow and
graceful ways to get down to the floor and back up again.
Francesca Pedretti let us experience her “Emotional Tribal
Bellydance” She created choreography on the spot, using the present
dancers and space, encouraging us to dance and act out different moods.
The goal was to send energy out towards the audience instead of keeping
it inside the group as often happens in ITS. “Share the joy of your
dance with your audience.”
Round Table Discussion was the best part of the
event, and we would happily keep talking much longer. We met sitting in a
circle and shared our thoughts and opinions about our dance styles and
Tribal in general. The instructors and performers introduced themselves
and shared their perceptions of Tribal. It was great to hear about
everyone’s beginnings and various developments. Especially Ling Shien
and Marc Bell of Helm who gave us a rare insight into the time when
tribal was born.
One thought resonated through the whole discussion: Know and respect where your dance comes from.
Email Interview with Isabel:
How was your feeling after the event?
A very warm feeling: a comunity is born and will grow and keep working
together . I am very happy and grateful to all artists and students and
friends who were there and who accepted the idea of comunity proposed by
the Roma Tribal Meeting.
Was everything like you imagined?
It was better than I imagined, because we couldn’t expect the beautiful
atmosphere of happiness and friendship that grew during the event. It
was in my mind, in my projects, in the way I created the format, but…you
never know if people will catch it…and it worked!
Were there any surprises or unexpected situations? How did you deal with them?
The only unexpected thing that I didn’t like was that during the Open
Stage the places filled soon and some people couldn’t get in. All the
other surprises were artistic and positive.
How many people were part of the ‘Roma Tribal Meeting’?
We had more than 35 artists and 80 students. It was perfect for the
spaces involved : the San Lo’ studio was always full but clean and
comfortable; the Locanda Atlantide club fit the audience perfectly (150
people) and was cozy. These numbers seem perfect for an event that is
not “commercial” but at the same time needs to be “visible” in the
comunity. All the expenses have been paid and the studio can invest in
something new for next year. It seem a good result.
Do you have plans for a next event?
I’m asking myself and my partners if the next Tribal Meeting will happen
in Rome again or if it will travel… there are many possibilities in
front of us.
Please tell us more about the Tribal Scene in Italy. What are the tendencies and influences?
Is contemporary dance a current influence in Tribal or a boom in the whole Italian dance scene?
Tribal scene is relatively recent in Italy. The pioneers of italian
tribal are me and Carovana Tribale in Rome and Francesca Pedretti (and
her former troupe Les Soeurs Tribales) in Milan – and we began in 2003.
In the last three years the scene grew a lot, but, unfortunately, a big
part of the dancers are just copying something else, and the audience
just wants to see what is already known… On the other hand, luckily,
there are dancers creating really new things in Tribal and in my opinion
this happens when a dancer is “educated”, when she is connected to all
forms of Art. And here the Contemporary is important! (as you could see
in Francesca’s work, and as I do in some of my experimental works that I
didn’t present in the Roma Meeting). At the same time, there are people
doing Burlesque, Gothic, etc… Gypsy influences are very present, maybe
because of Mediterranean influences, and Steampunk is mostly unknown but
of course it will arrive soon.
What are other Tribal Events in Italy? (We only know about Gothla.it)
There’s no other big event focused on Tribal, just big bellydance
festivals where they invite one or two Tribal stars… (Venice Convention,
Riccione International Congress, Torino Bellydance Stars, Rome Marhaba
Festival)
How is Tribal seen by the dance public and by the general public in Italy?
As a recent movement, Tribal is not very popular (you don’t see it in tv
for example). But in the festivals it is very appreciated by the
audience and I’m sure that in the future it will even change (I hope so)
the bad fame of bellydance in general.
A big THANK YOU goes to Isabel and the organization team for the
wonderful Meeting, and to Lorenza and Umberto for welcoming us at their
home and their city!
