I have to preface this summary with the confession that I am in no way a Tribal Style Dancer. I am a good old school, all around Belly Dancer. My particular areas of "expertise" would probably be considered Orientale, Balady and Drum work. But I do not limit myself to any particular style.

So why did I choose to spend a considerable amount of my limited time and money on an intensive called "Tribal Massive"? That is simple. I have seen the dances and dancers produced by the creators and builders of the "Tribal Fusion" style, and it appears to me to be simply a wonderful addition to the Belly Dance Genre. In some cases fusing dance influences not already commonly fused into Belly Dance (remembering Belly Dance is a "fusion" dance already) and in other cases evolving the style by adding new movements and feelings into the dance form. I see Tribal, American Cabaret, Egyptian Orientale, Hip Hop, Contemporary, Spanish and any number of other stylistic influences. So why not call it Belly Dance Fusion, I suspect it may be because Tribal is the most salable label at present. This is my personal view and I would urge any other dancers out there not to let the "Tribal" label scare them off!

Tribal Massive is an intensive style event with multiple workshops from the same instructors over a week long program, with and option of a second week. It is not a "pick 'n mix" like most festivals. You get the workshops you are given in your program. Each program for the first week is leveled either intermediate, intermediate/advanced or advanced/professional. I jumped in the deep end and went for the full two weeks, the first week being at the advanced professional level.

The first two days of the program were considerable affected by my recovering from the very long journey from New Zealand to Las Vegas. Something I only realized when on the third day my brain suddenly kicked in and decided to join the party! This meant I did not take as much in from the first two instructors. But I did take notes!!!

Mira Betz
The first workshop of the week! The fact Mira was heavily pregnant may well have had some bearing on the fact that her workshops were more intellectual than physical. There were some interesting "wake up the brain" and "get focused" exercises and a fair bit of "Navel Gazing" about the "Art Form" (a common theme in many of the workshops). It has been a common theme to anguish about "the state of our dance" since I can remember (from the late 80's at least) and I do get a bit impatient with it. Although in small doses and selectively it is not necessarily a bad thing. A number of practical, important topics were covered as well, for example how to constructively give and receive critique.
Generally a number of Mira's ideas and approaches resonated deeply with me. She is a consummate performer, and an inspiring teacher. Although I would like to have been stretched more physically in her workshops I found both sessions with Mira worthwhile.

Heather Staz
Heather Stanz was our other early instructor. I enjoyed Heathers workshops and got a great deal out of them. They included a nice mix of thinking and moving. The workshops would have easily fitted into any dance oriented festival, regardless of genre. They made us think, create and develop our dance skills. They were not specifically Belly Dance, but they were very useful for general dance development. A couple of times in the workshop I did find it difficult to hear Heather's instructions or comments over the music, a timely reminder to all teachers that you need to check small practical things like sound levels constantly throughout a workshop.
Heather also posted the details of the music she used in her workshops online, this is a thoughtful and generous gesture. Providing details of all outside resources used or referenced in class, music, books or whatever, shows a genuine respect for both students and the providers of the reference material.

Yoga Workshops
Heather's workshops were also the beginning of yet another trend for the week, Yoga. I have no problems with Yoga, it is a great exercise for strength and flexibility, BUT, yoga is not for everyone and it is not Belly Dance, Tribal Fusion or otherwise. Yoga is a self selecting exercise form. Those with the appropriate body shapes for it tend to LOVE it, those who do not have the appropriate body shape tend to either struggle with it or avoid it altogether. If you think Yoga is for everyone you are probably in the former category and will right now be thinking people who cannot do it should be working harder at it to get the benefit! I would hate to see Belly Dance become entwined so completely with yoga that it essentially disadvantages, or advantages dancers due to their genetic body type and ability to do Yoga. There is already enough pressure in other dance forms, most obviously Ballet, to conform to a specific body type to succeed. And consequently, in my opinion, Ballet misses out on a large number of talented and wonderful dancers. I would weep if Belly Dance was to join that trend.

That said, I will "suffer" a little light Yoga if it is an individual tutors particular way of warming up. Most of the poses and stretches are good general strength and flexibility exercises. However, I do think it is a good idea for any instructor to be aware of the potential for damage through unintended over stretching of some parts of the body. This can occur when a student is unable to move their body into the "correct" Yoga posture for the stretch. In my case, and quite commonly, I cannot rotate my legs in the hip join to create a "straddle split" with my pelvis rotated forward, I am neither lazy nor inflexible, simply in a body which is not made to do this. This means when I sit on the floor with my legs spread wide at the front and try to tip my body forward I am over stretching my lower back which is already hyper-flexible, and I am not doing a darn thing to increase my straddle stretch! There are other stretches which are safer and more relevant for my body. Please, please all Yoga aficionados' who teach Belly Dance keep this in mind when you are taking a Belly Dance Class.

Zoe Jakes
Zoe Jakes was our main instructor on the third day of the intensive, (when my brain finally woke up!) These were the first workshops when I felt out of my depths from time to time. It wasn't so much the two hours of comprehensive drills at the start of each session (feet, hips, arms, hands, abs, turns) which I loved, as the fact much of the way Zoe moves is outside my normal movement vocabulary and I needed to learn it from scratch. This was great! A mix of things I could achieve and things I could work towards. Yay!
Again we had a fair bit of Yoga, most of which was relevant. However, we did spend a great deal of time on the floor doing glute and abdominal movements with our legs spread in front of us. For people like me who cannot really rotate into a neutral pelvis in this position it means we spend more effort attempting to hold the rotation, and overstretching our lower back than doing the required exercises. Consequently we don't really get the full intended benefit.

As well as the intensive regular workouts Zoe taught us some challenging and interesting combinations, a little more opportunity to breakdown the fast movements (and I mean lightening fast) would have suited me. But I acknowledge that I am first timer taking anything in Zoe's style, and in the advanced/pro track, so am happy to take the work away with me.

Zoe's musicality workshop was a great take on the classic Belly Dance concept of interpreting the shape of the sounds in various parts of music through your dance movement, updated for electronica music. She even made reference to Tarab, a specific Arabic Music Genre, which I sincerely hope more people follow up and research.

We did a number of creativity and choreography workshops with Zoe and all were well planned and executed. There was plenty of material to use and learn from. Altogether I was pushed and enjoyed her tuition.

Amy Sigal
Amy Sigal was a revelation. Her first workshop was "static", a lecture workshop about accessing your creativity as an Artist. I enjoyed this up to a point, and I have great respect for Amy. However, it did dwell on the "anguished" part of being an Artiste more than I was comfortable with. I was left feeling that being a happy and contented person, with a so many things in my life to be happy about and grateful for, means I can not be a "great artiste". If I couldn't cry about my struggle to be a "great artiste" I might as well give up and go home. I decided that I would rather be happy and continue to develop my skill and refine my knowledge and the craft in the dance than aspire to be "a great artiste". Dance is something I revel in and love and express my joy in. If "great art" requires anguish I'd rather not thanks!
That said I DID love Amy. She is generous, and real and worth just listening to.

Her movement workshops could, as with Heather's, fit neatly into workshops for ANY dance genre, they were not Belly Dance specific. They were well planned and well executed and I broke out in my first sweat of the week in her "race lines"... yeah!!

I would take workshops with Amy again in a second! The most useful and memorable quotes of the week came from Amy, "if you want to be a dancer, dance everyday".

Lady Fred
Lady Fred came at the end of the first week, and then continued to teach into the second week, when most of the participants had gone home and only a small die hard group remained.

Her first workshop, Professional Guidelines demonstrated she is an organized teacher with well structured workshops. However, it also demonstrated you should never let Artistes talk about themselves too much in workshops! With a class of over 30 much of the time was taken up with us listening to the sound of our own voices when we would have been better served listening to Lady Fred, she had some great information to impart but it was all squashed into a few minutes at the end.
As the second week progressed we saw a lot more of Lady Fred and I came to the conclusion she is not only organized, but generous, open, funny and creative in the way she tackles teaching. Her workshops combined movement that was familiar and comfortable (whew!) and some that was so far away from my standard dance vocabulary that I really struggled to absorb it and figure out how I could use it. A great combination for me!

I also fell in love with her when she confessed she did not share the general obsession with Yoga...yay, I am not alone!

Kami Liddle
We did not spend as much time with Kami as many of the other instructors. She was well organized and prepared. Her material in this instance did not really stretch me mentally or physically as much as some of the other workshops but I did enjyoy her soft lyrical approach to the dance.

Jill Parker
We had Jill in the second week of workshops and it was a little unfortunate that much of her material was of a similar nature to what we had already done. We also had a couple of day pass students who perhaps were at a lower level than many of the dancers I had already spent the week training with. This resulted in workshops, perhaps of necessity, that were less challenging than I would have liked. The fact that Jill was feeling decidedly under the weather during her last workshop, and that the dance vocabulary and movements she used were at a fairly basic level left me with the impression I didn't see or experience Jill Parker at her best.

Sharon Kihara
I like Sharon, despite her extreme Yoga approach. I even enjoyed parts of the Yoga warm up. Sharon has a nice style and loverly energy. Another generous and organized teacher. I enjoyed the physical aspects of the class. I also really like the fact she acknowledged that for some people certain aspects of yoga, specifically the issue of sitting in a straddle position on the floor, is a problem, and she offered a simple solution by allowing us to have our legs below our pelvis by sitting on a bolster...yay Sharon! I enjoyed the mix of familiar and unfamiliar movement again. I forced my body to do ballet things I hadn't done for years (!) and, especially given it was near the end of a really long and tiring two weeks, personally reveled in the fact I could finish the weeks doing something I enjoy and am totally comfortable with... dancing the drum. I realize this is a totally personal comment, as dancing Drum is not something all of the class participants were familiar with...but I loved it. Turned off my brain and just danced with no stress! Whew... considering the state of my brain at the time... just what I needed!

In General

• The event was well run and organized throughout and help was to hand when required.
  
• I LOVED the leveling of workshops, but didn't realize how much until the second week when teachers and students had to deal with mixed levels again.
  
• I disliked sitting on a cold hard floor tying to find a comfortable position to write in during the "lecture" style workshops.
  
• The venue is excellent, especially if you stay in the hotel, plenty of places to eat economically and socialize with other attendees. The biggest issue is that there is cigarette smoke EVERYWHERE! Oh, and it is half a world away from New Zealand!
  
• Access to and the cost of transport is also an issue for most of us. The hotel did not have a great attitude to, or relationship with, the local taxi and shuttle services. Getting anywhere in Las Vegas without a car is difficult and expensive and local entertainment was limited to the casino.
  
• The Show and Hafla deserve reviews all of their own, but the organization for both was excellent.
  
• The group dinner in week one was not a highlight for me as there was not really much opportunity to mingle beyond my immediate table group, I barely saw the instructors yet alone heard or spoke to them. This is perhaps my problem as I don't like to force my company on people. But I did note that most attendees stuck to their tables and didn't really meet the instructors at all.
  
• The second week group dinner was smaller and more intimate, and I did get to know both Lady Fred and Jill Parker better, and of course our hosts Tori and Yaniv.

  In summary
  So that was my two weeks at Tribal Massive. My body held up well, my brain is stuffed full and I have extensive notes to myself of ideas and inspiration. I met many wonderful people and fine dancers. I became familiar with a totally new, to me, generation of teachers. I introduced a host of new movement patterns to my body, and ways of approaching things to my brain.

  For me Tribal Massive was a great investment in me and my dance. The instructors were exceptional, the intensive nature of it and the fact it was leveled (most of the time) suited me. I met some amazing people who I will make an effort to keep in touch with. I got so much out of Tribal Massive, a wonderful event I would recommend without hesitation to any dancer who wants to grow in, and enjoy, their dance... regardless of what style they choose to label it!

Tanya Bamford-King
Director Art of Movement

10th March 2012