Week of November 1, 2006, Issue #576
Local dancers have a real fire in their belly
JOSEF BRAUN / josef@vueweekly.com
Bellies in these parts are most often regarded as a source of considerable anxiety: hidden when possessed in excess, exhibited when tanned and trimmed down to the muscles, but very rarely utilized as medium of expression.With no less than three very different belly dancing groups performing in one sweaty night of undulation, Vibe Tribe Productions Support the Arts Benefit offers a sure-fire cure for our cultural malaise of abdominal dormancy.
Vibe Tribe Founder Nancy Bromley has been practicing and teaching belly dancing for 11 years. She hopes that the event, Vibe Tribe’s first, will attract a broad audience, one accustomed to regarding belly dancing exclusively as a brief, exotic spectacle shimmying past and rattling tables between mouthfuls of moussaka.
The three belly dancing companies presenting at the Starlight Room—Zaghareet! Tribal Belly Dancing, Raq-A-Belly! and Bromley’s own Vibe Tribe—will collectively represent a broad spectrum of belly dancing styles that highlight the more creative and progressive aspects of the form. They will range from the more traditional to tribal to what Bromley calls “tribal fusion,” a most recent innovation that incorporates hip hop, Indian and Polynesian dance.
“It’s sort of the modern dance of belly dance,” Bromley explains.
The wild blending of disparate genres that distinguishes tribal fusion will be reflected in the evening’s musical component, the Plaid Tongued Devils, that klezmer rock gypsy ska band already known for their multidisciplinary muscles after having performed in One Yellow Rabbit’s In Klezskavania and The Berzerkrgang Collective’s I Think I’m a Wolf. The dominant Eastern European flavour of the Devils seemed to Bromley an ideal fit with an event centred around belly dancing.
Stretching the evening’s variety theme even wider will be a fourth dance performance, by Mile Zero Dance, original musical accompaniment for Vibe Tribe’s performance by Bromley’s spouse Paul Bromley, and an exhibition of new work from Netherlands-born visual artist Lili Vanderlaan.
The dizzying diversity on display speaks to what Vibe Tribe is all about: a forum for mid-level artists of every stripe who might lack opportunities for broad exposure elsewhere. Bromley sees the company as a catalyst for healing through art and for cultural exchange.
The emphasis on dialogue and inclusiveness is something that Bromley links back to her own experiences as a dance-lover initially and later in life as a dancer and instructor.
“The beautiful thing about belly dance,” Bromley explains, “is that I teach students as young as six and as old as 80. It’s the kind of form that can be learned by people of any age, any size, any ability.
“It’s also very liberating. I’ve done so many classes where people come in wearing baggy clothes and covering up their tummies, being very closed and barely moving at all. But by the end of the year those same students can’t wait to perform in a show and get dressed up in a costume. You watch them come out of themselves, and it’s just a magical transformation I’ve seen happen over and over again through belly dance.” V
Fri, Nov 3
Support the
Arts Benefit
Featuring Plaid Tongued Devils, Vibe Tribe, Zaghareet! Tribal Belly Dancing,
Raq-A-Belly!, Mile Zero Dance,
Lili Vanderlaan
Starlight Room, $10 - $15