early 'Tribal'? dancer (x-post)

topic posted Tue, January 2, 2007 - 3:05 PM by  Yasemin
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Hey all, I've been cleaning out some of my old mags, and found a Habibi from 1975.
The cover shows a dancer wearing a big ol' tassel belt and Turkmen/Afghani cuffs.
The rest of the costume is 70's nightclub gear. Hard to see from the old pic what the skirt/pants are, but it looks heavy.
No idea who she is. Old BalAnat? pre-tribal?
The caption says it's taken at 'The Bold Knight Restaurant during a folk and belly dance party.
I'll try an scan the pic and post it.
I just thought it was interesting in that is shows Tribal- Cab fusion.
posted by:
Yasemin
Los Angeles
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  • Re: early 'Tribal'? dancer (x-post)

    Wed, January 3, 2007 - 2:17 AM
    She looks like a bog-standard belly dancer to me. Dancers in those days made their costumes out of all kinds of bits and pieces - anything exotic would do. She's not a "tribal" dancer, sorry.

    Bal Anat tended to look a bit more covered than that, if I'm not mistaken.

    The belt sure is prescient though.
  • Re: early 'Tribal'? dancer (x-post)

    Wed, January 3, 2007 - 7:26 AM
    As someone who lived in the San Francisco area for 20 years... the dancers of that time would have described her look as "ethnic", as opposed to a beaded costume which would have been "cabaret". Back then, the Bal Anat era dancers did not refer to themselves as "tribal", that term came later from the dancer Morocco who was making the point that their coin bras, tassel belts, etc. did not represent any actual ethnic group. The look that people today call "tribaret" was actually very common back then.

    I wonder which Bold Knight it was? I think the one in Sunnyvale used to have John Compton dance at lunch time, but I could be wrong. Does the caption say which city it is in? Sunnyvale, San Jose, or somewhere else?
    • Re: early 'Tribal'? dancer (x-post)

      Wed, January 3, 2007 - 8:53 AM
      No other identifiers. I'm familiar with costuming styles, so I wasn't really looking to find 'tribal'. i just posted it as a curiousity, and to see if anyone knew who she was.

      There has been a lot of stuff posted around by tribal dancers looking for referance.
      Now there is a split in costume style. Back then there wasn't, I know.
      I did like the belt, I haven't seen any pics of anyone wearing one in a club before.

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