.bellydance.arms.

One of the things I love about watching classically ATS trained dancers perform is their arms. Well trained ATS dancers have the most beautiful armwork. I was reminded of this the weekend before last when I went to Cyndi Cyreigna's ATS Bootcamp at her home studio in Auburn, Kansas.

Cyreigna is awesome - super welcoming and kind and a really great teacher. The fact that she's FCBD certified makes it even better and the only problem I have with her and her troupe (Irie Tribal) is their location. If it wasn't an hour and a half drive from Kansas City I'd be in her classes several times a week (and I really want to be in her classes several times a week).

And for my friends back on the East Coast who still think Kansas City is a tiny weird backwards dirt road one horse town out of a western....don't be silly - those don't really exist anymore. Even Auburn which is SO SMALL has paved roads. And cable. And running water.
It is really tiny though.

But I'm getting distracted.
Arms.
ATS dancers have beautiful arms - even baby beginner ATS dancers have decent arms, which is not something you can say even about some professionals in other styles. And I'm convinced it's the style formatting that does the trick.
Because bellydance is so folkloric...it doesn't tend to have a lot of rules like you find in Ballet. In Ballet, third position is third position. A Battement tendu is a Battement tendu, and if it's not right, it's wrong. Everything is precise, and unless you are the prima ballerina (and even then, that individuality is very limited) well, it's kind of like you are legion. You are the company. And perfection is expected.*

ATS carries smackings of that - individual troupes may vary slightly (not talking ITS here) but the arms for a Basic Egyptian are one certain way. The group improv format makes it imperative in order to carry that impression of group mind or choreography when there is none. It's a silent language that speaks volumes (very loudly) and the grammar is precise - unlike American English where we make up words all the time.


Not that dancers in other styles don't have great arms. Lots do - I just don't see it with the same consistency as I do with ATS dancers. And I rarely see it at the beginning level. And it's one of those things that's immediately apparent in "Tribal Fusion" dancers who don't actually have ATS training. Or ITS training. Because I am one of those people - I don't really think the phrase "tribal fusion" applies unless you've had ATS or ITS training. Otherwise where is this "tribal" that you're fusing? Despite my own ATS training (which has been limited though not for lack of trying) I've dropped tribal from my self description...most of the time. Because I'm in a weird inbetween place where Egyptian style dancers think I'm very tribal, and most ATS dancers probably think I'm not very tribal at all.
But I am fusion - and I'm well aware of what all I'm fusing as well.


And I'm distracted again.
Point: ATS dancers have great arms. And they are a joy to watch perform because they are almost always have a great time dancing. ATS is awesome.
That was my point.


*This is my very limited unknowledgeable observation. If I'm wrong in this giant big assumption - please educate me! But everything I've ever seen, read or witnessed in the professional ballet world is sort of like that... sort of.