Let me explain....

When describing the kind of belly dance I do to friends or acquaintances, I sometimes feel like I hit a wall in trying to explain the differences between the types of belly dance. They are incredibly rich and varied, and often people have preconceived notions that do not fit in with the reality of the dance.
Then somewhere between explaining the difference between American Cabaret style, Modern Egyptian, and ATS... I feel like the other person's eyes glaze over a little bit. At those moments I always yearn for a visual aid.

So here it is folks, an explanation of variation in styles presented in visual video format.
(Note: These are just a smattering of videos I managed to think to dig-up... It should not be taken as an all-encompassing history of belly dance or whathaveyou. What we call belly dance is actually a conglomeration of many hundreds of years of dance evolution and cross-pollination between cultures.)

American Tribal Style, Fat Chance Belly Dance:



Jamilla Salimpour's Belly Dance Biography (a bit of a commerical, but very informative):



An example of Modern Lebanese Belly Dance:



A Turkish style:



Tribal Fusion:
(which this is just a couple examples. There are many fusion styles.)



and another tribal fusion example..




Vintage Egyptian:



American night club style:

A lovely Drum Solo:





Indian/ Romani "Gypsy" style dance:
(which I'm throwing in to illustrate the folk roots of belly dance)





and more randomness...

Dancing on water goblets!



Double Scimtars!!



What is American Tirbal Style Belly Dance? by Fat Chance Belly Dance

Well, geez, I think I went overboard on the number of videos there... ah well! Kudos to anyone who watches them all! :)

And which one do I study?... Well, kind of a smattering of all of that.