Belly dancing at Flavors of Fourth Street Festival

Shaded from the bright sun, the Dark Side Tribal dancers lined up for a performance at the Flavors of Fourth Street Festival Saturday evening.

The festival itself extended from 3 to 9 p.m., and attendees could get food and beverages for around $1 per sample from various Fourth Street restaurants including Amol India, Dats, Anatolia and more. Guests of the festival enjoyed various forms of entertainment including a balloon artist,an accordianist and calligraphers from the Chinese Calligraphy Club.

In a flash of colored skirts and twinkling hand chimes, the dancers entertained the students and families attending the festival. While the audience ate, the dancers engaged them with seemingly impossible body movements performed with ease and smiles on their faces. But the women of Dark Side Tribal aren’t just traditional belly dancers.

Alice Dobie, a member of the company since 2002, said their style of dance is specifically called American Tribal Style Belly Dancing.

“It’s a fusion,” Dobie said. “It’s a group improv dance. There is a leader, and everyone else is following.”

Newer member Sarah Akemon said the improv component of their dancing is one of many details that sets their style of dance apart.

“It strings a vocabulary of dance together,” Akemon said. “When the music is playing we watch for clues and keep going.”

The dance itself is a fusion of cultures and styles, Akemon said.

“The movements are borrowed,” Akemon said. “It’s a fusion of belly dancing, flamenco and a variation of folkloric dancing.”

But it’s not only their style of dance that is different. Their costumes are also different from traditional belly dancing garb.

“It’s not a costume true of any culture or true of a dance specifically,” Dobie said. “It’s true to fusion.”

The dancers consider their dance to be a fusion of different cultures, so their costumes reflect that fusion, Akemon said.

“It’s not so much that our costume is borrowed, but it’s romanticized,” Akemon said. “Everybody’s costume is different. Everybody’s costume is unique, but some of it is based on what people expect us to be wearing.”

But a key difference between what the Dark Side Tribal dancers wear and what traditional belly dancers wear is unexpected, Dobie said.

“We never go without pants,” Dobie said. “We would be considered naked.”

Though the style is very different, Dobie said anyone can take a class if interested.

The group rehearses at Panache Dance on E. Winslow Road.

“We’re always looking for new students,” Dobie said.

Follow reporter Janica Kaneshiro on Twitter @janicakaneshiro.