Fusion, Dark Fusion and Raqs Gothique

The Gothic Belly Dance or the Raqs Gothique movement (GBD), as an extension of the Goth movement, is a form of resistance to the inclusiveness of the tribe of American Tribal Style (ATS). Like its predecessor American Tribal Style, it exists because of belly dance’s primary enactment as a solo improvisational form. This encourages each new generation of dancers to discover their dancing self within their social/cultural environment. Some dancers perform the history of the dance and various forms of identity by embracing the Egyptian raqs sharqi beside American Tribal and Gothic Belly Dance. Other dancers have evolved what they refer to as Fusion Belly Dance, an amalgamation of movement vocabularies that can include hip-hop, Bollywood, classical Indian dance forms and Hawaiian Hula.