LOL--- I love it!
Thanks for sharing!

Although it's implied:

This is NOT easy. The people who do it right who make it look like a piece of cake are pros who have worked very hard to get to where they are now.

wow this is great! I am going to use this for my classes! You touched on just about all the basis! i always say Rachel is gumby and you are not. Also stress the fact that she has trained her lower belly muscles for many years to hold her up when she bends back - stressing that no one should ever bend back onto there spine!

Oh, yeah, SNAP!
A coin bra and some tassels do not a tribal dancer make...
No amount of costuming will hide the fact that you haven't practiced
Don't be surprised when the leader does something unexpected/unrehearsed- JUST FOLLOW HER.
Yoga classes are nearly essential for strength and flexibility.
More is More in the makeup dept.
Practice in your costume before performing the first time (Southern Exposure!).
Yes, the music is slow/repetitive/hypnotic/instrumental/weird...deal with it please.
You are going to suck suck suck at some things...but it will get better!
Your husband/partner/kids/wife/doggies will have to adjust to your dance schedule/spending habits!
Be prepared to spend money on gear, lessons, workshops, etc. Lots of money.

XOXOXO

I think your intentions are great but while you think this is humorous, to me it comes across as a arrogant and exclusive. I might suggest a writing style that's more respectful to someone who's willing to try something new. I think it's OK if a new student's motivation is just to get a workout, or wanting to emulate a famous dancer, or to try something they've never done before that sounds "fun." I'd encourage you to be more open, as you'll never know who your lifers will be in the first meeting/class. It's unrealistic to think that your students will all share your commitment and vision - not everyone who comes through the door is going to commit to the lifestyle or even make it back for a 2nd class. Those that want to instantly transform into Rachel Brice (but aren't willing to work hard) won't last long, but they just might be the one that gets bitten by the bug and has a change in their motivations and work ethic.

I think it's a great idea to have a written "code" that reminds people that this is not a solo dance and they can't lead all the time and they should be happy just to be in chorus for the whole gig/rehearsal if that's what it takes, along with many of the other topics you mention. But the list also goes into a lot of minutia that might scare a beginner away. Some of the concepts are more advanced and might be better suited to come up over time, rather than a proclamation to be declared before someone tries a class for the first time. It's going to take a little time to clear up a newer dancer's misperceptions as they learn more about the dance and the improv concept from your example and instruction.

My favorite line from Carolena's Tribal Code is about how it's your primary job to make your dance sisters look (and feel) good, no matter the situation.

You have some really good points and they are valid, but i think you also may have read too much into it. It seems to me that she only combined a list of all the misconceptions about ATS with students. These are the same issues many teachers deal with and it was nice for me to see them combined into one list as I have also delt with these issues. I dont think anyone here was in any way trying to be arragant. I think forums like these are wonderful places for teacher and students to discuss issues in constructive ways. If there was any humerousness about it, it would only be in the fact that it is amazing how much I relate and agree with what Salome has listed. There is no way this is funny when it comes to the students themselves. Many do work hard at dance but there are alot of misconceptions when they do start or after some time.

I myself have experienced just lately a student quantifying my classes based on how many moves she learns a week verses actually practicing and learning them properly and in formations. So ya, I can relate.

Thanks for this - as a very beginning belly dancer trying to make the (to me huge!) transition from fun introductory classes to a class with ambitions of becoming a performance troupe, the advice is very apt and timely. However I think had I been told it at the start of my fun classes, before I was sure whether or not it was something I wanted/was able to commit to, it might have sent me fleeing. I found there is a place for both types of classes (fun "taster" classes and performance-aimed), and it is definitely helpful when teachers clearly state their personal expectations of their new students right at the start. Great topic!

wow, thats alot of different outlooks and yet similar. I just will say that I just want to have fun. I like to teach beginning and intermediate and not worry about whether they will perform or not. When you get more advanced dancers then almost all of them want to perform. If they do then great, I dont have any expectations of performance requirements. I just like to have fun. If they are a serious student then they will stay and work hard and work their way up. If not, then we probibly just made a nice new friend.

I will say though it is almost always predictable when I get a student that comes in and says she only wants to learn to dance for her husband/boyfriend, they never last, they see the commitment and work it takes to become a good dancer and they are out. You know when you get the dancers that do it for themselves, they are the best students and become great dancers!

I thought it was amazingly funny, she does pick on us about our hands (but they are important)

I recently started taking classes from Salome. I have watched the troupe on several occasions perform before going to her class. And yes, I do want to perform with them someday and hope that I will be invited when I have progressed enough they believe I am ready to share the stage with the group. I want to clarify why I think new beginning students of her classes come in wanting to perform. We have seen them perform somwhere, they are having a great time on stage, there is an uplifting energy that is drawing. We want to share that energy with them, be a part of it. It's the energy and excitement that draws in new students.

"Aw, I wanted to be Rachel Brice in 8 weeks" (JUST kidding!)
I have only been to a few of Salome's classes (and watched some Rachel Brice and other tribal dvds). I do see the amount of work in front of me and know that if I want to even be in that chorus on stage with them there is work involved. I understand that it will take time. I do not believe that she is a hard teacher or gives anyone special treatment, I have seen her eyes scan the room of wriggling bodies to make sure we are getting it. Whatever her motivation to teach, I am very excited to be a part of the experience. I think there will always be new students for her ATS/ITS classes and some will stay and some will go, some will perform some will not, but either way they will have made new friends.

These are all really good points, but if I had seen a list like this when I was a beginner, I would have run away. I was not interested in performing when I took classes with Carolena 10 years ago. More importantly, I wouldn't have known what any of what that list meant. It's too much all at once and feels like a defense mechanism. I'm sure most teachers have the same frustrations. That's just the nature of teaching. Patience is key.

These are all things students must learn in time with their own processes. They have to be allowed to have their "A ha!" moment on their own, otherwise it's contrived and not something THEY've realized, but something YOU realized for them. Also, they may discover that they are not cut out for the dance, but have learned something else about themselves in the process. I think that's pretty valuable. People get so much more out of taking classes than acquiring dance steps, getting a workout or learning to perform. Its the whole learning process.

If these things are taught from the beginning and your attitude reflects this, it is generally understood in time. Its about creating the environment in which they want to learn, without being excluded.

I think you'll have to channel your training from your teachers and adapt it in a way you feel is inclusive and encouraging, yet structured. It's not easy. Give your own experiences, let them get to know you and where you come from (dancewise) so they can decide if your teaching style is what they are looking for. Just be upfront and honest, in person, rather than on a flyer they can't hear the humorous tone in.

My two pennies. Great discussion, everyone.
*;}

THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!
Can I post this list at the studio I will be teaching in??? Of course I will add a thing or 2 more in there like:
* People dancing cabaret with tribal fusion costumes CANNOT be called tribal dancers
* Dancing cabaret with pops and locks is NOT Tribal Fusion.. (as our dear Asharah well said: ) thats called Bellydance fusion.. no "Tribal" in it..
* ITS/ATS is not meant to be only a show to the audience but mainly an enjoyable dance between ppl that know each other and comunicate thru dance.. you have to look at them and "talk" while dancing.

Those are the ones I can think of right now, your list was PURRRFect!

I teach.

I teach because I have to. It's like breathing.

I teach because I found ATS and it changed my life. And it's saved it a couple of times, too.

I teach because I want to share this absolutely amazing thing with other people.

I had no intentions of teaching or doing this as a career when I first started. I started bellydancing because I'd herniated two disks in my back and was looking for a low-impact way to get back in shape. I thought I was going to be a writer in New Orleans and marry my photographer boyfriend. HA! Never make long-term plans.

I was blown to a small southern town in South Carolina three years ago by Hurricane Katrina. Dance and teaching was my therapy and got me through a shitty time. A year and a half ago, my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer and he died last February. Dance is still helping me through that one.

There was no tribal in the state of South Carolina when I started. Now I run a respected company (and circus), both in the scene and very much so in my local community. And I'm teaching tribal in Greenville and Charleston, too, and helping the girls getting started there as much as I can.

I teach all types of people. The determined upstarts who want to join the company by next month. The giggly people who are curious. The people looking for exercise. The people looking for a fun outlet. This is a dance company town (even though we're small, we have three professional ballet companies, three professional jazz/modern companies and a major university dance program), so I get girls coming over to crosstrain from time to time. I get people who want to join Delirium. I have people who never ever think they will ever want to get onstage. Some of those change their minds, and some don't. I create a safe place to come and try it, and an established protocol for working your way up into the company if you really want it. After that, I just have a lot of enthusiasm and patience, and everyone tends to weed themselves in or out on their own fairly quickly.

I live in an area where gender relations are still trying to catch up to the rest of the civilized world. I live in a state with the highest rate of domestic abuse in the country. I live in a culture where kids get married at 20 and divorce at 30 and need to find themselves. I drive past the confederate flag on the statehouse grounds every day.

In my classes, I have women who have been abused, women whose husbands have left them after twenty years for younger women, women who have been raped or molested, women with tragedies and scars, cancer survivors, overworked moms, beaten down caretakers, young women looking for a direction and guidance.

Performing is a fantastic ego boost, and man do I love throwing down an amazing and energy-sharing set with my girls, and making my community better and richer. But when you get those emails from someone thanking you for raising their self esteem, for saving their marriage, for helping them feel better while they're struggling with illness, for playing a part in giving them the courage to leave the bastard that beat them for decades..... God, what a humbling and amazing thing. This dance, and all dance really, is so much bigger than me, and so much bigger than my personal reasons for doing it.

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A helpful hint I've learned on the business side of things: word of mouth is your best friend. Especially in small towns, and Southern ones. The woman who's been dancing like nobody's watching in the back of my class for two years with no designs on performing? A reporter for the big newspaper in town. She helps us get huge color photos on the front of the metro page when we have big shows coming. The woman who popped in once and was never seen again? ATS wasn't for her, but she works for the state arts council and has recommended me for gigs and helped put me in touch with a venues when I was scrambling for one. The five women who laughed and giggled their way through a month of classes and then disappeared? All well-known theatre actresses here in town who didn't stick with it, but DID tell a lot of the arts community here about how nice and professional we were. And every person who walks through that door, no matter what their motivations and how long they stick with it, is an opportunity to educate my community on what tribal is and is not. And stuff like that has made all the difference for me doing business in the middle of the Bible Belt.

Not to mention I get paid.
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I actually share a lot of the rules that Salome has. I approach them in a different way. So often I have to reassure or readjust the expectations of people coming into my class. How long and how much I had to struggle to get 3/4 hip shimmies. How I was petrified of 3/4 shoulder shimmies for two years. How long I had to drill to get this move. Zils. I talk about my ballet and music training and how I thought I'd take to bellydance no problem, only to have the first basics class with n.o.madic tribal kick my ass. I talk about converting many of the girls in my company from cabaret to tribal, and how you have to learn to do things a different way (usually they chime in. Most of them audit my lower classes). And I am a technique nazi, though a lot of encouragement comes with it. I think it helps the newer students to know that the pros in class went through all the same struggles, and that after 3 years, this is what we have accomplished.

And I am no nonsense about rehearsals. I created a culture from the very beginning where you show up, work hard, retain what you learn, fix stuff at home, or you don't perform. I've pulled members in the past from shows. Not mean or holding grudges over it, just doing it when needed and telling them we'll see them next month. If my dancers have to pull out of rehearsals when they have too much real world stuff going on, they now pull themselves out, and usually well enough in advance for us to make adjustments. It works well for us.

would you mind if i copied this and showed it to a friend of mine? i'll give you credit of course.

What city are your classes located in?

Thank you so much for this! I am about to take my first class next week with a certified sister studio of FCBD and I am extremely excited and nervous about what to expect and what was expected of me. I have only taken a caberet style class offered at my local gym 1x week for 10 weeks and I fell in love with the grace and teamwork of ATS while youtube surfing. If you could add to this please for all of us beginners what we should wear to class and what other exercises classes or routines would help make us stronger and /or more flexible? Thanks so much!!

I thought it was humorous when I read it and did have a giggle but I can see the flip side too. I think if I'd had this at my first class I'd have been pretty discouraged. But, and this is my humble opinion only, perhaps it would be a good idea to temper it somewhat with the benefits of this style of dance. So for every misconception you, as an experienced dancer, want to drum out of your students there must also be a value that you could add, like the remarkable bonding with your sister (and brother) dancers, the worldwide unity of ATS followers everywhere, the joy of that bargain find that just completes your costume, the realisation that you are both woman and beautiful...

I know that detracts from the humour of the situation but, in my opinion only, it's a very fine line to tread between giving someone a dose of reality and scaring them away!!