Night Life - Bellydance

Ahhh San Francisco: know for its cable cars, the Golden Gate Bridge, and its world renowned bellydance scene? Strangely, yes! San Francisco happens to be the birthplace of Tribal Fusion: a style of bellydance that combines American Tribal Style bellydance with other styles of dance like locking & popping and hip-hop. It really is quite amazing to watch, and I had no idea of it's popularity until rather late in the game. I was always so busy doing street theater at Renaissance Faire that I never really paid much attention to what Rachel Brice and Zoe Jakes were doing over at our bellydancing stage. I saw their shows from time to time but I never really got introduced to the scene 'til after the fact through their work with The Yard Dogs Road Show: A hobo/circus/jug-band/variety-show that's huge here in the Bay Area. Rachel and Zoe really helped popularize Tribal Fusion and I've met people from all over the world who have come here to San Francisco to study bellydance because of our rich and talented scene. I guess we've kinda become a mecca for bellydancers. Heck, 2012 marked our 12th annual Tribal Fest and featured a french guy who who had won a dance competition with a grand prize of a trip to come here and go to Tribal Fest.

Illan and Rachel at Tribal Fest 2012

In terms of what to see while you're in town, I don't have a lot of suggestions for any given day. Most of the stuff I go and see are one off shows that my bellydancer friends invite me to. I guess you could always check the schedule at 50 Mason and see if anything bellydance related is going on. If you're here on the 4th Friday of the month, I work the door of a great bellydance/burlesque/variety-show called Baxtalo Drom put on by the girls from Sister Kate. That show is always fun! It's at bar called Amnesia in the Mission District. Every Wednesday Amnesia has a great gipsy-jazz band called Gaucho that plays for free at 7pm. You see a lot of those musicians performing in the bellydance scene all the time (although people mostly swing dance at their Wednesday shows). If you love the clothing style that runs through San Francisco's Tribal Fusion scene, check out 5 & Diamond at 16th and Valencia. A couple of people from the Yard Dogs started it. Their clothing is fricken amazing!