Carolena Nericcio made a statement a couple of years ago, basically saying that her style was the only real American Tribal Style (ATS), and everyone else's local variations and modifications were actually something else - derivatives of ATS. So dance groups that previously defined their style as ATS, now often describe that same style as ITS (Improv Tribal Style). We haven't changed what we are doing, so much as changing the description in deference to Carolena's freshly articulated definition of ATS.
I also didn't hear of ITS before, thought it was a mis-spelling haha! Do you mean 'improved' or 'improvisation'? Is it different from Tribal Fusion?
Carolina Nerriccio has asked that ATS be reserved for people who are using strictly Fat Chance format. If dancers are adding other moves and styles, she feels it should be called something else. At least this is my understanding of it from Tribe.net discussions.
Time for an ITS clip I think! So let me understand this right : ITS is like Tribal Fusion but improvised instead of choreographed? But then not all Tribal Fusion is choreographed is it? I'm a bit of a dinasaur LOL. My last tribal workshops were years ago and it's hard to keep up with all the changes.
*totally confused now*
The lack of "tribal" in tribal fusion is getting old. Just call it fusion if you're not using tribal moves. Just my opinion.
well I wish people would be so understanding with regards to MED and not call it that when others things are added which fundamentally change it.
I and many others are continually saying the same thing in respect to MED.
Maybe we should bring Carolina on board to defend the MED cause... people may listen.
ITS (Blacksheep format)
ATS:
As you can see, both ATS and ITS are the same in which they use cues and a change of leaders as well as a similarity in movements. I've studied both FatChance Tribal Pura and BlackSheep's format (strictly FatChance now) and they're similar. Some differences are that Blacksheep would dance with both hips while FatChance would only use the right hip.
Also, ATS isn't necessarily improvised all the time. While the basis for ATS is in improv, choreographies are not unknown nor are they forbidden. Depending on the venue, FatChance choreographs from time to time.
There's a world of difference between Tribal Fusion and ATS. A lot of older school Tribal Fusion-ists borrow heavily from ATS but I don't see a lot of that anymore.
A pet peeve I have about certain ITS formats is that a lot of it has strayed so far away from the original that it just doesn't look pretty anymore...I've seen a lot of troupes add jumps and strange hand movements that's just plain painful to watch all in the name of creating something different from the original Tribal Pura. I mean, there's some nice ITS out there but there but it's really not my thing.
What you said about ITS groups that have moved very far away from the original, that explains a lot for the numerous very weird dance clips on Youtube. Some of those things are just laugheble.