A dance of her own: FatChanceBellyDance proves that the female figure, no matter what size, can be sexy.

Dim lighting creates the atmosphere in San Francisco's Cafe Amira as three belly dancers take the stage. The women are stunning--heavily tattooed and wearing colorful long skirts and cholis (short tops), their jewelry jingling as they dance. They are provocative without being overtly sexual. Middle Eastern music begins, and the dancers keep rhythm with their zils (finger cymbals). The audience stops eating to watch the performance. In a small circle, facing each other, the dancers shake their hips. As the music changes, the women's muscular abdomens create slow belly rolls, their arms flowing delicately and precisely through the air.

The three dancers, Carolena Nericcio, Karen Gehrman, and Jessie Gauld, are part of a troupe called FatChanceBellyDance, which incorporates the cultures of Northern Africa, Spain, India, and the Middle East. Derived from traditions in which women danced together to entertain each other, this form of belly dance, called "American Tribal," is always danced as a group. FCBD dancers are talented improvisers, and their routines are rarely choreographed. Forever noncompetitive, every woman in the group has an opportunity to lead a section before folding into the background to become a follower. Nericcio confirms, "In tribal style, the dancers are surrendering to their fellow dancers. Everyone has to cooperate, or the show falls apart."

Nericcio, FCBD's founder, grew up in San Francisco and was introduced to folk dancing by her Greek mother and Italian father. She began her belly-dance training as a shy 14-year-old, under the direction of Masha Archer. (The wonderfully eccentric Archer, now a jewelry designer in San Francisco, brought the finesse of a fine artist to her dancing.) For seven years Nericcio studied, learning more about art, staging, costume, and execution than traditional belly dance. As she blossomed as a dancer, her style became distinctive, leading dancer and belly-dance authority Carolina Varga Dinicu (better known as "Morocco") to dub it "American Tribal."

In 1987, not long after she began teaching, Nericcio formed FatChanceBellyDance from members of her Thursday night class. The troupe performed at parties and galleries. Today FatChanceBellyDance includes seven dancers who perform at large venues, such as the historical Victoria Theatre in San Francisco, in regular engagements at Cafe Amira, and in countless festivals throughout the year. In order to become a member of FCBD, one must move through two student troupes. Third Tribe is a group of beginning students, and Second Skin is a group of intermediate to advanced dancers who learn about performing professionally while waiting to get into FCBD.

FCBD classes and performances appeal to many women because the movement is more about stamina and muscle than preferred body type. The company acknowledges the beauty of all women and that the female figure, no matter what size, can be sexy. "FCBD teaches women to love their bodies and to recognize their own grace," remarks Karen Gehrman. "I enjoy working with Carolena because she is a strong feminist. I appreciate her productive efforts at helping change attitudes about what is appropriate, expected, or deemed beautiful in women."

Belly dancing is sexy, but the movement is also hard work. Practitioners learn isolations, moving separate parts of their bodies in different directions at varying speeds all the time. "Nericcio's interest in kinesiology adds a sense of discipline and intelligence to how women are encouraged to strengthen themselves," Gehrman says.

FCBD is also a growing business. Because her students were frustrated by not being able to purchase the necessary materials for class, Nericcio opened a storefront where they could buy anything from skirts to zils to her own self-produced instructional videos. "I thought that maybe there could be a market, and it would keep people interested," Nericcio explains.

Dance as entertainment, artistic expression, and social movement--FCBD encompasses all of these things plus a commitment to a historical dance form and a challenge to our fat-phobic ideas about women. Nericcio says, "We dipped our toes in and made a big splash."

India Alexis is editor of Dance Magazine Stem's Directory.

Meaghan Madges dances with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and has a degree in journalism.