I learned to belly dance in 1977 but I was also taking jazz and modern dance in college and I took ballet in the 80's too. I remember combining belly dancing steps with jazz and modern in the 70's. Of course back then people just thought I was odd. Now everyone is all over tribal fusion belly dancing.

Back in the 80's I showed up to a cabaret gig wearing a costume that combined cabaret and tribal. And once again I got snarky remarks from other dancers about how I shouldn't or couldn't wear those looks together. I just thought cabaret was a bit too 'Vegas' and Tribal was a bit too 'Earthy' for the pizza parlor we were dancing in and my look combined both. Down the road someone coined the word "Tribaret" and a whole new look was born. Or was it? I was doing it before it had a name. Not that I got any brownie points for it. Mostly I just got laughed at.

Also in the 80's we were doing fire staff, fire poi spinning, and juggling torches. I was hard pressed to find anyone to practice with. Years later everyone else seems to have jumped on the bandwagon. Of course the IJA conventions always had some fire performer workshops, but you could literally be the only fire performer in your county once you went home again.

So what's my point? We give a lot of lip service to rewarding innovators in the arts, but personally I never felt any accolades for being ahead of my time. In fact most troupes wanted nothing to do with me because I never fit in with their idea of what belly dancing should be. I learned a lot being a soloist though.

If no one wants to party with you, you just have to party alone.