Where do you start with this genre? “Raqs Gothique” grew out of the Goth movement, which, over the years has embraced dark retro, punk, medieval, Victorian and “Steampunk” attributes. Then add bellydance to any of the facets of Goth culture and you get Gothic Bellydance, or “Raqs Gothique”.
In other words, there are almost as many versions of goth costuming as there are genres of bellydance itself.
Perhaps the best known Gothic style dancer is Tempest. She draws from all of the above styles with a dark and humourous twist — and she teaches a mean workshop on using film noir attitude in your dancing!
I have seen her dance in dark flapper attire with Doc Martin boots, pantaloons and lace in granny boots – and a very spooky Lovecraft inspired outfit.
Other Gothic dancers wear what could be mistaken for just dark colored bedlah of the Egyptian or Turkish varieties. Others use a dark tribal as a base — it’s really the mood of the dancing that makes something Gothic, rather than the costuming. (For example, Tempest’s ode to Theda Bara costume is white, but no les Goth for the color!)
Tempest’s 20s style routine to “Whatever Lola Wants”
Ariellah at Black Heart’s Ball…
For more, just search “Gothic Bellydance” on youtube and marvel at the variety!
Also back in my not-quite-a-UFO pile, we find the Acorn Sampler kit from The Drawn Thread. This was a fun little piece to stitch, and I’d really like to hang it on my wall, so I should probably get around to finishing it and getting the hardware for it. It’s white and colored work and a variety of stitches throughout the band, including some pulled whitework. It came with the cutest little acorn charm for the bottom!
Binky is not my invention. Nor is he the invention of the woman who introduced me to him. As I understand the story, yet another lady was trying to learn a musical instrument and having difficulty getting past the “I sound awful” stage – She made a poster that said simply, “Binky gives you permission to sound horrible while you’re learning.”
Somehow that morphed into Binky existing to grant permission for anything you feel you need permission for.
I want to skip work today.
Binky gives you permission.
I want to lay around and eat ice cream…
Binky gives you permission.
I want to learn something new…
Binky gives you permission.
I want to create something wonderful…
Binky gives you permission.
What Binky does NOT do is take responsibility for the results. So you skipped work? Yeah, Binky gave permission, but isn’t responsible if you got fired. It was only recently, however, that I realized that this also applies to the good things. (Thank you ShivaNata!)
Binky gives me permission to start a newsletter.
I am responsible for the good response! (Thank you all who signed up! And if you haven’t… you can learn more here – or just sign up in the sidebar!)
Binky gives me permission to learn to paint.
I am responsible for the good results and creativity I’ve reaped.
Binky gives me permission to spend more time designing.
I am responsible for now having more designs than I can stitch.
Note: I also now have a budget for model stitchers and several band samplers and cross stitch designs needing stitched. If you’re interested, shoot me an email.
So not only is Binky not responsible for bad things happening, he’s not responsible for the good things, either — I am. And, as such, *I* reap the rewards!
Binky gives us all permission to go out and be creative and alive. Now, go reap the rewards of that.
Oh Dear! I seem to have lost track of this series of posts way back in May of 2008! My apologies!
Tribal style costuming, like “cabaret,” comes in many different flavors. Remember that there are always going to be variations, even with styles.
American Tribal Style
ATS, as created by Carolena Nericcio takes the standard vocabulary of bellydance and creates a strong, group-oriented vision. Troupes dancing in the ATS style often incorporate big swirly skirts, poofy cotton harem pants, velvet in black, rust or jewel tones, traditional Afghani coins, Indian embroideries, tassels and turbans. There has been movement over the last few years (decade?) to add woolen hair fals, hair picks with feathers and cowrie shells, and “hair gardens” which are full flower bouquets perched in braids and elaborate hairstyles, sometimes incorporating the bright wool hair falls.
Tribal Fusion
I always find the various genre names a bit amusing — ATS is also a fusion form in many ways. Tribal fusion, World Dance fusion are all variants from the ATS branch of the bellydance tree. These are NOT always danced as a group, very often there is choreography involved, and costuming can go from basic to very far-out. Because tribal fusion is so personal, as is the costuming choices, I’ll take three fusion dancers’ styles and give examples:
Rachel Brice uses cowrie shells, tassels, flare leg pants and panel skirts to create her signature look. This look has been adopted by many of the fusion dancers – it’s very striking.
Donna Mejia‘s costume choices have been simpler, at least in the locations I’ve see, but in combination with her orientale/electronica/hip hop/Brazilian fusion moves are no less striking.Be sure to explore her site and her videos as well as gallery. She is an amazing, strong dancer with roots in many worlds.
< a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RtFgo2-NWk” target=”_blank”>Donna Mejia video
Dalia Carella, who may well be a bad choice to label “tribal” fusion, though her World Dance form is definitely fusion, leans more to simple reflections of the forms she is fusing. Huge skirts stand in for flamenco dresses, heavy veils for Indian influence. There is definitely a reason she played the part of Ruth St-Denis off Broadway!
Just a taste – right at the beginning…
Tribaret
I love the individuality of the fusion world. I love the options and the mis-and match mindset. I love coins and cowries – but I miss the beads if I’m performing in these styles. Which leads me to the cosumint/performance style known as “tribaret.” Take the fusion form, and then fuse *it*to what I earlier called Cabaret. Glitz and coins and shells! What more could a girl want? If the baroque era of gilt and overkill had produced a bellydance form (hah!) this would be it.
Conclusion
So there’s my homage to the coins and velvet and fusion of world dance. In later parts, we’ll go over Raqs Gothique, and I still promise a few beading techniques outside of my bedlah series! (the bedlah is progressing. Really it is. Just very very slowly as I have other projects that are more pressing right now…)
And raring to go. The workshop was a glorious success. I learned a lot about sacred dance traditions from Artemis Mourat. Want MOOORE!!! And Donna Mejia is a wonderful teacher that had me feeling like I was back in my old college professional dance classes. Yeouch. Talk about sore! I set off my clicking hip for the rest of the vacation, which wasn’t very fun, though. Chelydra‘s Mood Swings class took one simple combination and demonstrated how to tweak it to perform in different moods – subtly smoldering, smoldering, “perky”, and er… “cute.”
The show was a hit. Beach Blanket Beledi is never an “ordinary” bellydance/raks sharki, orientale dance show. The only rule of the workshop/show is “have fun” and I can verify that everyone I met there was following that rule to the letter. I can’t reveal details yet, as we’re doing the routine again at Blue Moon‘s Haflaween in two weeks. Then I’ll make sure to get pictures and share. At breakfast on Sunday the rest of the troupe apparently were told multiple times that if we put out a dvd they’d buy it. I was VERY glad that I had ordered the dvd of the class and show. Looking forward to getting it now.
Everyone’s performances were beautiful. And so much fun.
And I’m almost done with the model for a new square geometric pillow design for Golden Circle Designs… So look for that being available in the next month or so. I’m trying to remind myself that model stitching counts as work, so even though I didn’t open the computer all weekend, I still accomplished stuff. Much stuff, actually. And I got home to find the fabric for a Winter mat model waiting for me, so I’d better get stitching on that, too!
I promise to sit down and pull together actual stitching or dancing posts tonight or tomorrow. I’ll be back on a regular posting schedule soon!
At breakfast on Sunday the rest of the troupe apparently were told multiple times that if we put out a dvd they’d buy it.