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!

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…)

Our troupe is putting the finishing touches on a routine for Beach Blanket Beledi in early October.  Hee hee. I’ll provide more information after we’ve unveiled it.

What it DOES bring to mind for me though is that I discovered I need to take in my gold bedlah. Last time I tried it on, I couldn’t get it closed, I had puffed up so much. But after discovering my thyroid issues, cutting way back on my carb intake, over the past two years I have lost not only the 2 inches that wouldn’t let it close, but another 2 in addition! I am a VERY happy dancer. I am hoping that this means that soon I’ll be able to remove the kludge that is the extension at the sides altogether. And maybe use the gauntlets for something else… I don’ t know… like maybe SLEEVES?!

But very happy. I promise photos of some sort in October. Maybe. <grin>

At ShimmySouth 10 - Photo by Megan Freeman

• I dance to celebrate life.
• I dance because moving my body to music, even when I was very ill, reminds and reminded me that I’m alive and that this is a good thing.
• I dance because my inner child still likes to spin until she gets dizzy.
• I dance because it’s as close to flying as I can get.
• I dance because I love wind against my face and I don’ t run or ski.
• I dance because I love my body.
• I dance because I’m human.
• I dance because I can’t not dance and still be me.

It’s been a hard couple of weeks. But we’re still here, and I’m still dancing, even if my posting has been sporadic.

Gardens and their denizens have been favorites of embroiderers for centuries. Spiders and their webs hold pride of place in crazy quilt blocks. In the renaissance and Tudor embroideries, all manner of creepy crawlies appear among the flowers.

But did you know that bellydancers also have a love-hate relationship with the creepy-crawlies? Costumes have been decorated with sparkly versions of butterflies, dragonflies, and so on — usually things with wings (although leaving hte garden mataphor for a moment there have been some unfortunate run-ins with seafood and misplaced, disembodied hands, but hopefully those are rare…)

What interests me is the fact that it seems to be very difficult to do insects on bellydance costumes in a less-than-tacky manner. Butterflies with bra cups for wings, usually made out of those sequinned camisoles that were so popular back in the day (Camisoles and tops that I often love on their own, with a pencil skirt by the way…). Dragonflies on the belt with the body vertical in… umm… suggestive locations. It’s all been done. And often in beautifully executed sequin embroidery.

I have an idea for a garden/insect costume myself, despite the current “thou shalt not even go there” attitude that has developed from the above sad costume choices. Wish me luck — I’ll probably need it. But I’ve got other costumes to develop first… and I have GOT to get back to beading that turquoise bedlah I’ve been documenting here!

Last night I attended a “Gothic Bellydance” workshop with Tempest. Those of you who know me personally know I claim to be “so Goth I no longer have to wear black! Tempest reminds me of why I still identify with this subculture: all the best parts. Lace. Velvet. Art Nouveau. Art Deco. Research. Artsy-ness. Victoriana. Lovecraft (the author). And I don’t care what you say. Bats ARE cute! (and they eat the mosquitoes around here in NC, so they are a benefit to have around, too!)

Tempest is bright, funny, smiles a lot, and shares everything she knows about the art form she’s teaching with a smile and generousity. Her workshop focussed on bringing the feel of film noir and the 20s and 30s jazz age into dance performances. Inspired by Ruth St.Denis, Theda Bara, and Mata Hari, the combinations she taught us included bellydance variations on the Charleston (one of my favorite dances: I used to do it en pointe in ballet!) and motions based on poses that her famous inspirations have struck in publicity stills.

I had my camera, and completely forgot to take any photos of anybody or anything, but you can find photos at Tempest’s site, Darkly Dramatic And did I mention that she’s an Print artist who graduated from RISD as well?! Yeah, I’m a fan. Maybe this weekend I’ll dress up in the goth makeup and get a photo for you.

I do dance!

With wardrobe malfunctions! Everyone goes through something similar at some time in their life,  I think.  As Mom would have said, “builds character!”

Note: All pictures in this post are courtesy of Megan H. Freeman.

In my case it was a misunderstanding of the logistics of my current weight loss — I’ve lost 2 inches in my hips over the past few months and nothing around my waist.  This takes my nice hourglass figure – the curves of which served to hold up my skirt – and turn it into a cylinder – not conducive to skirts staying up.

Note to self (and other dancers) if you are in the process of losing weight, do NOT trust even a full dress rehearsal — pin – pin- pin your costume. It will be the part you’re least worried about that will snap. Keep a professional attitude, smile, turn, wave and leave gracefully if necessary.

Oops. See how low that skirt is falling?(So are the pants!)

New Comedy Schtick!

No, I didn’t lose my costume onstage – if in doubt, turn hitching it up into a comedy schtick! But apparently it was closer than I thought it was! And yes, I was wearing underwear, but luckily it didn’t come to people seeing it.

So there!

Costuming malfunctions I’ve seen over the years include everything from the loss of a false ponytail to my skirt, to broken bra straps, to a ballerina who lost the entire bodice of her tutu in the middle of a backbend — that recovery took grace under pressure and has been my gold standard for continuing over the years. If she can handle that,  I can handle almost anything. So there!

But I got a reprieve as far as time goes because my troupe was asked to perform a specific routine at the show at the end of February. With everything that’s gone on in my life since Thanksgiving, I can’t say I’m sorry about that!

However, I was also included in the lineup as a solo act, which meant making sure my costume worked – I really don’ t like how my gold bedlah fits over the hips, so I chose a red bra I made a while back and a hip scarf. This is a great idea. But I have a caveat for those of you thinking about making one of these – OK, a couple of caveats.

1. If you are using gimp and /or pre-beaded ribbon to cover the cups, it WILL take more yardage of both than you think it will.
2. If you are using the pre-beaded decorator ribbon, run a sturdy thread through all the beadwork and knot each fringe individually! This stuff is not made to suffer the forces placed on it by sharp pops and shimmies, no matter how pretty it is – and reinforcing it will still be faster than making it new.

The Bra in question.

That second point is hard-learned for me. I put this read and black tribaret bra together in a hurry two years ago – and this year I went back and re-stitched all the fringe with a metal-core thread. I’ve only worn it once and already the threads in the fringes were breaking.

Doing this would have been much easier to do before it was stitched down to the bra in rows. Keeping the thread from wrapping around the other rows of fringe is a huge production! Ah well, learn something with every project! (And every performance… that story to come…) With this bra I thought I was also going to learn to pad the cups: but I ran out of time. I’ve shrunk since I’ve made it, though, so I ended up stuffing them the old fashioned way – with socks.

I have a desk job — my stitching hobby is also pretty sedentary. I love bellydancing because for me it is a way to keep moving while having fun with other women (and men) of myriad shapes and sizes.

And that brings me to a question — who else do I know hiding a secret identity? There is an entire website gallery of bellydancing librarians. There are more of us than you might guess!

Dancing stitchers – show me your shimmy! Do you make your costumes? Do you avoid “real” sewing like the plague? How do you combine your hobbies, or do you?