Author: Davina

Davina ~ Dawn Devine is a belly dance costume designer, dance instructor and author of more than a dozen publications on Middle Eastern dance.

Categories
General

Hermeen

Hermeen
Hermeen

Hermeen – Unsung Golden Age Dancer

Hermeen
Hermeen

I adore watching old videos of classic Egyptian dancers. The costuming is so inspirational, and it makes me want to hit the drawing board to create unique and retro designs. Recently, I decided to hunt down a relatively unknown, but extremely accomplished dancer, Hermeen.

Information about her is quite slim. According to most bios, she was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Armenian descent.  Hermeen became a professional dancer and appeared in at least 24 movies. Sometimes she was just a dancer, other times she had small acting rolls. She later married her frequent co-star Egyptian actor Shokry Sarhan.  Other than these few facts, there has been little written about Hermeen.

What we can tell from surviving video clips is that she was an accomplished and versatile dancer. In the following clips, you will see her dance in a variety of styles including a fantastic Spanish dance with castanets ablaze! There are also examples of her dancing with a cane, and in one scene we catch a glimpse of her flexibility with a few seconds of floor work. Her spins are to die for, she has an amazing range of motion in her hips, and her connection with the music is undeniable.

Hermeen

Check out this collection of her videos on YouTube.

Kedbet Abril (April Lie), 1954  – http://youtu.be/Y5XIV7EZzFI

Check out her back bend, a moment of floor work and swords in this clip from Kedbet Abril (April Lie), 1954 – http://youtu.be/ysShmMcdQT4

This clip has an amazing spin sequence!  From Qoloub Al Nas, 1954 – http://youtu.be/u6uNFx1G4Us

In this clip, she dances with a cane  – Aashat Lel Hob (She lived for Love) from 1959 – http://youtu.be/aTx-OIvXacU

And to demonstrate how versatile Hermeen was, here is a Spanish dance: – http://youtu.be/_9Na_zCr2zU

Check out the amazing backbend Hermeen performs in this clip from El Donia Lamma Tadhak, 1953   – http://youtu.be/3sxgXC6J9PM

Dance clip from Kedt Ahdem Baiti (I Almost Destroyed my Home), 1954 –http://youtu.be/7Gd69u6ARYU

Categories
General

Getting a Grip – Rubber Tipped Pliers

Rubber Tipped Pliers from Fons Y Porter
Rubber Tipped Pliers from Fons & Porter - available from JoAnn's
Rubber Tipped Pliers from Fons Y Porter
Rubber Tipped Pliers from Fons & Porter - available from JoAnn's

Getting a Grip – Rubber Tipped Pliers

Do you do beading?  Have you tried to sew through the many layers of a stiff built or a heavily padded bra, only to have your needle get stuck somewhere on it’s slide from one side to the other?   Even if you push really hard with your thimble, sometimes it’s nearly impossible to get a grip to pull on the other side.  What do I do?   I use a pair of rubber tipped pliers!

How do they work?  You can use pliers to grip even a short length of needle tip.  The rubber gives you adequate grip to really pull the needle through, and since you’re using your entire hand to grip the pliers, it’s more comfortable too.

The pair I own comes from Fons & Porter and I picked it up in the quilting section of the JoAnn’s near my home, but you can find other brands from different outlets. I use them in conjunction with a metal thimble – for maximum push – and bees wax to condition and smooth the thread.

Rubber tipped pliers allow me to stitch through more complex beading.  One of the ongoing projects I’m working on is adding appliques to an already beaded bra.  This would have been an impossible sewing job if not for these pliers.

Check them out on the JoAnn’s website here.

Categories
Belly Dance General Publications

Costumer’s Notes October Newsletter – Sent!

Belly Dance Costumes to Color
Free to subscribers through November 30.
Belly Dance Costumes to Color
Free to subscribers of Costumer's Notes Monthly Newsletter - Sign up through November 30.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped me with getting my Costumer’s Notes Monthly Newsletter into production.  Today it went out, with a coupon link to download a free coloring book!   We will be sending out this newsletter throughout the entire month of November.  If you haven’t signed up for Costumer’s Notes, all you have to do is put your email in the box at the top of  the right column.

Once a week, throughout the month of November, we will send out the October edition of Costumer’s Notes with the link.  On November 30, the coloring book will then be available for sale for as a downloadable .pdf for $2.95.

Thank you to the team that helped put this book into production.

  • Kristina Reinholds,  graphic designer
  • Jerry Case, technical support, design and layout
  • Michael Hyde, editor
  • Jamie Hanrahan, editor
  • Joe Engledow, editor
  • Zemira/Alisha Westerfeld, creative consultant and model
  • Setareh, muse and model
  • Lulu, model

Without this team of talented and supportive individuals, neither this Belly Dance Costumes to Color Book or the Costumer’s Notes Newsletter would be here, and so much fun!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart ~ You’re all the best at what you do, and I’m so happy and proud to be working with each and everyone of you!

And thank you to my readers too!  I hope you enjoy the coloring book!

~ Dawn Devine ~ Davina

Categories
Assiut/Assuit Belly Dance

Three Day Assiut Challenge – Wrap Up

Davina's 3 Day Assiut Challenge Bra and Skirt Ensemble

It was a great weekend of workshops and performances at Bedouin Bazaar in San Diego.  I was pleased to debut my brand-new assiut bra and skirt ensemble.  It was gratifying to receive some great complements on my tossed together look. Especially the bra.  Thanks everyone!

Davina’s 3 Day Assiut Challenge Bra and Skirt Ensemble.  Photo by Jamie Hanrahan

Once the skirt is finished, it will hang about two inches lower than it did for this performance, but the 20 safety pins that held the skirt panels to my pants stayed put and did not come undone.  To protect the assiut, I used a black faux-pashmina shawl as a hip wrap under my simple kuchi belt.  All in all, I was pleased with the results, thought I would like to craft  a much more prominent belt and find a better solution than this body stocking for my tummy.  Like most costumes, it’s a work in process.  I’ll get those changes made – for next time!

Unfortunately, the day of the event, I realized that I had forgotten my tie-top!  Oh no!  I’m not thrilled about dancing bare-armed at this stage of my career and at my current level of body confidence, so I needed to quickly  find a cover-up solution. I took a quick turn around the vendor’s tables, but couldn’t turn up a tie-top, choli or sleeves that would work.

I remembered a tribal costuming trick I learned back in the 90’s.  A pair of little girl’s tights can be quickly cut,  converting the legs into sleeves.  I sent my booth assistant (actually it was my mum) to Target on a quest for girl’s tights. However, they had none in black, so instead, she picked up a pair of leggings.  For quick down-and-dirty solution, it worked. The directions for transforming a little girl’s pair of stretch pants into sleeves, check out my next blog post.

I had a great time performing to live music by John Bliezikjian and the Bedouin Bazaar band. I adore John’s lush voice when singing slow romantic tunes and his silky, rich tones are inspiring to me for sensual veil and taxim pieces. Turquoise is my favorite color and I was pleased to dance with a lovely silk veil from Judeen’s booth (only $40 and lush, I love the way it moved.)  to add a punch of color and flow.

Since I am currently working on my assiut research project, I was exceptionally pleased to spot Judeen wearing an amazing vintage assiut tunic.  Naturally colored, and dating back at least 80 years, this costume was gorgeous.  Densely patterned, the drape was amazing.  Here’s a great shot of her in motion and a detail shot of the lush designs.

Judeen in vintage Assiut/assuit dancing to John Bilezikjian. Photo by Jamie Hanrahan
Detail of Judeen’s Vintage Assiut/Asuit Tunic

 

Categories
Assiut/Assuit Belly Dance Costuming DIY Design

Three Day Assiut Challenge – Day 4

Jean Jingler I selected for my embellishment. This is one of my last fiew, and I believe it didn't get selected because the contrast between the brassy triangle and the bright silver of the chain.

Well.. I didn’t quite get that bra done in 48 hours, but all hope is not lost.  Today was the Saturday of Bedouin Bazaar and I had a bit of time between watching performances, catching up with old friends, and selling books, to do a bit of work.  While the bra was mostly done, I had a few things that needed to be addressed.  First, it needed something – anything – done to the center front to give it a bit of swing and flash. After I had laid out all of my jewelry, I found one of my jewelry pieces, a Jean Jingler, would work admirably for a decoration on this bra.  If not permanently, than perhaps just for this weekend.

Jean Jingler I selected for my embellishment. This is one of my last fiew, and I believe it didn’t get selected because the contrast between the brassy triangle and the bright silver of the chain.

However, when I laid the piece out I noticed that there were not enough coins to reach all the way to the clasps.  So, I had a bit of work to do.  So while I was hanging out at the show, I cannibalized s bracelet and applied them to the selected Jean Jingler to fill in the gap.

This gap is too big for my tastes, so I need to add a few coins.
Gap filled, time to apply to the bra.
The center piece needs to be firmly stitched at the center front. I stich it to the bottom edge using a double strand of upholstery thread.
For the outer edges, I stitch on a tailor’s loop to serve as an anchor point for the clasp.

Lather, rinse, repeat.  I made a tailor’s loop on the other side as well and hooked the clasp.  At that point, I started doing some cleaning up of the stitching, making the front angles a bit neater, cleaning up some of the loose edges.  When I was “done enough” because, you know, this kind of finishing work can go on forever, I paused and held the bra up to me.   The appearance of this bra caused a but of a fuss as the vendors around me oohed and ahhhed over the progress.  Thanks to Jackson for snapping this picture of me.

And here I am, holding up the bra for a peek. I think this will work!
David of Scandinavia preparing for performance Bedouin Bazaar

Although I think it’s good enough for now, I’m interested in finishing up the edges around the center a bit better.  I think some trim or another piece of assiut as an applique to cover the plain black triangle. This Jean Jingler looks pretty good.  I think I’m going to leave it as is for tomorrow’s performance.

I was especially excited to see that I wasn’t the only person with assiut at the event.  David of Scandinavia performed in a fantastic robe.  He was in the middle of preparing for his piece and posing for pictures with some fans.  I really love the diamond grid pattern with snow-flake like pattern down the back of his robe and the row of heart-enhanced camels in a band near the hem.

I hunted through the dealer’s offerings and found another assiut gem.  But I’ll have photos of that later.  For now, I’m going to hit the hay… Tomorrow, a live performance with John Bilezikjian!

Happy Costuming!  Dawn Devine ~ Davina

ps – Oh yes, I know, my three day challenge turned into a four day event.  But I really like the way this bra is turning out.  I’ll follow up with finishing details when I get home and back to the studio. ~ D