“Assiut Belly Dance Costuming” – The Book Build Begins

Hello Gang!  I’m so excited that the world is opening back up again after the global hiatus. Here in Studio Davina, I’ve begun work on the next DIY costuming book.  Our current working title is “Assiut Belly Dance Costuming in Detail.”

When we published “The Cloth of Egypt” back in 2014, we edited out two entire chapters that didn’t seem to fit.  These lost sections introduced the main elements of belly dance costuming design and construction. During editing, we all agreed these chapters just seemed like an awkward departure from the history and technology focus of the rest of the book. 

Lost Belly Dance Costuming Sections

The last year gave us all lots of time for reflection during the global shutdown. Over the past year and a half, I spent time thinking about how to repurpose those two chapters.  My co-author, photographer Alisha Westerfeld and I had always hoped to release this material. But in the intervening years, we’ve decided to completely scrap that initial text. The original text was written in an explanatory overview style. However, we’ve decided to create a more in-depth and detailed book.

Belly Dance Costume Construction – Step-By-Step Instructions

So what will this book include that isn’t in other books I’ve published?  I’m going to use a similar format to what we did in the step-by-step guide “Embellished Bras.”  As I work on projects I will pause and take in-progress photos to capture the key steps in the process. Twelve full head-to-toe ensembles give me plenty of opportunities to demonstrate all of my favorite design approaches and sewing techniques.  In this book, I will move through each key step in the process of design, from the spark of inspiration to the completed look. 

Need some inspiration for an assiut costume now?  Check out my Three Day Assiut Costume Challenge blog series where I attempted (and failed) to make an assiut bra for a dance showcase.

Acquiring Assiut Fabric

Over the intervening years, I’ve spent time acquiring a fresh new batch of modern assiut cloth.  We need quite a bit of modern assiut fabric to meet our goal to make a dozen head-to-toe costume ensembles and document their construction!  We’ve used some of the proceeds of the Assiut Mask Project to fund these assiut fabric purchases. Fortunately, we’ve worked with a number of dealers on eBay, Etsy, and from the world of belly dance to acquire enough materials for the big build. 

If you purchased an assiut mask from me over the past year, thank you for supporting my next book!  While we still have some materials and supplies left to pick up, we’ve got enough to get started.  If funds get tight, we might pause to make some items to sell or to use as premiums for another Kickstarter campaign as we get a better idea of the size and scope of this new book.  We successfully funded two Kickstarter campaigns for Cloth of Egypt and our belly dance textbook Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage which is now available on Amazon.  Of course, Cloth of Egypt is available both on Amazon or directly from me on my Etsy store. 

If you would like to follow my book development regularly, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter.  If you want more status reports and behind-the-scenes photos, come join the conversation over in my Facebook Studio Davina group.  Or come back here to catch a future blog.

Thank you for your continued interest in my ongoing projects.  Follow me here to watch the design process unfold for these next 12 assiut costumes.

Happy Costuming and Dance!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina

ps – Have you checked out the behind-the-scene magazine “Costumer’s Notes” that we put together to commemorate the creation of the book “The Cloth of Egypt?”  Loads of full-color photographs of dozens of belly dance costumes!  

“‘Doing’ Belly Dance History” was such a fun seminar back in March!  I just want to thank all of the folks who attended. The replay is now available on the BDBA website.  If you missed this workshop, and want to check it out in replay, click here for more details Attendees to the “Doing” seminar got to peer “behind the curtain.” In this workshop, I shared all of my research processes, organization tricks, and digital tools.

Salomania: A Quest for Ephemera

During that workshop, I made an announcement. A portion of the proceeds is going directly towards the production costs of a future book. My current archival research focuses on the period between 1875 and 1925.  I’m looking forward to publishing a future book on the Salomania phenomenon.

Armed with this influx of funds, I’m now officially on the hunt for ephemera related to Salome in the first decade of the 20th century.  My goal is to find images of the Salomé character during the last quarter of the 19th century through the pop culture phenomenon we now call “Salomania.”  

La Bellincioni Dans “Salomé”

This lovely page pulled from an unknown French magazine of Italian opera singer Gemma Bellincioni is my latest acquisition.  In 1911, she performed in the title role of Salomé at the l’Opéra-Comique in Paris. This is an illustration/photo hybrid. Lean in and look closely. Can you identify the classic costuming features associated with the character Salomé?

Maud Allan, the Most Famous Salomé Dancer

Does this image look familiar?  This is due, in large part, to the costume. The top worn by La Bellincioni bears a striking resemblance to dancer Maud Allan’s in the same role. Is it possible the designer of this Salomé opera copied Maud Allan’s look?

If we compare these two tops, we can see the striking resemblance between these two ensembles. From construction details like the mesh base and beaded roundels to the pearl sags and bejeweled medallions, it’s clear that these costumes are iconic to the character Salomé.  For the early 20th century theatrical audience, the uniformity of the looks makes it easy to read who the character is from a distance.

I’m so excited to be digitally shopping from ephemera dealers and image-rights management companies.  I’m looking forward to investing in photos and illustrations to make this future book as lavishly illustrated as “Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut.”

Now it’s time to head into the studio and get some sewing done!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
May 22, 2021

Hello Gang! I’ve done a complete top to bottom renovation of one of my most requested workshops. This classic talk, “Dancers in Orientalist Art,” has been updated for 2021.  The first time I presented this material, this was a paper and presentation for a graduate seminar.  Back then, I was working towards an MA in art history at UC Davis in 1997.  Since then, this talk has evolved, changed, and grown.  I’ve continued to follow the changes in scholarship in the world of Orientalist art history and to integrate these changes into this talk. 

“Belly Dance Family Album”

One of the phenomena that I’ve seen happening over my 30+ year involvement in the world of belly dance is the identification of what I like to call the “Belly Dane Family Album.”  This is a loose collection of images that appear on websites, in newsletters, on blog posts (just like this one.)  And of course, we find these images all across social media. We use these images to provide historical context, to illustrate discussions on all sorts of topics, and because they are beautiful and evocative.

The 19th-century segment of this album includes imagery from a variety of sources. These pictures include oil and watercolor paintings, sketches from artist and traveler notebooks, illustrations from published books including encyclopedias, travel memoirs, and guides, as well as reproduction and original etchings in journals and newspapers.

Identifying Images

Many years ago, I decided to make it my low-key mission to make sure that images get properly sourced. Many of us have seen and know by sight these images from their repetition in the Belly Dance Family Album.  My goal is to help share information about the artist and the context in which these images were produced.  Are these great works, good works, or just hacks catering to a hungry art market.  

Another aspect of the web is the notion of relative size.  When looking at a screen, you don’t get a sense of scale. Paintings can vary wildly in size, and understanding how big a painting is can help provide some understanding of the impact of the work on the viewer.  Most orientalist genre paintings were actually quite small, excellent for display and house or home.  We sometimes think that Gerome’s masterpieces are quite large, when in fact, most are equivalent to the size of a modern poster.
Image right: drawing from “Sketches in Egypt” by Charles Dana Gibson c. 1899.

Painter Travelers

While our world is bubbling with conversations about cultural change and evolution, there’s been a sea-change in how Orientalist genre art is collected and presented. In this latest version of this talk, I’ll be sharing the latest scholarship that is impacting how these works are displayed and labeled.  I’ll also be talking about the latest exhibitions, publications, and the new era of collectors. This talk includes a discussion of separating the good from the bad in terms of subject, theme, and the artists themselves.  We will take a look at who are the masters and who are the hacks in our current world.

Visual Documents for History of Dance

And finally, during the last segment of this talk, I’ll be sharing some methods for looking at these works. We’ll discuss approaches for evaluating them not as great works of art, but rather, as documents of the history of our dance.   While we might not know when the first dancer put a sword on her head.  But thanks to the great French artist Gérôme, we know that he witnessed a sword dance during his travels in 1856. 

If all this sounds intriguing and, you can join me and my host Sara Shrapnell for a live 90-minute slide talk, but plan for 2-hours to include the live Q&A discussion. 

Dancers In Orientalist Art – 2021

Sunday, June 20th at Noon Pacific
90 Minute zoom-based slide talk with Q&A
$25 Registration includes
an informative handout and replay access
Hosted by Sara Shrapnell on the BDBA
Reserve your space

Maybe I’ll See You There!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
May 16, 2021