The fall season is the best time to shop for party shoes and this season is offering a wide variety of glittery, sparkling shoes. Sparkle and shine is hot for the holidays but eternally useful for dancers, showgirls and divas. Here are just a few of the thousands of styles, shapes and colors now available around the web. Have fun shopping!
I’m in the middle of preparing to attend the Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive Sept. 6 – 9 at the lovely Flamingo hotel. I’m teaching a workshop called “Think Like A Designer” about planning and building a useful wardrobe using techniques from the worlds of fashion and costume design. I’m really excited about teaching, performing and networking at the show! In preparation, we’ve put together a promotional post card for the book I’m currently working on “The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut.” Check it out!
Tribal Fest is one of my favorite events to go to, hang out at and watch lots of fantastic dancing. This year, there were many wonderful assiut-clad performers. Here are three more of my favorites from this year’s events. Check out part 1 for more.
After relocating to Portland and opening her studio Datura, which has become the new epicenter of modern tribal fusion, Rachel Brice has built a troupe featuring an amazing group of talented dancers. You can spot one of my favorite tribal performers, another Bay Area to Portland transplant, Ashley Lopez amongst these amazing women. The costuming is lush, silver on black assiut. The dance – spellbinding.
This performance features the supple Sasha, who spent his days of Tribal Fest 2012 wandering around draped in as many as 7 vintage assiut shawls. A self-proclaimed assiut addict, here he is performing with at least four draped around his body which he tucks and wraps the scarves to preserve them whole while still enjoying the shimmer and swing of wearing them in performance.
The Qabila Folkdance Company brought to the Tribal Fest a more traditional folkloric performance wearing lovely assiut gowns. These ladies performed an upbeat Saidid and Gahwazee Suite with style and gusto. Visit their FaceBook page to connect with this talented group of women.
I spend a lot of time doodling and drawing. Fantasizing on paper what I can make in cloth. To simplify the drawing process, I have a collection of croquis that I use as a proportional guides for my sketching. In the design world, a Croquis, (which is French for “sketch” ) are used as a simple tool to keep designers from having to map out female forms over and over. As a costume designer, I build a croquis for each of my regular clients, and then use that to sketch out our costuming plans together.
Serina started out as a croquis, but I found her so charming, that I turned her into a more complete drawing. When I was done, I realized that it would be fun to treat her like a paper doll with a variety of costumes. So here is Serena, my first belly dance paper doll to color. I’ve included 8.5″ by 11″ printables below if you want to print her out and have some fun coloring in her costume – or even designing a new one!
Strong, supple, and elegant arms are one of the prime goals of every genre of belly dancer. As an observer of dance, I’ve noticed that one of the key ways you can spot the difference between the pros and the talented amateurs is how long a performer can keep her arms aloft and graceful. In my dance practice, I’ve always tried to have the best arms possible, and with that goal in mind, I work them out regularly.
Since my main activity for “losing it” is walking, (which doesn’t challenge the old arms) when I get home from my power strolls, I tag on a quick 15 – 20 minute arm work-out using a resistance band. It helps keeps my muscles strong so my arm-work can look it’s very best.
My two-part arm routine is composed of 7-10 minutes of arm focussed dance. I just put on the music and move through a variety of typical belly dance arm and hand movements including, snake arms, classic arms, torso frames, arm, hand and finger ripples, and florios.
In the second half, I use my resistance band to perform lifts, curls, rows and raises that challenge my biceps, triceps and deltoids. Thanks to the free on-line fitness and lifestyle community over at SparkPeople, there is a huge collection of example exercises for you to follow. www.sparkpeople.com To see the routine I use, follow the links below.
Simple Resistance Band Arm Workout:
Then I stretch after my work out:
Wanna see a sample of my arm work?