Category: Publications

It is my supreme pleasure to introduce my latest publishing project, Amabella Magazine.  I’m so excited to share our introductory issue!  This is a free digital magazine aimed for belly dancers at every stage in their journey. Amabella means “beautiful woman” in Latin, and the mission of this publication is to help you achieve your goals in the dance arts.

We’ve been working all spring to put together this first issue. Our magazine hit the digital stands on August first, and I couldn’t be more proud of our achievement.

I’ve always been a huge fan of magazines, especially on my favorite topic, belly dance. Over the many years that I’ve been involved in the belly dance world, I’ve subscribed to more than a dozen different publications.  I’ve written for many and have even been featured on the cover of a few!  As the costs have risen, and subscribers dwindled, many magazines have, sadly, gone out of print.  So, I put a team together and we stepped into the breach to create a free digital magazine.

Read Amabella Magazine

OurEditorial Point of View

The core of the Amabella editorial team are the ladies I had the pleasure of working with on the book, “Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage.”   International belly dance instructor Sara Shrapnell, the author of “Teaching Belly Dance” and faculty member of the Belly Dance Business Academy,  joined me in brain storming our editorial point of view.  Because of the nature of the internet, we decided that all the content in Amabella Magazine will be as evergreen as possible!  What this means, is that articles and ads will not focus on events.  Rather, the content will be focused on concepts, products, and technique.

Photographer and belly dance life styler Alisha Westerfeld, who I’ve worked with on many projects, suggested we include gallery space for dancers to share their art.  Because Amabella is a digital magazine, when we include an image of a dancer, we can directly link to their website, blog, or other social media destinations.  This is a great benefit for our writers, artists, dancers, and advertisers.  And since Amabella Magazine will be located on the Issuu website for the duration, there is the potential for tremendous reach.

Learn more about our beautiful cover girl Basinah on her website.

Amabella Magazine Website

There is a truism in the world today: websites are never finished!  We’re spending the next three months building up the Amabella Magazine website. Our new site will include our magazines, blog posts by editors and contributors, and information on how to work with us at Amabella.  At the moment this blog post goes live, it’s pretty bare bones.  But in the future, it will have more details about future publications, more interesting and informative blog posts, and an image gallery to flip through. There is much more to come in the fullness of time!

Subscribe to Amabella

Because we’re free and digital, there are three ways to subscribe.

Sign Up for our Mailing List: The first is to visit the Amabella Magazine website and sign-up for the newsletter.  Our newsletter is our primary method for us to reach out and let you know when new publications will be available.

Use the Issuu Website:  The second method is to sign up for an account on the Issuu.com website and create a reading list.  As magazines on your list are released, the site will notify you via email.  If you already use the Issuu website, be sure to add our magazine to your favorite reading stack!  Issuu Website

Join our Facebook Group: The final way to find out about magazine releases and blog post -uploads.  This is a great way to join in the conversation, contribute ideas, or ask questions about our content.  Have a quick question?  This is the place!

If you’ve made it to the end of this blog post – thank you so much for your time and supporting my projects!   I hope that you will read and enjoy Amabella Magazine today, and in future issues.

Moving forward, we are releasing issues three times.  We will be collecting content through November 1, 2017, and releasing our next issue, Amabeall V1 the first week of December.

 

I hope you enjoy Amabella Magazine!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
August 4, 2017

Last spring I had the fantastic opportunity to join Nadira in of the Belly Dance Geek for a fun interview about my latest book “Zills: Music on Your Fingertips.”   I had soo much fun geeking out about the ancient history of finger cymbals and their role in dance today.

Right:  Davina with Zills – Now & Then

Nadira’s podcasts are essential listening here for belly dancers of every style.  Since discovering her site, and joining the clubhouse, I’ve spent many a thoughtful hour listening to her interviews.  She selects some of the most well-respected dancers, instructors, and scholars working in our community today.  I was so pleased to be included in such an illustrious group!

Geeking Out about Finger Cymbals

To hear my interview about finger cymbals with Nadira, follow this link.

https://www.bellydancegeek.com/2017/03/geek-out-with-dawn-devine/

Zills: Music on Your Fingertips

In this day and age in the world of belly dance, our greater, global community is quite widespread.  There is no one single space for dancers to go to for quality information.  As an author, I’m always pleased to find out about new dancers and their projects.  In the more than 30 years that I’ve been involved in this world of belly dance, there has never been one single place where all dancers go for information.  I know there are hundreds of thoughtful dancers with interesting blogs, videos, podcasts, magazines and more.

Do you have a favorite belly dance resource?  Do you have a blog you think I should check out?  Let me know by dropping me a line at davina@davina.us.   I would love to see what dancers around the world are doing.

Have fun catching my podcast interview – and poking around Nadira’s website to listen and watch more!

Dance Well – Be Well – Costume Frequently,
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
July 16, 2017

 

Hello, Gang!

I recently was sent an email that asked the question,

“Why don’t you allow comments on your blog posts?”  

This isn’t the first time I have had this inquiry, so I thought I would take a moment to share my thoughts on the subject.  But first, let me begin with a little history of my website.

Davina – Online since 1996!

When I first started my website in 1996.  It first appears in the archives of the Wayback Machine in 1999 under my then domain davina.org. I couldn’t get the .com top level domain because someone had already purchased it, so I “settled” for the .org.  My website was to serve as a home for articles about belly dance costuming, sharing news about where I was heading to teach dance and costuming workshops, and my free belly dance costume ‘zine called “Costumers Notes.” I knew that websites were going to be the “Next Big Thing.”  I never knew quite HOW big it was going to be!

Davina .org and .us – a brief history

The image bar at right traces the major moments in the development of my website over the nearly 20 years it’s been in existence!  At the top, is the oldest image of a page dated from 1998. I had many fits and starts before I settled in on this lovely *ahem* brown and goldenrod hand coded website. My skills were minimal, my site tragically ugly. The few images on my site were quite tiny and widely spaced throughout the site.  We all have to start somewhere!

In 2001, the site got a makeover. After talking to a lot of people at belly dance events such as Rakkasah, Wiggles of the West, and Desert Dance Festival it became clear that I needed an easier to read, less painful to look at site, so the colors were adjusted to a less difficult, yet still rather garish, color combination, as you can see in the second image.

In 2003, we nabbed Davina.us and we started using Adobe GoLive as our layout tool (3rd down in the image bar). That same year, I moved the Costumer’s Notes ‘zine to its own domain. (Right at bottom.) Two websites created not quite twice the amount of work.  I started a mailing list, and was sending text only.

By 2011, I found juggling two websites to take far too much of my time, so I brought Costumer’s Notes back onto my website (Image 4.)  By this point, I had more than 4000 pages total between the two websites, and I knew that I needed to leave GoLive (now abandoned by Adobe,) and head over to the “Blogging Side.”  Because of the sheer amount of content, I resisted the change.

2013 the “Davina: The Blog” Begins

After much soul-searching, I decided to take the plunge.  I was working on the development of the book, The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut and it was clear that I wanted to upgrade the appearance of my site.  It’s taken a while to get out of the “article” writing mode and develop my blogging voice.  I’m not quite sure I’m there, but with every post, I’m getting closer!

So when I started the blog in 2013, I already had a pretty lively direct interaction with folks on FaceBook.  We also experienced a pounding by spammers who were filling my “comments” section up, and I found myself spending a lot of time managing the comment portion of my blog.  Something had to go give, and I needed that time back!  So I shut off the comments here, and I now encourage folks to either email me directly or to join the ongoing conversation on Facebook.

Facebook Groups – Join the Conversation

Now, in 2017, I’m still choosing to have conversations and direct interaction over on the community-driven Facebook.  At the moment, I split my time between three main groups, making regular posts, participating in conversations, and sharing lots of images.  Aside from my main page which has a mix of coffee cups, nerdy memes, and historic fashion, these are the groups where you can catch me!

Assiut Group

With over 200 members and an active and vocal community of collectors, fans, and researchers of our favorite fabric.  If you like my book, The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut, then this is the group to join! Gotta buy it now?  It’s available on Amazon.com.

Becoming a Belly Dancer – Bonus Group

The latest group we’ve started is hosted by the authors of Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage.  This new and growing community is a place to come to share information about our favorite subject, Belly Dance!  If you are thinking of picking up a copy of this amazing handbook for belly dancers, this is the perfect place to ask questions directly from the authors. Gotta buy it now? It’s available on Amazon.com.

Studio Davina: Behind the Seams

If you enjoy watching projects develop from fabric to fashion, from idea to publication and more.  This is where I share my projects in progress with my fellow costumers.  Do you sew?  Wanna share your projects?  Join us for the conversation!

Not a Facebook Fan – Email me Directly!

If you aren’t a fan of Facebook, you can find me on Instagram under the handle @davinadevine.  Or email me directly davina@davina.us with any comments, thoughts, or questions about my blog.  So while I don’t have plans on opening my posts up to comments and discussion, I wouldn’t mind hearing from you!

Here’s to Creative Costuming & Delicious Dance
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
June 27, 2017

 

 

The Costuming of Salome – Ephemera

Hello gang! I just wanted to take a moment to share with you some of my growing collection of Salome images. Over the past 15 years or so, I’ve been hunting postcards and other ephemera from the years 1890 – 1930. My goal is to trace the evolution of the image of Salome on stage, and later 0n screen. My goal is to one day write a book on the subject, and this collection will illustrate that publication. In addition, I’m also collecting images of ethnic belly dancers from around the Mediterranean as well as European and American orientalist dancers.

A Passion for Costume History

I am fascinated by the subject of Salome in early modern dance, theater, and opera costumes. Theatrical costuming, regardless of discipline, exists outside of the flow of fashion. Stage costumes, unlike daily clothing, are character defining, larger than life, and visually stunning. During the first 30 years of the 20th century, Salome’s “costume” became very codified with specific design elements that defined who she was to the audience. Dozens of different Salomes graced the stage throughout Europe, the US, and Canada. It was a cultural phenomenon!

Merch isn’t a new concept

Late 19th century entertainers recognized the potential power of the new and modern art of photography for both advertising their shows and building their personal fame. What we call “merch” today, began with theatrical cabinet cards and early postcards sold in theater lobbies. A patron of the theater could purchase a card of the cast and take it away, a keepsake and memory. These cards were produced in great quantity and saved as treasured mementos. This is a boon to historical researchers like myself, who can find them in the vintage ephemera market.

Salome in Post Cards & Ephemera

Of course, my mission will be to take these postcards and ephemera and to trace the evolution of the costume for Salome, using primary newspapers and journals for quotes about the shows, and how the spectacle of the Salome costume impacted the audience.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be filling in a spreadsheet with names of dancers, singers, and actresses who played Salome and when and where they performed. There were hundreds!  

That’s not Salome!

One of the challenges I face as a researcher is identifying the women in these postcards.  As I populate my spreadsheet, I’m taking the time to seek out the information about this performer, the name of the play or opera, and what role she actually played.  This will allow me to separate the dancers from the singers, the Salomes from the Herodias.  Across the web, there are hundreds of misidentified images.  Not every picture that “looks” like Salome is actually her!  So when I find a postcard that appears to be Salome, but is actually a different role, I make note of that too. Sometimes, it looks like Salome and she’s actually Cleopatra in a recycled Salome costume!

Will this be a book?

Though narrow in scope, I’m finding more and more Salomes. I’ll be continuing this research project for a few more years. When I have enough images in my collection to support the growing body of research, the transformation from notes and pictures, to an illustrated book will begin.  When I look at future projects, this is a 5-7 year project from this moment. With perseverance in research, and lots of luck in finding postcards and other ephemera this will be a lovely and fun read.  In the meantime, here are a few photos from my collection to enjoy! 

To Research Projects!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
6-20-2017

PS. Read More About Salome Today

Wanna do some research of your own check out “Sisters of Salome” by Toni Bentley,  a retired ballerina and dance researcher. Explores the lives of four women who embraced the character of Salome. Bentley explores their motivation and mindset behind the dance. She focusses on Maud Allen, Mata Hari, Ida Rubenstein & Colette. This book is filled with lots of juicy facts about these four infamous performers, and how playing the role of Salome impacted their life. Available on Amazon.com