Costuming for fusion
Dear Gang,
I am way in favor of moving away from costumes that overly reflect belly dance when doing fusion pieces. I do Zourouni with Georges Lammam and Ancient Future with two veils and an evening gown type dress. We often do Shaabi and Arab pop stuff in street clothing. I think it is entirely appropriate to costume for the actual music. I would love to design a couple of Goth costumes so that they do not reflect so much on belly dance, but enhance the things that make it Goth. My dance company does this thing we call "Fusion Spoof"" in which we hardly ever even wear belly dance costumes at all, but pick certain things out of the music that are distinctly Hindi, or western (as in a cowboy twang) or very American pop, and we play it up big. It is a silly dance and lots of fun. It is not belly dance.... and I guess some people would even say it is not art!! We are very careful to explain after the dance what just happened on the stage. We announce it in the tried and true Monty Python manner, "And now for something completely different."
Regards,
A'isha
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