Kharis

Dressing up was really important to me when I was a student. It was all part and parcel of it. But it's something what wears off when you reach a certain level and/or turn pro. But anyone out there who tries to say they didn't enjoy dressing up when a student is telling porkies and giving themselves airs and graces...

taheya

I dont like it even at informal haflas when people stay in their perfomance clothes in the audience. Especially if the public are there. I agree with Aisha, people should learn when it is appropriate to wear performance costumes regardless of the formality of the show/ hafla. And costumes are not appropriate for audience wear or for a bop on the dance floor, they should be worn if you are performing.
Caroline, for me I love the dance for the dance and the costume takes a back seat in priority cos of my love of the dance and music. However, im sure there are alot of people out there who are attracted to the dance because of the costumes and the chance to dress up. Although i am not bothered by costumes as much as the dance, I know they are important for performing and the presentation of the dance so when performing ensure that I look nice (hopefully!! ).

taheya

Kharis honestly for me the costume is not a priority and I am not bothered by the dressing up aspect.. though i know it is important. By saying that i dont think im giving myself airs and graces

Kharis

So what do people wear at your haflahs? I'm intrigued. Don't they wear anything remotely 'dancey'?

Caroline_afifi

I think the Uk has a fancy dress culture which is very popular of all ages. Some people are very creative and artistic but some like me are useless and dont feel comfortable. I think the early attraction to dressing upis perhaps a little engrained in this culture and is seen as harmless and fun.
When people get into the dance more, they seperate the two things entirely.
We dont have a very glomorous culture in the Uk and the occasion for really dressing up does not come along too often ( and I mean soiree).

I think the dress cluture within the dance is changeing as I have not seen anyone dressed up for an audience since Raqs B and they they were really out numbered.
What do people consider as a good and OK place for everyone to dress up if it is not a student haflah?

Kharis

So you didn't even put on hipbelt? What did you wear to class?

taheya

Yes I used to put on hip belts at haflas as a newbie, cos of peer pressure as everybody else was! I dont bother now. I am not a teacher Kharis and as yet have not held a hafla but it does make me cringe when I see people coming to haflas in full bedlah. Hip belts are not the same as a full costume.

Marya

When I started my first dance classes, sometimes the teacher would wear bedlah to teach in. She never specifically encouraged us to dress up for class though. Most students wore a skirt a sports bra and some kind of coin belt or hip wrap. In Seattle where I started classes, I never saw anyone in costume in the audience. Dressed up nice, maybe with a beaded scarf over the shoulders maybe a fancy caftan, but never costume.

I ask my students not to wear skirts even in class, (I can't tell if they are doing movements correctly if they wear a skirt) and I discourage coin belts because the noise is distracting.

Later when I am teaching a short choreography I bring practice skirts for students to wear because knowing how to dance in a skirt is part of the learning process. I have had students complain about not being able to wear a skirt, but as a teacher i have a responsibility to the student and wearing a skirt keeps me from fulfilling that responsibility.

I was taught to wear a cover up, and at most of the belly dancers only events I go to this rule is enforced. At stage events in a real theater, performers are not allowed to go out into the audience in coverups even. If they perform early and want to watch some of the show they must change.

My main issue with audience members wearing a costume is that I feel it is rude. it is a distraction to the audience away from the performer, even at haflas. The "haflas" I have attended here in the Pacific NW of the US are not really parties they are performances, there is sometimes open dance but only after all the scheduled performances. The cover up rule is enforced. Mostly the situation is that the audience is friends and family and fellow belly dancers.

At one event I go to most of the audience will also be performing and if we all had to stay backstage there would be no audience at all, so we are allowed to sit in coverups to watch the show until our time to perform. Because most of the people who want to perform also want to watch the show they prepare for their own performance and put on a cover up, sit in the audience until shortly before they are to go on.

I have no problem with cover ups at belly dancer only events, but even there, people in costumes out in the audience are very distracting and it is just inconsiderate to the performers for audience members to be in costume without a coverup.

I personally am not particularly interested in wearing a costume unless I am performing. I don't really even like to wear a costume with a coverup because costumes are not very comfortable, and I can't enjoy the performance when something is poking me or constricting me. Although I love performing and I love costumes, comfort is important if I have to sit still for any period of time.

I don't really think that the Khan el Khalili vendors would disappear if we stopped buying cheap costume elements, they would find something else to sell.

Marya

Aisha Azar

Kharis


I never said there were not and I don't like it any better here than I do anywhere else. You are making it sound like Brits can not have fun without wearing the costume, so should I believe that you are anal and fetishist? I would REALLY REALLY like it we could carry on a conversation, without it coming down to me having to get nasty because people can't control their urge to call out my character. But, I am fast losing patience with it all and believe me, if you want to call names and point out character flaws, I am good at that and can start in myself at any time.

Aisha Azar

When they are in the Greenroom and when they are on stage. Ren Faires and the like where the whole thing is a giant stage, fancy dress balls, Halloween parties, Fasching.