My dance costume

[Shanazel]

I'm one of those people who loved to wear black and other dark colors, and had to remind myself that black disappears in most venues. It took a tremendous amount of nerve for me to wear a pale violet, white, and silver ensemble; I felt so conspicuous. As if one can be inconspicuous dancing center stage in a traditional bedlah of any color.

 

[Amine]

Amine, I apologize if I came across as trying to explain your own culture to you. My posts tend to be unnecessarily long and thorough explanations of everything I've been taught, and I don't mean to talk down to anyone who already knows what I'm rambling about.

When I started building my own costume collection, I started with a lot of black myself, even though I don't wear much black in real life. Many new performers feel insecure in their skills and I think gravitating toward black can be subconscious. I know I personally had some "imposter syndrome" going on, and I was a couple of hafla videotapes in before it finally dawned on me that black just doesn't film well most of the time. Black satin and black sequins show up better than black velvet, but they all show up worse than colors (although a really bad videographer can turn white or very light colors into glowing blobs, which is the opposite problem of too much reflectivity).

I hope you are able to find a combination of costume upgrades that work for you. The good news is you can experiment with colored T-shirts fairly inexpensively.

Indeed, the main thing is to find the outfit that suits us, because we all have different tastes, however it's not so bad to dare to be new, to get out of your comfort zone. Let's be clear, I won't give up my skirt. It's one of the main elements of my costume, it's the best purchase I could have made, and even today I'm not disappointed. Also, this one is of shiny material like satin or other polyester material, so the color can stand out. I will test the tops of a different color, and add jewelry but not too much either to see what it looks like on the costume.

It doesn't matter at all

 

[Amine]

In fact, I also have another skirt that I bought at the same time. I will try to focus on the highs in the next few weeks. For this one I dared a light color, here the light blue. I send you a picture:

 

[Amine]

Excuse me if I'm just talking about these skirts, because I think they're beautiful, and I like them.

 

[Zorba]

Excuse me if I'm just talking about these skirts, because I think they're beautiful, and I like them.

No problem - skirts are a "forbidden fruit" to us males, once we discover them we become enthusiastic! I've worn skirts for going on 25 years, but when I first mentioned to my instructor years back that I wanted to wear one to participate in a troupe skirt dance, she felt compelled to ask my dance sisters if they were OK with it (they were).

I wrote a series of articles called "Quest for Beauty" years back - beauty is all too often denied to males, and the current political nonsense is partially caused by this methinks. You do NOT have to "become a woman" to embrace beauty!

 

[Shanazel]

Seriously, Amine, on a site where half the members are costume-obsessed and the other half is interested, you feel the need to apologize for talking about skirts?



We're just waiting to find out what, if anything, you intend to wear with the blue one.

 

[Amine]

Seriously, Amine, on a site where half the members are costume-obsessed and the other half is interested, you feel the need to apologize for talking about skirts?



We're just waiting to find out what, if anything, you intend to wear with the blue one.

Yes exactly, I thought that after a while you were going to get fed up, as other people outside the forum told me. Dont laught at me lol. You know, I can talk about skirts and dresses for hours without ever getting bored, it's a subject I'm very passionate about, I love dancing in big, colorful and comfortable skirts.


To answer your question, with this skirt, I want to wear something brown, like the bottom of the skirt is brown, light blue or dark blue. A chiffon top would please me. It's quite difficult to find a combination because as the skirt was second-hand, I had no choice of colors. I also want to buy a flamenco type fan.

 

[Amine]

And I know that it's useless to apologize for so little. I need to regain my self-esteem. From now on I won't apologize anymore.

 

[Amine]

No problem - skirts are a "forbidden fruit" to us males, once we discover them we become enthusiastic! I've worn skirts for going on 25 years, but when I first mentioned to my instructor years back that I wanted to wear one to participate in a troupe skirt dance, she felt compelled to ask my dance sisters if they were OK with it (they were).

I wrote a series of articles called "Quest for Beauty" years back - beauty is all too often denied to males, and the current political nonsense is partially caused by this methinks. You do NOT have to "become a woman" to embrace beauty!

Yes you are totally right, I have to gain confidence in myself and be able to wear skirts without being afraid of other people's eyes.

 

[Amine]

I totally understand Zorba when he said he needed the agreement of the dancing sisters to wear a costume with a skirt. In my opinion, this is a question that should not have been asked, if it is a tribal dance, and all the dancers wear skirts, then all dancers can wear skirts, men and women included. The problem is that many men do not dare to wear them for fear of teasing or messages of this kind. For my part. Personally, I used to feel comfortable in a skirt and now I don't even care about that anymore .

 

[Shanazel]

I was particularly blessed with the dancers I taught during the last years of my belly dance life. When our first dress-wearing male appeared, he made a point of telling us that if we thought his presence would cause us any problems, he's willingly drop the class. I told him that anyone who had a problem with him, had a problem with all of us. Every one of my dancers nodded in firm agreement, and that was that. I did come to wish that he was as interested in learning to dance as he was interested in what he got to wear for dance, but that's another story.

 

[Amine]

I was particularly blessed with the dancers I taught during the last years of my belly dance life. When our first dress-wearing male appeared, he made a point of telling us that if we thought his presence would cause us any problems, he's willingly drop the class. I told him that anyone who had a problem with him, had a problem with all of us. Every one of my dancers nodded in firm agreement, and that was that. I did come to wish that he was as interested in learning to dance as he was interested in what he got to wear for dance, but that's another story.

In the end you did well
If I myself would be dressed like this and it would be a problem, I would react in the same way.

 

[Daimona]

Photo number 1 View attachment 11471

I love this skirt. A scarf or anything in red-orange-yellow that accentuates the hips would be great with it. If you do a lot of upper body movements when you dance, you might want something that accentuates these parts as well.
I like the idea of a more latino style shirt on the top with it. If such exists, maybe red-orange in the upper part and then black at the bottom so you don't take away the focus from the hips and the skirt.

For the blue skirt, I'd recommend a shirt in the same blue, and then brown accents at the hips and other places.
Personally I would probably also decorate the brown on the skirt with some sparklies, simply to make it more visible on dark stage areas.
I photographed a lot of dance shows locally, and the brown edge might disappear the same way black does in dark lit stages and then all you see will be the light blue part of the skirt floating in the air.

 

[Amine]

I love this skirt. A scarf or anything in red-orange-yellow that accentuates the hips would be great with it. If you do a lot of upper body movements when you dance, you might want something that accentuates these parts as well.
I like the idea of a more latino style shirt on the top with it. If such exists, maybe red-orange in the upper part and then black at the bottom so you don't take away the focus from the hips and the skirt.

For the blue skirt, I'd recommend a shirt in the same blue, and then brown accents at the hips and other places.
Personally I would probably also decorate the brown on the skirt with some sparklies, simply to make it more visible on dark stage areas.
I photographed a lot of dance shows locally, and the brown edge might disappear the same way black does in dark lit stages and then all you see will be the light blue part of the skirt floating in the air.

Hello,

I thought exactly the same thing, indeed, for the premiere, a top in the colors of the skirt in the folk style would be very beautiful, I love this style! For the hips, a belt with black red orange and yellow colors would not be bad either, I will ask my designer on Etsy. But In my opinion I don't think the hip belt is necessary if I dance shirtless. In this case, I will opt for simple jewelry and necklaces on the top.

For the second, I don't see the point of putting sequins on it, since the fabric is shiny and shimmers in the light like satin. I'm thinking of opting for a light blue top in the same color as this one.

Thank you for all your advice !

 

[Amine]

Thank you all for your advice, compliments and suggestions!


In the end, the costume is first of all a question of personal taste, we like it or we don't like it, and we can't please everyone. Everyone has a different take on the belly dance costume. Some are content with just a skirt and nothing else, others put bracelets all around them and pants, it's this diversity of costumes which is one of the charms of belly dancing and tribal fusion !

I wanted to make this thread to simply have your opinions and opinions, and also to discuss this. Your suggestions were good to hear, even if in the end it depends only on me.

 

[Shanazel]

I don't see the point of putting sequins on it, since the fabric is shiny and shimmers in the light like satin.

This photo is a pretty good illustration of the point Daimona made about that dark brown border disappearing on stage. The skirt I'm wearing is black fabric liberally (and I do mean liberally) threaded with metallic threads. Even so, it is almost lost against the black velvet curtains. The luster of a shiny dark fabric is not enough to reflect light; black sucks in all light and doesn't let much out again. Without sequins or something equally reflective, that lower tier of your skirt is going to disappear the same way my black choli disappears. It's not a matter of taste- it's a matter of physics and the way stage lighting works.

 

[Shanazel]

Another illustration of what happens on stage with shiny dark fabric at the bottom of a skirt topped with a light-colored or reflective upper skirt. (The dancer in orange is an old hand who understood the value of color against a black backdrop. She is one of two students who took over teaching my classes when I retired. She also bought the skirt and harem pants I was wearing above, as well as several of my other costumes. They went to a good home.)

 

[Zorba]

For the second, I don't see the point of putting sequins on it, since the fabric is shiny and shimmers in the light like satin.

As one of my teachers, costumers, and dance sisters once told me: "You know the phrase 'less is more'? Bullshit! MORE is more!". While some will disagree, that's always been my guide ever since! If you can put on 10 sequins, put on 100! If you can put on 5 tassels, put on 20!

 

[Zorba]

This isn't particularly sparkly, but here's a skirt similar to the OP in this VERY brief vid:

This skirt was passed around the local sisterhood until it came to me. It was too long on EVERYONE, *including* me. I shortened it from the waistband. I over did it, and it was then too short - so I added a second flounce to it to give it its current length. Very heavy, spins like a dream.

 

[Amine]

I don't see the point of putting sequins on it, since the fabric is shiny and shimmers in the light like satin.

This photo is a pretty good illustration of the point Daimona made about that dark brown border disappearing on stage. The skirt I'm wearing is black fabric liberally (and I do mean liberally) threaded with metallic threads. Even so, it is almost lost against the black velvet curtains. The luster of a shiny dark fabric is not enough to reflect light; black sucks in all light and doesn't let much out again. Without sequins or something equally reflective, that lower tier of your skirt is going to disappear the same way my black choli disappears. It's not a matter of taste- it's a matter of physics and the way stage lighting works.

View attachment 11475

As you say, it all depends on the stage lighting. I say this because I'm used to dancing in general on a lighter background than black. I agree with you that black absorbs a lot of light, but on youtube I've seen a lot of dancers wearing black... on black. Apparently I'm not the only one who likes this color