Mm Mm Monday - Bollywood Disney Princesses

Does this need any explanation!? Click the link below to see much much more.




http://www.boredpanda.com/disney-princesses-wearing-indian-outfits/

Creating Your Own Style

by Deep Roots Dance Instructor, Carmen Bellotti

As you spend time along your path you begin to acquire treasures. Part of the fun of being a tribal belly dancer is all of the costuming options you have. There are full skirts of different patterns, different textured tops, and so many colors to choose from. And don't forget all the sparkly decorations for our hips and hair! Each dancer's style and wardrobe speak a bit to their spirit, helping to create a unique look for stage. I want show you the various types of the treasures and help you feel confident in picking those bold pieces. I hope this inspires you to be free to create your style.

Tribal Bellydance Costuming 101

I teach costuming workshops now and again, specifically for tribal and fusion bellydancers. I used to be a professional costumer, so I have spent quite a lot of time considering all the elements that go into this style--what makes it so rich, without being gaudy? It's also so very personal--there is not real "uniform"--so it is open to wide interpretation. I have addressed the topic in brief in a previous blog post, but for a deeper look into successful costuming I offer this new post. This was developed off of a handout I have given at past workshops, which addresses some key considerations for American Tribal Style, ITS, tribal, and tribal fusion bellydance.

Dramatic Hair for Tribal Bellydance

One of two in a follow-along video series where I share one of my routines for getting dolled up for performance. Ladies with short hair take note, this one is especially helpful for you! Hope you enjoy it.

Vintage Costumes - Setting Dyes, Preserving Colors

In the tribal bellydance world, we love our vintage and hand-made items. Particularly we heart imported Indian costuming, such as Banjara cholis, Rajasthani or Jaipur skirts, and bandhani tie-dye style dupattas. Whether old or new, they are subject to dye transfer and fading, and are difficult to clean. Here is a method that will help set dyes for longer wear, and is a good method for freshening up older garments which may have "vintage odors" to go along with our own bodily contributions while dancing.

If doing multiple items, I suggest doing them each in their own separate baths to avoid color transfer between them.

1. Fill your kitchen sink or large tub with cold water. Add a 1/2 cup of white vinegar plus 1/4 cup sea salt or similar.
2. Swish around to dissolve salt as much as possible.
3. Put item in the sink and gently squeeze the vinegar/salt water into the fabric.
 NOTE: With any items with sequins/pailettes, be careful not to fold/scrunch them.
4. Leave soaking for 30-60 minutes.
5. Drain sink and rinse thoroughly with cold water.
6. Lay out to dry (do not hang, it will stretch) in shady spot. NEVER dry in direct sunlight, it will fade the colors and can damage vintage fibers.
    6a. If you are doing a small item like a choli, and have a rack in your
        dryer on which you can set items so they don't tumble, set to cool
        and lay item as flat as possible.

Free Costuming Hints and Tips Booklet

Davina (nee Dawn Divine) has been writing costuming books about as long as I have been dancing. In my early dancer days, I would purchase and pore over her books at the time, looking for ideas and inspiration.

She offers a free PDF "booklet" on her website with general guidelines for putting together a costume, and care and storage of your costumes. It touches on both cabaret and classic tribal (think turbans and 10-yards) styles. Check it out here!

Fabulous Friday - Modern Vintage

Fabulous Friday - Henna

Ebay's Guide to Tribal

In composing this blog entry, a single search for "tribal bellydance" on Ebay returned some very interesting results. Less and less dancers are shopping there, because the term has been confused and misused.
I think we should start with a reminder of what were some of the costuming influences and inspirations for tribal in the first place. So let's walk down memory lane a bit:

  Orientalist painting of a Turkish woman left, Banjara Dancer, Right

Free Make-Up and Costume Videos!

In case you didn't already know, FatChance has made their Volume 2 Make-up and Costume video available online.  It's a one-hour video which is partly educational and partly a fab trip in the wayback machine.  My VHS tape (and any VHS player ;) is long gone, so it's fun to see it available streaming online.

http://www.fcbd.com/videos/makeup_costume.shtml

While some of the conventions have evolved in the almost two decades since this video was created (1994!!), it has some great information on what stage worthy make-up entails and the evolution of the ATS costume.  And if you are a lover of turbans as I am, a walk-through of turban-tying and decorating is included in the video.  Enjoy!

Fabulous Tribal Styling for Super Short Hair

Anyone in the bellydance world can attest that tribal style hair is an exercise in excess!  It's about bringing together a variety of elements, laying them one atop another until you reach the perfect balance of glamtastic (yes, that's a word) details.  It is a common misconception that one needs lengthy locks to set the foundation for such grandiose beauty--how else will it all stay in place?  Deep Roots Dance is here to bust that myth.  As a short-haired gal myself, I preach from the mountaintops that even short-haired dancers can enjoy glamarrific (also a word) tribal hair, and here's the proof.

In this video, student troupe member Arya Pretlow walks us through her process of styling her hair for an ATS / tribal bellydance performance.  And get this, her hair is even shorter than mine--pixie cut no less!  Watch as she takes us through each step, showing you that with just a little practice and patience, you too can learn to have fabulous, stage-worthy tribal bellydance hair.



YouTube description: A bellydance hair tutorial from Deep Roots Dance, appropriate for ATS hair and tribal or tribal fusion hair. Student Arya Pretlow walks us through her routine for styling her pixie-cut hair for fabulous tribal fusion bellydance performances! Shay videos and interjects a few personal suggestions as well. Note that unedited, this video was only 19 minutes (not too shabby for amazing hair, right?!). We simply had to cut it down to under 15 to fit the YouTube format; so apologies for any abrupt cuts, but really only a few minutes more was all it took to complete this look. You can do it, too!!

(PS Oops, Typo alert! An extra "t" found its way into "occipital shelf". We'll just pretend it stands for "TERRIFIC!")

For more ATS / tribal bellydance tutorials, and articles, as well as class and workshop information, visit http://www.deeprootsdance.com

(PPS Audio was a little odd since we did this in a bathroom. Hope you all can follow along! If you have any questions, get in touch.)

Tribal Crafternoon Workshops in December!

Tribal Crafternoon with Deep Roots Dance

Join us for Tribal Crafternoon--a series of workshops where we give our hips a break and work with our hands.

We're holding two afternoon workshops in December covering some fun, crafty projects to give a boost to your tribal dance wardrobe.  Enjoy an afternoon of hands-on creativity with us!  Only $25 per workshop, or $45 for both.

If you are like me and like to give gifts of experiences for the holidays, this is a great opportunity to treat a bellydancer in your life to some fun workshops they are sure to love.

Tribal Bellydance Belt-Making
December 10, 2011
11am-1pm
Phinney Neighborhood Center, Room 1

Join us to learn how to make a fitted tribal bellydance belt, including simple custom-fit patterning to both sewing and no-sew options for creation and embellishment, as well as a brief tutorial on tassel-making.  We will also look at some other hip wrap and sash-making techniques, and discuss creative layering for the stage.  By popular demand, we will revisit the creative skirt-tucking techniques we discussed at this summer's costuming workshop, and explore ways to use multiple skirts and lengths of fabric to add more lush layers of color and texture to your look.

Everyone will walk away with a custom-fit pattern to take home and make their own belt with, and a handout which outlines recommended materials and techniques we have covered for later reference.

Hair Gardens - Flower-Making & Headdresses
December 17, 2011
11am-1pm
Phinney Neighborhood Center, Room 1

Learn how to create incredible hair flowers and headbands with your own two hands!  This workshop will introduce techniques for creating unique and beautiful hair embellishments using silk flowers, glue, glitter, and found objects.  Some complimentary materials will be provided, as well as some more lavish and hard-to-find options for sale. There will be some brief demonstrations on how to mix and match various elements for greatest effect on stage (hint: in tribal, less is not necessarily more!). And best of all, at the end you will get to take your gorgeous, blingy creations home with you! Some snacks and soda will be provided, but feel free bring any other snacks you would like to share while we to sit together crafting and chatting.

Full materials lists, details, and registration at http://www.deeprootsdance.com/p/workshops.html

Orientalist Art - bellydance costume inspiration

A lot of inspiration can be gleaned from looking at Orientalist paintings. While we know that these images were to a large degree a Western fantasy version of the culture, they can provide a lot of ideas about how to combine color and texture for powerful effects. Look at the color combinations, look at their jewelry--in short, look to the details!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Dread Falls from Acrylic Yarn

Like the author, I too am not a fan of falls that look like hanks of yarn. That's why I always liked the Colinette .5, because from a distance, it looked more like dreads. But how about making some falls from some other acrylic homespun, to the length, thickness, and variation you like? Here is a great tutorial on just that!

http://randomsome1.insanejournal.com/35637.html#cutid1

Stretching your ears: my experience and brief tutorial

As many of my Twitter followers know, last year I decided to start stretching my ears to accept larger gauge jewelry. I did this for two reasons. The most obvious reason to many is the fabulous ethnic jewelry we tribal bellydancers love to indulge in. Large gauge hoops, wood and bone plugs, the works. I of course adored these aesthetics and wanted them for myself. But even before that I had considered stretching to accept simple tunnels for a reason not everyone would know about.

My mother was a lover of chunky gold jewelry in the 80's. She was always wearing some large, heavy earrings of some ilk every day. And as the years wore on, it took its toll on her lobes. The hole continued to stretch, looking somewhat like a cheese-cutting wire slicing downward due to weight and gravity. Finally, several years back, one of her earlobes split, and she had to get surgery to repair it. It was at that moment I started taking a closer look at stretching, because now I, too, wear some pretty heavy jewelry regularly (not every day, but frequently). My ears would often ache after performances from the weight of the jewelry, or even the simple act of wearing a slightly thicker wire than my regular fashion jewelry earrings. And finally, there was the mixed metals and materials these items were made from--some of which when worn in necklaces can cause dancers to suffer rashes or greening or blackening of the skin. I already have a mild silver reaction sometimes with earrings and nose rings, to boot. Putting these metals into the enclosed channel of my ear piercing was surely asking for continued issues down the road. So I was inspired to work toward wearing some smaller tunnels, to reinforce my lobes against the "cheese-cutter-syndrome", as I now call it, and to keep the mysterious metals from direct contact with my skin.

Costuming for tribal dancers

This summer my students performed in a neighborhood parade, and some newer students had to invest in their first dance costuming to participate. One student asked some great questions, and I wanted to share my thoughts with her, with you!

Q. "How do you manage the colors and patterns and stuff? Do you go for the same color, or complimentary colors? How do you keep things looking put together and elegant and fun instead of looking busy and tacky? I mean, I don't want to buy a nice hip scarf only to find down the road that it clashes with everything!"