Belly Dancing to Non-traditional music

I never would have thought to belly dance to this song but it's wonderful.

Interview with a dancer

I would have loved to look so exotic as this lady.

Some more dance technique

Little belly dancing tidbits. http://www.thegypsykiss.com/howtobellydancefreeclips.html

Belly Dance Shops on Etsy

Hard to fit? Need a custom item? Need cowry hair falls? Bloomers? Harem Pants? Skirts? There are many artists and costumers on Etsy that cater to us. Here are but a few.
AISHAX

Akaisilks

ThreePaintedPeacocks

Shivati

Ants in your pants belly dance

ZelH

AmyOlson

These ought to keep us busy for a while.

Belly Dance Students

One of my belly dance students moved back east a few years ago and I hadn't heard from her for a long time. Then she emailed me about a month ago and said she wanted to become a belly dance teacher. Then a week ago she emailed me to say she had her first student and was just thrilled.

So the legacy continues.

Pussy Cat Dolls on Ellen today

My friend just called me and gave me a heads up that the Pussy Cat Dolls (PCD) will be on Ellen in an hour. So I looked it up on her webpage, and sure enough he was right and Carmen Electra will be on there as well. I was just watching videos from both the PCD and Carmen Electra on Youtube this morning, so what perfect timing. Ellen is on at 4 PM in my area on channel 4 (Southern CA). Can't wait. My friend already watched the show from where he lives in TX. So I have an hour to play online and then I'll try to get it if my TV will cooperate. I'm not having great luck with the direct TV convertor box.

The Importance of Ballet

Of all the dance forms I've ever studied, I must say none made me feel fitter, stronger and more flexible than ballet. The only reason I gave it up is because it's very hard on the joints. Leaps are a big part of ballet and landing takes it's tole over the years.

But I still recommend all belly dancers take at least basic ballet classes. It will improve your posture, your lines, your core strength and your flexibility.

Photos are of the Anaheim Ballet Nutcracker 2007.

Holiday Dancing

I think it is ever so useful to plan ahead for holiday costuming needs, especially if you do parades or belly grams. And I've found the most useful color of all is red.
Because red works for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and the 4th of July. One of my favorite costuming sites for things like striped stockings or Santa hats is 3wishes. I love their candy cane striped stockings. Make sure you order or make holiday costuming early. You don't want your green veil stuck in customs the day of your big party. Here are some holiday colors you might want to collect.

1. Christmas: red and green or blue and silver

2. Valentine's Day: Red and white

3. Halloween: Orange and black

4. Fourth of July: Red, white, and blue

5. St. Patrick's Day: Green

6. Mardi Gras: Green, purple and gold

7. New Year's Eve: Jewel tones

8. Earth Day: Green and brown

As far as bras and hipbands go, aim for a gold set and a silver set.
If money is no object, it's also nice to have copper or bronze too.

If I Fell In Love

Being Your Own Best Friend

To dance well you need to keep your confidence up. So when you get those catty remarks we all get, you have to give yourself a pep talk. You have to tell yourself how beautiful you are, how many hours you've devoted to your art, all the time you've put into costuming, how you know so many more steps than you used to know, and so on. Hopefully you have a friend or two that can be there for you as well. But sometimes friends can be too brutally honest, so choose wisely. Sometimes you just have to look in the mirror and tell yourself what beautiful eyes you have or how kissable your lips are or how great your neck looks. I know it's hard, but you have to believe in yourself or you'll never get anywhere. So give yourself a hug. You deserve it.

Sleep Deprived?

Dancers are typically very busy people. They usually have a job and kids just like a lot of other women, only they are also squeezing in dance classes, costume fittings, photo sessions and performances. That can make for a person that's pretty ragged around the edges at the end of the day.

Therefore, getting enough sleep and rest is critical to good health. Not to mention a good diet, vitamins and suppliments and times of relaxation. When we sleep our body is working to heal itself. And all too many dancers are on the road a lot and eat a lot of fast food. So listen to your body and see if it's telling you to rest, eat fresh foods, or slow down a little.

I know a lot of dancers smoke too. That's like shooting yourself in the foot. Your body is your instrument. Take care of it or you'll be sidelined.

Learn to play Doumbek

The more you understand drumming rhythms, the better you will dance. I can't believe I never thought to look up doumbek tutorials on the internet before. This would have really changed my life back in the 70's. Not to mention the commute to Morro Bay and the cost of drumming lessons.

Steampunk Belly Dance

This steampunk band with belly dancers is growing on me. They are called Abney Park

Steampunk Neovictorian belly dancing

Belly Dancing Groups on Tribe Net

I run a few belly dancing groups over on Tribe.net. I was surprised to see both how many hits this blog gets as well as all the people that are in the groups on Tribe.net. Gone are the days when I could blog for days without a single person reading it. I'm glad to see so many readers and participants. I am going to write more now that I know I'm not just talking to myself. If you are a member of Tribe.net my user name over there is Fayme. Look me up and find my groups if you want to see more.

Belly Dance and Steampunk

It was only a matter of time before belly dancing and steampunk (neovictorian) melded into each other. Yesterday I watched about 17 steampunk belly dancing videos on http://www.thegypsykiss.com.. They were all gathered off of youtube, so you could just go to youtube and type in appropriate tags. I could also see the burlesque and vaudeville influence. The music is very different. I don't even know where one finds music like that.

When you've been belly dancing as long as I have its refreshing to see something new and different. And the costuming looks like a lot of fun.

I just signed up for Tagfoot. http://ping.fm/lfV6m Come see all my links and comments and my wishlist.

Want to join ping.fm too? Go to http://www.ping.fm.Use the code 'legendofping' and you could have the luxury of posting to all your blogs in one fell swoop like I do. Way more efficient than doing it one by one.

I'm not sure what 'ping my default' means but I guess I'll find out when I hit send.

The week sure went by quick. I had a lot more planned but didn't have the energy to do it. My hands are still sore from woodcarving, and so I've had to lay off the knitting and crocheting. I'm looking forward to the weekend. My daughter may visit. We'll see.

Come view my Flickr photo stream. Over 3000 photos I've taken are waiting there for your pleasure. http://ping.fm/3TTAi

I just signed up for Ping.fm to make social networking more effiecient.

Do you Twitter

Follow me. http://twitter.com/raksgothique

The angel

There are no words....

Morgana

Awesome. Spellbinding.

Addicted to Dance

Last night on So You Think You Can Dance, one of the judges said that dance was her addiction of choice. Then today it hit me. That's what's been missing from my life. Over the last five years I've gradually lost my addiction to dance. Partly from aging, partly from health problems and most definitely from lack of space problems. Can I get it back? Is it dead forever or just buried under too much baggage?

Making a choli

It occurred to me that a choli is basically a cropped t-shirt cut up the back & laced together again or fastened with ties. Visualizing it makes sewing easier. I might even be able to use a t-shirt that fits me as a pattern.

Raks Gothica

And now for something different:

See some belly dancing videos.

I write articles on belly dancing sometimes. They are posted over here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Favorite_Belly_Dance_Videos on Hubpages.com.

2 Panel Skirt Tutorial

How to make an inexpensive skirt that will fit you and can be embellished in many ways.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Tutorial-Super-Simple-Belly-Dance-Skirt-Fits-Any-Size

Unmata

I was looking at belly dancing photos on Flickr and found a group with very cool costumes so I looked them up on youtube. I loved the Unmata videos I found on youtube yesterday. So I added them to my Slide Show. I hope I get to see them live sometime.

Panel Skirt

I have some lacy aqua fabric that is going to make a great 2 panel skirt. It reminds me of mermaid seaweed. I should take a photo of it and show you guys.

Dance wherever you can.

Too hot for a daily walk, but if I turn on the air conditioner, I may bellydance in my living room for a bit. Stretching too. Stretching first and after. Having a good time watching Unmata videos on youtube. Fascinating troupe. Would love to see them live some day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9LeOz_3Z4Y&NR=1

Make a Gypsy Skirt

Make a Gypsy Skirt

I'm not sure I posted this before, but it's an article I wrote on making your own tiered gypsy style dancing skirt.

Genie Hat Prototype

I made this cool little genie hat today for a social experiment, and now I'm thinking of making more for my etsy shop. Even two layers of buckram were a little too floppy, so on the next one I will make the interior from plastic canvas to help it hold it's shape better.

The veil is fastened to the pony tail holder. I tried fastening it directly to the ring, but the veil was too heavy and kept pulling it off. A chiffon veil might not have that issue, since it's the sequins that are heavy. It is held on with two hat pins, one on each side.The metal part is a vintage earring.

This is a lot of fun to wear too.

Dance when no one is looking

Tired of ironing your veil?

There was a belly dancing troupe that had those beautiful lame' veils. You know the fancy ones that catch the light but also wrinkle every time you set them down?
After constantly trying to iron out the wrinkles before every show they figured something out. If they took the veil and scrunched it all up each time, they got these lovely crinkles that looked really good under the stage lights, and no more ironing! I thought it was a stroke of genius.