Adventures in Belly Dance Costuming
Volume 2: Skirts, Ruffles, and Harem Pants begins with laughs as Stasha shares a story –
a typical Stasha professional belly dance story – from a dancer who not only
“shimmies a mile a minute” but compresses so much generous activity into every
minute of her life. Then, while you are
still laughing with images in your head about “Stasha’s exploits in professional
belly dancing” – she continues on to give you a Harem Hint that leaves you and your costuming smelling
baby fresh. That’s typical Stasha,
she is generous and always shares from her professional experience and you find
that she is a proponent of the “teachable moment” – when she’s got your
attention. This is the format and
Stasha’s process for costume construction teaching through her book series Adventures
in Belly Dance Costuming.
Stasha’s stories and her practical
advice are a perfect foil that engage you and involve you in the costuming
styles, design, and construction without creating a fear of sewing. From While other books on costuming provide
you with lots of pictures of costume styles and pictures of dancers in costumes
– Stasha gets right down to the business of helping you make your own Skirts, Ruffles, and Harem Pants.
O.K., we have all found ourselves
at the fabric store looking at the most perfect material for a skirt wondering
“How much fabric should I buy?” Here’s a helpful manual, for example: Have you
ever found Stasha answers that question and gives you the math to calculate
just how much you’ll need – all without a huge math lesson to boggle your
mind. Then, it’s on to directions for
cutting the fabric and her so very useful Harem Hint for hanging hemming
skirts for an even finished edge.
Remember the math for determining
how much fabric to get? Stasha’s next Harem
Hint will prove invaluable for designing costume accessories. In the next section of Straight Skirts and Variations – she discusses sewing construction
techniques and shares lots of information that you would usually get in an
advanced sewing and tailoring class.
With Stasha’s conversational style of explaining sewing construction,
you get a lesson along with sewing directions in a step-by-step process that is
pain-free learning at its best. As
she continues on with directions for Skirt Variations: double layering,
ruffles, and sarong style – she continues to give you Harem Hints that and
really work and could only come from an active professional performing dancer.
You’ll experience the performance
pain and embarrassment that she felt as Stasha shares yet another “night of
performing where something that can go wrong does” – and in the telling gives
up-and-coming professional dancers the courage to handle whatever comes your
way and continue as “the show must go on”.
But then, as if in telling the story she recalls other professional
dilemmas - she transitions beautifully from that situation – and she gives
another valuable Harem Hint for dealing with the “smoky aftermath of dancing in
nightclubs” – well, its valuable advice for at least those dancers performing
in states that still allow smoking in restaurants and nightclubs.
O.K., next time you find yourself
at a yard sale, resale shop, or flea market…did you know that a beautiful scarf
can become a skirt? A wonderful tutorial
on Panel Skirts, Slat Skirts, Simple
3-yard Skirts, and Hip Hugger Skirts (what’s that?). Hmm, what does Stasha say in her Harem
Hint about table runners? Sometimes beautiful elaborately beaded
out-of-fashion clothing can be recycled into gorgeous Slat Skirts. Stasha gives you the construction details to
pull off this design feat. It’s one of
the features of her Adventures in Belly
Dance Costuming Volume 2 that is particularly valuable.
I love the way Stasha guides you
through complex sewing construction, e.g. “French flat-felled seams”. Just the mention of a sewing technique with a
foreign term can intimidate a beginner seamstress – but Stasha to the rescue –
not to worry her explanations are simple and straightforward. You just follow along, and she tells you how
to, what to do, and why. With her
costuming books you really have Stasha as a “guide on the side” as you find
yourself tackling great sewing moments that turn out gorgeous costumes made by
you.
Another Stasha Story you’ll love to
read about – told in a “you were there with me during every step of the dance” – relates her damage
control actions in a performance with a multi-layered skirt that went
awry. Her story has a humorous ending
that although shatters the magical illusion
of the moment – does get you thinking
about costume hooks and where should they be located. That’s the focus of Stasha’s writing style –
she shares her own experiences, poses typical costuming design questions, and
then gives you practical approaches, formulas, and hands-on sewing advice.
Love Stasha’s Magic Formula for
Ruffles (as in do the math) to determine how much fabric you need for
Ruffles. Stasha’s detailed instructions
have you measuring, folding, and cutting to create beautiful ruffles by the
yard – so much better than the guesstimate
by golly and using the sewing machine ruffler foot and running out of fabric. You’ll come to love the math – Stasha’s
formulas for determining how much fabric you will need are “spot on”. I love that she challenges you with questions
so you will “do the math” and be armed
and dangerous with your fabric calculations when you enter the fabric
store. No more intimidating fabric store
clerks – you know exactly how much you will need for your costuming
project. I love that Stasha’s Ruffle Harem
Hint discusses what to do if the fabric has a limp hand.
Harem pants may seem simple to sew
until you consider differences in materials, styling, and design considerations
for dancing. Poufy styling or not,
Stasha’s construction directions for Harem
Pants will have you sewing lots of harem pants because of her easy
directions. Stasha takes great care to
help you learn to align the harem pants pattern with the grain of the fabric so
the harem pants will have the proper fall
and fit to keep you dancing happily.
Stasha’s harem pants section provides lots of information on the many
harem pants styles that exist and are possible.
Entertaining to the end in her
indominatable style, Stasha ends Adventures in Belly Dance Costuming Volume 2:
Skirts, Ruffles, and Harem Pants Volume 2 with a “the night of the belly dance” party – a story I know will have you in stitches too.
For every dancer who wants to make
their own costume, and also to dancers who need to adapt a troupe costume
pattern, I highly recommend this helpful series of Adventures in Belly Dance
Costuming. Here is a series of
books that every teacher will want to have in their personal resource library
to provide students with a “no fear, but fun” approach to costume
construction. You can talk with Stasha’s
genie and order the costuming books from www.stashamania.com.
Next in the series is: Belly Dance
Costuming Volume 3: Accessories and Simple Kaftans. Contact her at stasha@stashamania.com to let her know
what costuming creations you have designed, and tell her you want to be
notified when this next manual is available.
Stasha’s Biography: A
captivating performer, educator and author, Stasha has been joyfully dancing
and teaching with more than thirty-five years experience in Middle Eastern
Dance. From Folkloric to Modern Cabaret styling, as a solo performer or
in a top notch dance team, estimated shows performed since 1975 exceed
fourteen thousand: across America, in Europe, North Africa and the Middle
East. Stasha has been a featured performer at San Francisco’s El Mansour
Moroccan Restaurant for the last 21 years. She’s even shimmied on the
silver screen!
With a background in
Cultural Anthropology, Stasha calls her style Shamanic: that which invites and
invokes the space for the oneness of community. As well as performing and
teaching dance, Stasha offers educational outreach programs - to classrooms,
schools, community groups and at trans-personal retreats - on the importance of
this dance in Middle Eastern society, how it fosters community and how it
disperses tribally.
"Adventures in
Belly Dance Costuming" are Stasha’s comprehensive manuals of Middle
Eastern costuming. From basics to specifics, she simply and clearly explains
(and demonstrates in the lecture series) how you can create "perfect
fit" costuming that is beautiful, comfortable, durable, adjustable and
reflective of your own artistic expression. These costume manuals are sold
through her web site. Visit her on the web at www.stashamania.com where
you can order her manuals - and talk with her genie.
