Belly Dancing! Performing at the Maryland Belly Dance Convention 2016

Ali Mah Moongoddess Belly Dance Troupe (that's me, Deb, second from the left in the gold skirt)

I've semi-recently become passionate about belly dance and am in love with the belly dance community. The group of people who make up the majority of belly dancers are amazing; artistic, eclectic, passionate, caring, giving, loving, sharing... honestly, just really great people and I'm so happy to have finally "discovered" belly dancing and become a part of it. These are my people! ;)

These are videos of my very first performance with the Ali Mah Moongoddess Troupe. We danced at this years Maryland Belly Dance Convention and it was a blast. Troupe members are: Myself (duh), Amy Abrams, Dory Krause, Wendy, and Tracey. Also in the troupe but didn't dance this time are Terry Hoffman and Colleen Zuntag. "Thanks for being so awesome, ladies!"

We danced to 3 different songs: Ripples in Time, Patsheeva, and Chanson d'Amour - tell me which is your favorite! Mine is Ripples in Time, the longer one where we dance a bit with and a bit without our veils. :) --I'm second from the right in the videos; gold skirt and yellow flower!

We had professional photos taken, I'll post them when we get them from the photographer! I'm so excited to see how they came out. :D

Ripples in Time

Patsheeva

Chanson d'Amour

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Exploring Fabric Dyeing : Current Obsession

Spurred by my recent foray into henna, and my fairly recent obsession with belly dancing (which I haven't posted about yet but will soon) I decided that I wanted to dye my own belly dance veil and enhance it with mehndi designs. ...so, buy a silk veil, buy some dye, draw on fabric, easy, no?

Not really :/ Of course I suppose it could be easy, if I could actually just grab some Rit dye and a fabric marker, order a white silk veil and go for it. But that's just not my style. I must do things the "right" (and usually harder) way and by that I mean using professional supplies and tools. For fabric dyeing it's the dyes; professional dyes make for better color and last way longer, but also require more steps. This, in turn, leads to tons of research and image surfing different styles of dyeing, etc. Super inspiring and super intimidating at the same time... well, not so much intimidating, but overwhelming.

There is a LOT that goes into dyeing and there are so many awesome styles of dyeing to be done, each requiring specific supplies and skills. There are different dyes for silk or cotton or synthetics, different additives for each, different techniques for setting (or making permanent) the dyed fabrics. Plus tons of different styles of dying; tub dyeing, tie dyeing, shibori, scrunch dyeing, low water immersion dyeing, dye painting, on and on... For decorating you can use a batik technique, color removal technique, screen printing, sun painting, brush or pen painting... yup, never ending. I do love the research part of a new obsession, but it can be exhausting and confusing. I literally lay awake at night trying to envision what I want to do (what I like best), how it's going to work, the steps needed, etc. to the point that I, to myself, say: "just freaking order stuff and do it already!"

That's happening today! ...now, what colors do I want? ;)

Here are some veils that I love...

Gorgeous colors and cute floral accents. By SilkenVoice on Etsy

Breathtaking color combo and I love the splash/sparkle/tie dye technique. By SelkieB on Etsy

I love these colors together and the tie dye/Shibori technique. By Celia Etcetera on Etsy

Colors are a little bright for me, but I love the salt texture technique & gold border. By SilkenVoice on Etsy

Wish me luck. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

-xo deb.

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