Thread: Seeking more dancers for www.bellydanceplus.com photo galleries!

I have two more beautiful dancers (both of them fellow bhuzzers!) with whom I am discussing featuring in photo galleries on Bellydance for Plus-Sized Women. And now I'm starting to look ahead to whom I may want to recruit next once I get theirs online!

Right now, my Bellydance Plus! photo galleries at Photo Galleries of BBW Bellydancers are dominated by beads and sequins. So, for balance, I'm looking for plus-sized dancers with high-quality pictures of themselves that represent other styles of belly dance.

In particular:

1. Folkloric dance styles. Do we have any plus-sized dancers out there with debke costumes, Turkish folkloric costumes, Moroccan schikhatt costumes, Tunisian melias, Egyptian folkloric, or other folkloric looks from the Middle East and North Africa? Right now, Leyla Lanty is the only dancer I've got with some folkloric pictures, and I'd like to add more.
2. Affordable options for tribal style. In other words, I'm looking for great photos of a dancer whose wardrobe includes things that would be worn by a student for recitals or by a dancer who doesn't care to seek professional work but likes to dance at "community" events such as county fairs, haflas, city festivals, etc. This gallery would sort of be the tribal equivalent to the existing gallery that I have featuring M'shisha al-Fo'awi and her sparklies. The specific flavor of tribal could be either ATS, ITS, tribal fusion, the vintage Bal Anat look (such as Hahbi Ru), Ghawazee coats, or some of each. Note that I want to keep this focused on belly dance, though. Ie, no mini skirts, short-shorts, burlesque, etc. Corsets might or might not be okay, depending on what the rest of the ensemble looks like. Melodia pants are fine. I reserve the right to decide whether a given costume looks like "belly dance" or not.
3. PROFESSIONAL level of tribal-style costuming. In other words, #2 above is meant to inspire newcomers to belly dance who want to assemble something inexpensive for recitals and such, while #3 is meant to show those newcomers some of the more elaborate looks they could aspire to someday. For example, someone replying to #2 might not have a big jewelry wardrobe, while someone responding to #3 would have a bunch. Same guidelines as #2 with respect to style - any of the tribal flavors is fine as long as I can recognize it as looking like belly dance, and I reserve the right to say that a given costume is not belly dance.

Criteria for photos:

• Plus-sized dancers only, please.
• Must be able to get agreement from the photographer to let you use it on a public web site. Of course, I'll include a photo credit.
• Needs to be a photo that YOU think is flattering of yourself.
• Prefer pictures of individuals rather than troupes. I'm willing to include a couple of troupe shots in a gallery, but I'm focusing on pictures of individuals because those allow a more close-up view of the costume when I size them for web viewing.
• Need attractive backgrounds, vibrant color, and excellent lighting. Must not be blurry.
• For a given costume, need to include at least one full-length shot that cleanly shows the body as a whole (I'll consider an upper-body-only shot if there is ALSO a full-body shot, but the point of this gallery is to show costuming ideas, so full-body shots are my priority.
• It needs to make it easy to see the costume (ie, enough light on your body to see the costume itself, nobody standing in front of you blocking the view, etc.)
• Will consider anywhere from 1-4 photos of each costume, showing it from different angles, poses, and lighting.
• Needs to fit the criteria in my 3 styles I'm looking for above. I'm willing to consider additional galleries of dancers in beads and sequins for the future, but they're a lower priority right now.

To apply for being one of my models, send me a private message with a link to ONE OR TWO specific photos somewhere on the net (for example, in the bhuz photos area) that you think of as your best. Think of these one or two photos as your "audition" - if I don't think they meet the above criteria, I won't want to spend time looking at more. If I like them enough to see you as a candidate, I'll follow up with you to find out what else you've got and to let you know next steps.

I don't fit your criteria for costuming, Shira, but I very much applaud you for this! As a plus size myself, it's wonderful to see WELL-DRESSED dancers with figures similar to mine!

What is your definition of "plus sized"? Are we talking me, or am I not big enough? I don't have to shop in plus-sized ranges, I wear "normal" clothing, but I am far from skinny.

What a great Idea!!! My sister-in -law is a plus size (goddess size) dancer and she really struggles with costuming. I will point her to this website when its done :to help her with ideas

Originally Posted by monsoondancer

What a great Idea!!! My sister-in -law is a plus size (goddess size) dancer and she really struggles with costuming. I will point her to this website when its done :to help her with ideas

Monsoon, you can go ahead and point her to it now if you like - I consider it as "done" as one of my web sites can ever be. The day I quit adding to it will be the day hell freezes over! Although I do plan to add more photo galleries, it already has several, along with links to costuming resources, a bunch of costuming ideas, and articles.

Too bad I just had my professional photos done in my bedlah! I'll see what I can do for one of your tribal or folkloric categories :-)

What a great idea! I'm happy to see a site of volumptous women.