Thread: Have you ever benn asked to cover up?

That was actually a burley dancer in a news who was asked to cover up for Eurovision show: BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Eurovision Song Contest

Have you ever been asked to cover ? What part of your body (belly, legs, or eve face) ?

No, but while you're on Bhuz can you check your messages? I sent one one about dancers in Japan a while back.

I can understand that - it was Dita Von Teese and it was a family oriented show.

I've been asked to cover belly before for more conservative clients. That's easy enough with a belly cover or one piece.
I've occasionally been asked to cover shoulders, but belly was OK.
When I do school events I always wear pants under my skirts. I figure I'm either on stage OR they're sitting on the floor. I'd rather not flash children- even if it would just be costume panties. They never ASK- but that's just what I do automatically in those situations.

Never. In fact I've offered to be more covered depending on the nature of the gig, and people have expressed surprise that I would even think of it.

ETA: Wait, there was one time when a group I was in was asked specifically to wear belly-covering costumes and perform saidi as representatives of the local Coptic Egyptian community. They'd already seen us in tunics and repeated that was what they wanted. Folklore, NOT belly dance.

They were lovely.

Certainly! I've danced at a few conservative weddings & parties, a few corporate gigs and many cultural events where it was far more appropriate to dance in a beledi dress than to dance in bra and belt...quite often I offer to wear more coverage when it's a daytime event or a place where I sense the crowd may tense from seeing too much flesh.

yes, for lslamic and east indian clients.

Yes, for a grade school, and for an outdoor church festival...no problem. I have costumes just for such a request.

Just this year, I was invited back (with my troupe) to a preschool where we danced last year & previously. The organizer came back in shock and said there had been parental complaints. We were dressed very conservatively last year. So, working with the organizer, we rewrote the proposal as 'folkdancers' and did raks assaya and a debke. basically the same thing we did last year minus the zill number & decked out in dresses instead of circle skirts & cholis with body stocking, but it was the WORDING that apparently did it.

When I worked in NYC I weighed about 180. One club asked me to wear dresses and not show my tummy cause it moves too much. It kind of hurt my confidence but hey, everyone still hired me so at lease they liked my dancing.

I was dancing at an Indian restaurant earlier this year and the owner was really nervous about having a dancer. There had been another restaurant that had a dancer (not me) that had gone out of business a few months before and there was a lot of talk in the restaurant community that the dancer's sexual nature and risque costumes contributed to their demise in a big way. So it was understandable that he was really nervous. Made sure that I wore a very conservative costume that was indian inspired, but belly was still out. I get there and there is this huge table of church people that stopped by for dinner after services. They seemed pretty uptight during my first set which was giving the owner a total coronary. He came over to me when I finished dancing and I could tell that he was about to lose it cause he didn't know what to do...didn't want to offend me by telling me to cover up, but was afraid I was upsetting the customers. So we compromised and I finished the evening draped in one of my beautiful embroidered sarongs...which actually gave me even more of an indian look. Made for some interesting dancing, but the look was actually nice.

Funniest part about it: the church people thought I was awesome. I was shocked cause I was right there with the owner...I really thought that they were uncomfortable with my presence. In fact, I had been breezing by their table all evening because they seemed to get upset whenever I got close. And wouldn't you know that when they were leaving the matriarch of the table came and found me and told me how much they had truly enjoyed my performances and gave me the biggest tip of the night. Whodathunkit?

I've never been asked to cover up.

But why was Dita Von Teese invited to a family show anyway? That's like inviting a vegetarian to a meat-only bbq...kind of.

I've been asked to wear fully covering lose fitting non-seethrough costuming quite often.

Originally Posted by Gia al Qamar

Certainly! I've danced at a few conservative weddings & parties, a few corporate gigs and many cultural events where it was far more appropriate to dance in a beledi dress than to dance in bra and belt...quite often I offer to wear more coverage when it's a daytime event or a place where I sense the crowd may tense from seeing too much flesh.

ditto.

I'm always sure to keep at least one full lycra gown and a folkloric dress in my closet for such occasions.

Originally Posted by Sariah

I've never been asked to cover up.

But why was Dita Von Teese invited to a family show anyway? That's like inviting a vegetarian to a meat-only bbq...kind of.

probably more like inviting a hard core carnivore to a vegetarian party. lol!

I had a restaurant where I could show my stomach, but no legs or cleavage and either my arms or shoulders had to be covered. It was hard to do on a regular basis. Frequently I wore and LRose top with a Cost Less belt.

He he, I recently danced for an all-female Islamic women's engagement party. Not even any male children allowed. 90% of the room were in hijab, including the bride....and they specifically asked me to 'dress sexy'! I sure was surprised. It was a great, fun gig!

????? they were all women and still veiled?????
why????

with the sexy clothes that IS funny, religiously (although I find it likeable), because women amonst women can show everything from the knees and elbows down plus neck, face, hair. Standard interpretation. The sexy costume for sure shows more!
And why, if they are taking this liberally, were they in hijab???
Someone knows??? Puzzled.

maybe they were to meet the men just afterwards, with no chance of getting dressed (veiled)?

Originally Posted by dinavienna

????? they were all women and still veiled?????
why????

with the sexy clothes that IS funny, religiously (although I find it likeable), because women amonst women can show everything from the knees and elbows down plus neck, face, hair. Standard interpretation. The sexy costume for sure shows more!
And why, if they are taking this liberally, were they in hijab???
Someone knows??? Puzzled.

I don't think it's an unusual practice for Muslim women to decide to veil all the time. I believe it depends upon their own interpretation of the rules, or their own personal religious feelings (in the same way some Christians believe dancing is sinful while other Christians happily bellydance in public). I don't think there was any intention to see males after this party. The DJ and any other service personnell were all female.

What was also interesting for me was the splendour of the hijab and dresses. Silks, taffeta, floor-length skirts with trains, rouching, beading. Some ladies wore conservative black cloaks, but most of the young chickies were bright, skin-tight and very made up. I suppose if you put that much thought into your veil and costume, you're hardly likely to de-robe and ruin the effect. :)

LOL glamour hijabis!! should have known THAT :)
As much as I want women to lead the life they want - the "veil for being a glamorous Arab princess" is hypocritical. It does NOT suit the purpose, whilst demanding credit from exactly this religious purpose.
There s lots of talk among Arabs, and other Muslims, here in Europe over how these women and girls have totally turned the meaning around. With a Persian friend we talked the other day "hell, they turn US on!!!" The whole wrapped and covered in extra appealing ways rather than showing too much which gets boring thing.

Anyways, they re pretty to look at, and in the end I prefer ladies who are feeling good with themselves over ladies who constantly bring themselves down over rules they feel they have to adhere to. I have a problem with the glamour hijab style only if these women get judgmental on non veiled girls, and question their morals. See above, their effect on men (and even women) often is more provocative and arousing.

To sum up, you re so right, after all that work of looking gorgeous in the most expensive wraps and bling, they're hardly going to ruin it by going "normal" looking :)

Hat-hair is bad enough. I can only imagine what hijab-hair must look like!

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the splendour. I remember looking at the thoroughly veiled-and-wrapped bride and thinking "Ooh, her silver eyeshadow so pretty. I want to do mine like that!"

hmmm I don't think it s necessarily bad! I mean if you haven't bothered to make it BEFORE veiling, then probably yes :)
the underscarf keeps it in place like a hairband. I don't know about others, but my hair normally is very voluminous when I've worn a (normal) hairband for some hours. And well it depends how you wrap the veil. Most styles I know do not press the hair down like a hat or helmet :)))

Oh and yeah those ladies often are made up perfectly! I find their attire gorgeous too, and as I said definitely do not disagree with it.
Only religiously it clearly is as wrong as being unveiled.
As someone who is consciously NOT adhering every rule the clerics set out, but deciding for herself what makes sense and what doesn't from moral point of view, I feel I can pick what I like from religion. Because I am honest and straighforward about it.
Someone who claims to follow the rules to every letter, but still tries to pick things they like and ignore things they dislike - all whilst taking the credit of being perfectly moral women (as opposed to the immoral ones) IMO should choose one side. The freer spirited side, or the stricter side. If they choose the first one, to me thats a good choice. But then there s no room for judging ladies who are also free, maybe in different ways.
I am saying this not to mock the glamour hijabis, I am just trying to give the background to this romantic "princess from 1001 nights" picture non Arabs or non Muslims might have, culturally and religiously.

As I said - I like glamorous women. But not hypocrisy.
It might as well be you've met only women who think it s absolutely fine if women do not veil, or if women are dressed up sexy in mixed crowds. It would be surprising though in a hijabi crowd. If they thought this was fine and acceptable, they'd very likely be doing it themselves :)

I don't know if you re interested in this at all?

i dont mind covering up extra for teaching gigs, for schools etc, i'm not breaking out the bedlahs

but i sort of gotten into the habbit of either declining, of passing on gigs where they dont want to see any bellies, arm, legs, shoulders...

it just makes me think, well, if they dont want to see me perform in the stuff i'm clearly wearing in all of the pictures on my website, maybe they dont really want a bellydancer ;-)

i dont like the implication that when i'm not covered up my shows are not family friendly, because all of my shows, like from all of us, are always family friendly. i feel like they somehow think i'm a striptease act that needs cleaning up. no thanks. rather not do the gig at all.

and when i wear a dress, i want it to be cause the song calls for it, for me, not cause someone thinks that's more decent

Originally Posted by david

I've been asked to wear fully covering lose fitting non-seethrough costuming quite often.

as opposed to skin-tight mesh hot pants?

other than instructors pounding in our heads ("reminding us") to wear a cover-up between performances, i've never been asked to cover up, that I can recall. did get some hard looks at a church festival once but they invited us (our troupe), so i remember thinking that was an odd reaction.

I was asked to cover up once for a Jewish wedding.
We were 2 dancers and they wanted a zeffa, we sent pictures of our cabaret dresses and they were approved by father of the bride.
2 days before the wedding the mother of the bride calls us to ask us to wear even more conservative dresses cause the wedding reception was in the basement of the synagogue. so we show up with folkloric dresses with long sleeves and collar closed all the way to the neck, no cleavage showing as she requested.
well, what do you know 80% of the women guest were showing way more skin than us, and I mean way more.

Thank you everybody for your coverage of the coverage.
There are some interesting inputs (glamour hijab) and points (tummy moving too much), never knew about those!

I've got a related issue - I've been asked (as a teacher/show producer) to have my students cover up, specifically, the heavier ones. Not talking about hijab or modesty issues.
I've had this from audience, peers, and venue owners. So I have done that in some instances, but in others I haven't because I'm just danged tired of broaching this subject to my students. It's definitely a rough subject to bring up either in class, or privately. From time to time I do promote links to the sites that sell tummy covers, unitards, etc. but that's not the same as actually telling someone to get one.
I've been told it's my responsibility as their teacher to not only bring this up, but to have them cover up. So I know some people definitely feel that way, but obviously, if it's something I have to talk to the students about, not everyone does. How do you weigh these viewpoints?

Hmm.. it s kind of sad if show producer force heavier students to cover up, but not slim ones. And I'm referred to as a "toothpick" or "beanpole" since my late teen years.

As a director you re in control that s perfectly understood.
If it s your artistic vision - well your right.
If it s what you think the audience wants - really? I like to see variety. I like to see different body types and how the moves look on them. If I found something I saw not so pretty I could look at someone else. Or try and look past what I feel uncomfortable at first sight..

Well so my concern is picking out some for wearing something extra and others not.. if you want to do it I'd appreciate as a chubbier dancer if you talked to me in private I imagine.. with each one alone I d say. Explain what the reasons are and say it is a requirement, and I think you should not say you are sorry or apologize or anything like that. It would make them feel more bad I think. So in an unapologetic manner present the facts and requirements, in a warm and friendly manner. That is how I d feel comparatively best when presented with such an extra requirement for heavier ones.
I'd personally prefer if everyone wore it though.
Otherwise it s so obvious it s the rounder ones who wear something extra.. that singles them out, really..