Thread: Do you wear glasses when performing?

I wear glasses, but I'm not so blind that I can't see where I'm going without them. My teacher says it'd make a prettier picture to not have glasses on while performing, but I feel so weird looking without them! What do you ladies do? Glasses on or glasses off?

Glasses off, contacts in. I find that glasses can limit my expression when I dance.

Glasses off, unless you are Al Hassan.

I say glasses of when performing, but ok when in class/practising. I think they may be distracting to your audience. You will get used to the look of them off.

If you don't wear contacts in everyday life, then wear your glasses.
I am a dancer who wears glasses on stage and the reason I say that is because I don’t wear contacts at all, and therefore they are not a part of me.
I absolutely hate going on stage without being able to see the faces of the audience. It makes it too hard to play with the audience, adjust to what the audience needs, etc. (Besides if something happens to your costume that you can't feel, the audience will tell you about it with their expressions. ,r:;)
When I'm performing, I am performing. The way I interpret the music is part of who I am and what I am sharing with the audience. My glasses are also part of who I am and therefore that's also what I'm sharing with the world.
I had performed too many times without being able to see on a raised stage with lighting etc. and it made me very ill. It was also very hard for me to start wearing glasses while performing because I didn't know of anybody that also performed with glasses.

Really, wear your glasses. Instead of receiving comments that are negative towards my glasses the comments were about how nice it was to see someone who accepts themselves openly.

If you’re worried about whether or not your audience can see your expressions, here is a video of me performing. I can see my expressions just fine.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsA994Z6tRg"]YouTube - Rinda and NeverWinter[/ame]

Press HQ too watch it in higher quality. (You will need to go to the original page.)

You look lovely DarkestDesert. I wear contacts onstage because I have very thick lenses and lean towards dark "hipster" frames. It is definitely harder to see my expression in glasses.

For me, putting on my contacts for performing is just like putting on my costume and make-up.

Without contacts or glasses, I wouldn't be able to see a thing.

Lovely dance, Rinda, and your glasses are hardly noticeable.

I guess if you are dancing primarily at haflas, glasses are fine. I can say with some certainty that if you are looking for paying gigs that most people would expect not to see glasses.

depends on when / where you are dancing. pro/non-pro?
i wear my glasses to teach and occasionally at casual, un-costumed events. but never, ever on stage at work with a full costume.
1: they would fly off my face during turns
2: they don't go with my costumes ;)
there is a local tribal dancer who always dances in cute cat eye glasses with rhinestone corners and she makes it work with her look.

yes, its a societal prejudice but as thtx said, the audience will not expect glasses and if you want to be a pro, there is some necessary level of conformity required *ducks the flames*

BTW, I wear glasses and contacts, and I'd never dance in my glasses. They are literally coke-bottle thick and distort my face, so it's not even a remote option for me.

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

BTW, I wear glasses and contacts, and I'd never dance in my glasses. They are literally coke-bottle thick and distort my face, so it's not even a remote option for me.

Ditto!

same here! I've worn glasses for student performances, but when I went pro I decided that I needed contacts. I started off with one day lenses, switched to everyday lenses a couple of years ago.

I wear glasses in real life, I don't have the luxury of correcting well with contacts, and at my age, laser surgery would only buy me a good correction for half of my vision problems (and I don't want to split my prescription across two eyeballs). I don't represent myself as anything other than what I am, and I don't perform at venues where people are disappointed because they were expecting a world-class dancer and got me instead. I'm not selling an orientalist fantasy of what a dancer looks like.

When I first started performing, I took a lot of grief about wearing glasses from people who shouldn't have been dishing it out. If you want to take a hard-line stance with playing "The Public Doesn't Expect," then let's not stop with wearing eyeglasses. We can thin out the show roster by removing all of these dancers, too, since the public doesn't "expect" them either: overweight dancers; ugly dancers; dancers who look more than 30 years old; dancers who don't look Middle Eastern in ethnicity; dancers with large, visible tattoos; goth, steampunk, and tribal fusion dancers; klutzy dancers; and so on...

Seriously, if you want to be a pro, and you want to work at the highest level, then you are going to have to be an amazing performer to overcome the resistance to wearing glasses, but the same could be said for anybody who doesn't conform to the ethereal harem-girl stereotype for any other reason. OTOH, if you want to see this as a living, folkloric tradition, a "people's dance," then, yes, people do it wearing glasses, and I dare say there are some women dancing in the Middle East right now wearing glasses who could put 75% of the non-glasses-wearing dance community to shame.

I think DarkestDesert's video is a good example of why this is a non-issue. I didn't think her glasses were distracting at all. She had a lot of energy and personality on stage--which, IMHO, is preferable to a blah dancer with no vision correction. The only thing I didn't like was that the costume, the floor, and the curtain were a little too similar in color.

I do still occasionally come across people who balk about my wearing glasses, but I've noticed it tends to be from other dancers who wear glasses and feel like if they can dance "blind," then I ought to be able to do so, too. Just because your teacher pressured you into giving up your eyeglasses, why does that affect me? I'm not making the choice to wear glasses because I don't know any better. It is a physical limitation I have to accommodate. I certainly don't choose to be legally blind without my glasses!

If you can't wear contacts or function without glasses, wear glasses!! Your safety is more important than what the audience thinks of glasses. (MC Hammer was my childhood hero for sporting his glasses in music videos).

When I was younger, I did competative jazz dance. I didn't have contacts at that point and had to wear krokies to keep glasses on my face during practice. I literally have not gone a day without wearing vision correction since I was 2 years old. My vision is that bad.

My dance teacher made me take my glasses off when competing until one time when I almost slid off the stage when doing a knee slide because I couldn't see the edge of the stage. I didn't fall, but teetered at the edge while the audience freaked out. I had no depth perception, couldn't keep good spacing with my group and was constantly hurting myself walking from the dressing room to the stage without glasses.

The teacher finally let me wear them after my mom complained and we never received any critiques from the judges or audience because I was wearing glasses. They, in fact, made me a much better dancer because I could see and interact with my dance team and the audience better.

I definitely prefer wearing contacts now that I can, but if something happens and I can't wear contacts for a while, I will not hesistate to do all of my restaurant/stage gigs in glasses.

I only wear my glasses on the trip between my bedroom and bathroom to put in my contacts. However, if I did not wear contacts I would need to wear my glasses while performing because my eyesight is so terrible. I think an audience would be less distracted by glasses than a dancer who is squinting, nauseous and about to fall off the stage! I’m sure I’ve seen a dancer or two wear glasses, but I just don’t remember because I’m so used to seeing people with glasses on a daily basis anyway.

I wear glasses in my day to day life, but I don't wear them on stage. I look better without them on, so that is my preference. I plan to get some contacts eventually.

I danced without my glasses for three years despite the fact that I was nearly blind without them. I finally got contacts and I love them - I almost never wear glasses now.

I don't think it would bother me if another dancer wore them in a show, but it would kind of jump out at me because it's pretty unusual (at least among most of the performers I see). But if they were a good dancer, I think the distraction for me would be minimal.

I wear glasses ,don't wear contacts(not in budget at moment). I take my glasses off when performing. I'm nearsighted so I may not be able to see the back rows but I can see and know where I'm going and my audience. Sometimes glasses off I'm less nervous when performing. I never wore my glasses ever performing. I always took them off. For me its pure vanity on my part.

Alrana

I think it depends a lot on the circumstances. In general, I'd say, no, not a good choice. However, for a more mature dancer (in terms of life experience and dance development) in a staged performance I can imagine it working. The first dancers who I thought of are Dalia Carella or Anahid Sofian. In the tribal world, Carolena Nericcio and Jill Parker come to mind. All these are performers who have quite a bit of life experience and great stage persona.

But, when it comes to an Egyptian-style dancer at a restaurant or at a private party, my imagination falls short. (Which may well be because Egyptian is not my passion.)

I don't wear my glasses when I perform anything (not just BD) simply because it's impractical for me. I always feel like they're going to fall off and I feel restricted by them.

DarkestDesert - I applaud you for wearing your glasses while performing. you go girl!

I wear glasses everyday, w/o them I'm blind. I've worn contact previously and usually try to wear them for weddings or working out, but looking at the computer all day doesn't help so I usually wear my glasses.

For me, contacts allow me to become "Sa'Noorah", though more and more Sa'Noorah is taking over :) I like having a seperate identity.

Actually, I just started a job as an apprentice personal trainer, and the fitness manager suggested I wear my contacts, that sort of bothered me.

Good luck either which way you decide. I think whatever makes you feel more comfortable and sexy is what you go with.

The big "E" on the chart disappeared about 15 years ago for me (if not longer ago) so I can definitely relate....my prescription is a negative 8.5 in both eyes...with astigmatism in both!! I'm blind as a bat. I can't hardly walk with glasses, though, and dancing with them is a pain to me...I do practice on occasion with them on, but I hate it...the sweat makes them slide down my face, and I knock them off, and it throws off my balance. but, I've been wearing contacts for 20 years, so...that's more me than glasses all day.

That said...I heartily applaud anyone who wants to wear theirs for any reason. I have and always will hate any stigma against glasses. Half the population has them now anyway...

Originally Posted by Sonja2

.my prescription is a negative 8.5 in both eyes...with astigmatism in both!! I'm blind as a bat.

I am a negative 9 in one eye and 8.5 in the other. Sucks being so blind! In regards to the topic, I never wear my glasses while performing. I wouldn't have any gigs if I did. I am not just selling my dance technique, I am selling the whole package and unfortunately in people's minds that does not include glasses. Besides, contacts are so much better. At my prescription everything goes wonky around the edges of my glasses. With contacts my entire field of vision is clear. They are the best invention EVER!

Rinda~ I doubly admire your veil work with your glasses! Although I wear contacts to perform, I wear my glasses in class and I have twice whipped off my glasses with my veil and thrown them across the room! I was very lucky that no one stepped on them!!!

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

Glasses off, unless you are Al Hassan.

who by the way, is the cutest little guy and most awesome dancer. i got to meet him and his talented sister, mia, a couple of weeks ago :)

http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/...27-0829008.jpg

sorry for the threadjack. hehe

I wear glasses most of the time. When I perform I wear contacts. I am also legally blind without my glasses. When I started dancing for the general public and getting paid gigs, I had soft lenses. Soft lenses could not hold my prescription very well (due to my astigmatism) but were good enough for performances. Now, as Im performing weekly, I've gone back to wearing hard lenses and making them a rsemi-regular part of my life.

For hafla level gigs, I feel you should be able to keep your glasses, but for professional gigs you'll have to reconsider. Even if my glasses went with all my costumes and customers loved them, there are the issues of turns and flying speca

Before my laser surgery, (I was pretty blind, Big E was blurry plus astigmatism), I would switch between glasses and contacts, depending how I felt that particular day. But for performing always contacts (Tae Kwon Do and dance team in college way back when, didn't start performing belly dance til after my surgery). I just felt safer with the contacts vs glasses with all the spinning and jumping around.

I wear glasses all the time. I love them and I own about 6-7 different pairs in a variety of styles and colors. That said, I always wear contacts when I perform or worst case scenario (which unfortunately has happened to me more than once!) I have performed blind. I do not recommend that though. Baaaaaad idea.

A hafla-level performance would be fine with glasses, I think, but I would expect a professional-level performer to wear contacts. I would find them distracting to wear and distracting to watch.

Glasses most of the time, but contacts whenever I perform.

I have think framed glasses and have also had mine fly of when I spin or flip my hair in practice. My husband is very much wanting me to look at Lasik as it seems to becoming more and more affordable. Have to use up the last of my contacts thought...I still have a 4 month supply to get through.

Originally Posted by stardancer

I am a negative 9 in one eye and 8.5 in the other. Sucks being so blind! In regards to the topic, I never wear my glasses while performing. I wouldn't have any gigs if I did. I am not just selling my dance technique, I am selling the whole package and unfortunately in people's minds that does not include glasses. Besides, contacts are so much better. At my prescription everything goes wonky around the edges of my glasses. With contacts my entire field of vision is clear. They are the best invention EVER!

Wow, I feel so at home here. -8.25 in both eyes, slight astigmatism. I'm in silicone lenses now. I literally can't function without correction. But my very strong prescription also means my glasses make my face look REEEEEALLY tiny behind my lenses. And if they flew off my face while dancing, you'd see a very hysterical dancer crawling on the floor with both hands out like Velma in an old Scooby Doo cartoon. So contacts are the best solution for me.

A friend of mine has always worn glasses while performing. In fact, she makes her own costumes and her glasses look a lot like an accessory. She has trouble wearing contacts so she just wears glasses. I don't think anybody who knows her would recognize her without them!

I wear contacts. I am so nearsighted that with all of the new ways of slimming down lenses, mine are still thick. So with my luck, if I wore mine, with the weight of them, they would probably go sliding off into the audience!