Thread: Top Reasons to Keep Zills on During Veil

This is for the American-style sparkly dancers (trying to avoid that abbreviation for this style that I dislike so much, hehe) of the old-school, classic, or contemporary persuasion (whew!).

Top reasons for keeping zills on during your veil routine:

1.) It's a skill that requires practice and it's kind of magical for audiences - ooh, where did she get THOSE - when you start playing them in the middle of a routine.

2.) If making an entrance draped in your veil and playing zills, the element of surprise isn't there, but you are still making your entrance more dramatic and displaying the skill of accompanying yourself with a musical instrument while dancing - the old vaudevillian stage-craft saw "always start your act by doing something the audience knows they can't do."

3.) If dancing to live music, you can use your zills to help cue the band. And if you're mad at the drummer, I guess you could torture him by zilling over his drum solo. ..g.:

4.) My top reason: If dancing to recorded music and the sound person is (ahem) not on the ball and stops your music after the entrance piece - gaa- and can't seem to find the spot where your drum solo begins on the CD - You can play zills, get the audience clapping along, and do your drum solo anyway! This happened to me last Saturday night. I must say it was one of the more enjoyable drum solos I've done in awhile. The drum solo with no drum. I think I'm going to work on this for future shows. And it sure saved my routine!

Anybody have more reasons to master the zills-with-veil-skill, or stories to share?

I love zills!

5. You don't have to screw around with taking your zills off, putting them back on, and figuring out how to gather them up when you're done with your show.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

5. You don't have to screw around with taking your zills off, putting them back on, and figuring out how to gather them up when you're done with your show.

Yes, putting them back on can be kind of nerve wracking.

Here's another reason: Retro is in. ..g.:

Originally Posted by dunyah

Yes, putting them back on can be kind of nerve wracking.

Here's another reason: Retro is in. ..g.:

..g.: Perfect reason and retro IS in

Originally Posted by *Shira*

5. You don't have to screw around with taking your zills off, putting them back on, and figuring out how to gather them up when you're done with your show.

Coming from a long history of that format, I'd say that Shira's reason is the primary reason for keeping them on - because of course you play your zills for all the faster tempoed parts of the 5 and sometimes 7 part routines and keeping them on is much simpler than taking them off for the veil, putting them back on, then taking them off for taxim, lather rinse repeat.

Originally Posted by dunyah

4.) My top reason: If dancing to recorded music and the sound person is (ahem) not on the ball and stops your music after the entrance piece - gaa- and can't seem to find the spot where your drum solo begins on the CD - You can play zills, get the audience clapping along, and do your drum solo anyway! This happened to me last Saturday night. I must say it was one of the more enjoyable drum solos I've done in awhile. The drum solo with no drum. I think I'm going to work on this for future shows. And it sure saved my routine!

I saw Aliyah from Chicago do exactly this about 4 years ago when her drum solo failed to play, and it remains to this day an amazing memory for me. I'm just as impressed now as I was all those years ago!

6) audience members don't snag your zills, some times never to return!

{{{HUGS}}}

All those reasons sound good to me. My Instructor believed it was unprofessional to take off your zills cause it was a distraction from the dance. Taking you out of your role and walking over to a place to set them down in her eyes was unprofessional.

That is why she taught me to do veil with my zills on. How to blend them into your hand so they are not a distraction when your doing your taxsim and drum solo. Veil is a whole new skill when you have to wear zills.

7. Demonstrating that, unlike all those other dancers out there who remove their zills, that YOU are such highly skilled dancer that you don't need to resort to such amateurish measures.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

7. Demonstrating that, unlike all those other dancers out there who remove their zills, that YOU are such highly skilled dancer that you don't need to resort to such amateurish measures.

Yeah, impress your colleagues with your amazing zills-and-veil skill.

Now that we have fan veils and poi veils, will we see the creation of yet another prop -- the zill veil? .w.:

Jesennia? Are you reading this? How to attach them????..g.:

Originally Posted by naiyahayal

Now that we have fan veils and poi veils, will we see the creation of yet another prop -- the zill veil? .w.:

Jesennia? Are you reading this? How to attach them????..g.:

..l;,..l;,

maybe we could sew an elastic band on each end of the long side of a veil. that way we can slip it onto our wrists before putting on the zills. and keep both on the whole dance. we could play the zills at the same time as doing veil 'moves'!
...i was kidding to start with but now i think that could look totally cool! i need to go get a cheap chiffon veil to try this with!

How do you keep the zills from hurting your silk veil? Or shouldn't I worry about that....

Originally Posted by Kathiya

..l;,..l;,

maybe we could sew an elastic band on each end of the long side of a veil. that way we can slip it onto our wrists before putting on the zills. and keep both on the whole dance. we could play the zills at the same time as doing veil 'moves'!
...i was kidding to start with but now i think that could look totally cool! i need to go get a cheap chiffon veil to try this with!

..l;,..l;, Hmmmmm! I was kidding, too, but ......... ..g.:

Originally Posted by KelsNasim

How do you keep the zills from hurting your silk veil? Or shouldn't I worry about that....

I've never had a problem with that. If you use high-quality zills that don't have rough edges, there really isn't anything they would do to your veil.

Originally Posted by KelsNasim

How do you keep the zills from hurting your silk veil? Or shouldn't I worry about that....

Zills shouldn't hurt your silk, as Shira says. I HAVE had a silk veil wrap around my zill, get tangled, and pull the zill off my finger. Oops!

I have to take mine off. The arthritis in my hands makes it hard to hold such a thin piece of material alone and to add zills to the mix is just too much. I do think that if you can do it, you should. It makes for a smoother performance, but it is just not an option for everyone.
I have been taught that you don't just walk over to a table and take them off. You make it part of the dance. My teacher and and myself usually do a fast number and then the veil, taxim, drum solo, exitso in the beginning part of the veil song she dancers over near the band (back of stage, etc) and while doing some beautiful arm movements with her back to the audience she lowers herself down and removes her zills. When they are off, she presents her hands upwards and rises slowly and continues to dance with out the zills. Nice way to work around it and no real need to have to put them back on.

Just wanted to add that I do agree that all of your reasons are good for keeping them on...

this thread is inspiring me to keep drilling my zills!!!!

Problem I have it not leting them hit together on my taxsim or any part I don't want (it looks ugly to keep my long fingers wide open, or holding a cane with them on

Because your veil is usually the second song, and do you really want to take your zills off right after you enter??!

Sometimes I will keep them on with my veil entrance but most times I will put them by the server station. I then dance on over there and slip them on while I am finishing up my taqsim, with my back to the audience.

Originally Posted by KelsNasim

How do you keep the zills from hurting your silk veil? Or shouldn't I worry about that....

I suspect that the biggest danger would come from entanglement with safety pins, if you don't sew the elastics, and perhaps snags from sequins/beads used to mark zills (I mark mine with a sharpie on the inside).

Originally Posted by *Shira*

7. Demonstrating that, unlike all those other dancers out there who remove their zills, that YOU are such highly skilled dancer that you don't need to resort to such amateurish measures.

Ouch.

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

Because your veil is usually the second song, and do you really want to take your zills off right after you enter??!

That's right, it's nice to have cymbals for the finale, especially.

Originally Posted by tabitha

Ouch.

I took Shira's remark to be tongue-in-cheek.

Originally Posted by naiyahayal

Now that we have fan veils and poi veils, will we see the creation of yet another prop -- the zill veil? .w.:

Jesennia? Are you reading this? How to attach them????..g.:

Better zill veil than shamadan veil, candle veil or anything else equally non flame retardant ..c::.p::

I don't know about zill veil but there is a very old clip somewhere in the Smithsonian film archives or something, over 100 yrs old, of a dancer making her entrance with two small scarves. She does some movements with them and then discards the scarves and begins playing zills. I've always meant to try that some time.

I also sometimes dance with fan veils and I will clap them together (closed) to make a little percussive sound at certain points in the music. What if there were little zills attached to the staves, you could make them sound when the fan veils are clapped together.... hehe, probably wouldn't work, but I'm just following the train of thought...

Originally Posted by tahiradancer

6) audience members don't snag your zills, some times never to return!

{{{HUGS}}}

Yep this has happened to me too, never got them back and they were my favourite set boo hoo,f::

Originally Posted by daisy_witch

Yep this has happened to me too, never got them back and they were my favourite set boo hoo,f::

oh, that sucks!