Thread: Question About Putting Khaleegi Into A Bellydance Show

What's the etiquette on throwing a thobe over your costume during a restaurant show, and then getting it off afterwards to continue the show? I mean, it seems like it would look weird to put it on and take it off in front of customers - like stripping. But would it also be weird to dance off, put it on, come back out, dance back off, take it off and continue the show? What would you do?

Thanks!

- Leela

Hmmm... can't you just picture Fifi pulling it off between songs and fluffing her hair?

I think it's probably OK if it's done very matter-of-factly. I'd probably turn my back to the audience, gather it up, and pull it over my head quickly. The more you try to 'dance' it off with style the more it would resemble a strip-tease, I think.

Could you use it as the entrance piece for your second set, then exit briefly to remove it out of sight and dance back out?

I've seen people take off thobes in front of an audience and I didn't think it was very successful. But yeah, Fifi could do it! Maybe with the right attitude you could, too, but I dunno.

I prefer Dina style run off stage, super quick change, run back on stage.

Well, as much as I wish I were Fifi, I keep waking up as Leela...I tried to channel Fifi once when my underwear almost fell off during a show but I don't think it worked! Still, yes, I can see Fifi doing this.

Dunyah, that was my next question. Can I enter on it in my 2nd set? I can break the format a little, right?

- Leela

I've been known to enter with the thobe to open my set as Khaleegy.

I recommend going offstage when it's time to remove it, then re-enter. In my experience, the inner side of the thobe can catch on the fabric and sequins of the costume you're wearing underneath it and get stuck. I wouldn't recommend trying to deal with that while an audience is watching! It can also help to have an accomplice who will help you deal with that.

You could always pick up your veil and drape it over the front of your costume, then use it like a thobe....

According to Dondi, the protocol is to exit through the sleeve. Pulling the thobe over your head is considered more stripper-y than pulling the sleeve over your head and letting the whole dress collapse down off of you and then stepping out of it once it's on the floor. I think she recommended starting with it on, and I don't remember her putting the thobe on as part of her set when she danced at the show. At any rate, you probably want to minimize the on-stage costume changes.

The other aspect is whether you even need the thobe. If you are dancing to contemporary Khaleeji music, the thobe is considered out of style. It's fine for older or historical folk dancing or if you're doing a character piece about older women, but if you're dancing to something poppy and full of synthesizers by Rashed al Majid, Hussein al Jasmi, etc., you may as well be dancing to Justin Bieber in a Laura Ingalls dress as far as the natives are concerned. Thobes are considered "grandma clothes." The current style is either to mime the thobe movements without the dress, or to use a scarf wrapped around your neck (either a fashion scarf or a veil as bintbeled mentioned).

Mona Said put a khaleegi # at the end of her set, so she exited with the thobe on. When you wear a wig to perform, pulling anything over your head quickly, onstage or off, is risky business.

I remember seeing a dancer, who had significant experience dancing in the ME, come on stage with the thobe, do the dance and then take it off (over head) WHILST SPINNING. It looked fabulous....but I can't imagine how she managed it all without getting dizzy/caught up/thobe attaching itself to the costume underneath.

While I take on the comments re thobe being old fashioned it is still an exciting and pretty costume change for a non-ME audience to see and does add to the performance.

I lean heavily towards not taking things off during belly dance performances. With a few exceptions I tend to find it a bit jarring as an audience member. Personal preference, but also borne of what I was taught as a baby dancer by my early teachers...nothing comes off onstage but the entrance veil.

Also, the dancer Khadijah asked us very clearly in a workshop I took with her last year to not wear thobes over belly dance costumes, as cover-ups or for dancing. She told us that as a woman who grew up in Saudi and who promotes the dance arts of the Gulf, she found it offensive. One woman's opinion, but...FYI. (Off topic, but if you get a chance to take class with her, I recommend it. She is a really knowledgeable and fun teacher.)

I love khaleegy and I have a couple of thobes - but I don't wear them when dancing the style.

This is mainly because I tend to dance only a brief "nod" to khaleegy in majencies and drum solos as part of a performance, generally not as whole khaleegy song - and I don't want to be dealing with pulling a thobe on/off during a number! I generally have a costume that has SOMETHING I can use for "air thobe" - a semi-circle skirt insert, a long sleeve, and I'll use that as a little nod to thobe movements.

When I used to do full khaleegy songs as part of my restaurant sets, I always used modern upbeat numbers - and as Tourbeau said the thobe just doesn't fit that style.

In one of the workshops I took once with Leila she was selling an orange Eman that was designed to go under a co-orinating thobe, using only glued-on stones with no metal casings to snag the thobe. It was neat and I loved the idea - I would DEFINITELY run off to whip the thobe off before coming back on to dance though. Removing onstage would be too Dance Of The Seven Veils, OMG!!1! for my taste.

Wow, thanks, everyone! You've helped me so much. Now I feel confident about what I plan to do. What an excellent collection of answers!

- Leela

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

The current style is either to mime the thobe movements without the dress, or to use a scarf wrapped around your neck (either a fashion scarf or a veil as bintbeled mentioned).

I'm having trouble visualizing this. Do you have video?

Originally Posted by aziyade

I'm having trouble visualizing this. Do you have video?

The trick that Bobby Farrah showed us was to pick up your veil, hold it in front of the body, and tuck the ends through your bra straps, so it's like a gigantic bib hanging down in front. You can then pick up the fabric and play with it as if it's a thobe, swishing it from side to side, holding it out delicately, etc.

Oh, okay! That makes sense. Thanks!

Originally Posted by aziyade

I'm having trouble visualizing this. Do you have video?

I have a very informal, lo-fi video of the guest teacher talking about it, but I don't think she would be comfortable with the footage being uploaded. She was from the Gulf, and at the time, not "out" to her family there as a dancer, so she wasn't even particularly comfortable with the idea that students wanted to pay her for teaching them.

She wasn't doing the sort of bib wrap with a veil that Bobby taught, but the most obvious, least exotic thing you can think of. She was using a regular fashion-accessory scarf, and we were substituting our veils, more or less wrapped like this. She just picked up the ends and did the thobe-y hand gestures with one end of the scarf in each hand. (If it's a shorter scarf, you'd just loop it over the back of your neck and let the ends fall over the shoulders and down the front--there's nothing particularly significant about the extra wrapping around the neck in the picture.)

oooh! Okay, I can see both of these techniques now. Thanks!

I've seen pro dancers exiting via the sleeve and overhead. If done with a spin as part of the dance it doesn't look stripperish. If you stop and struggle it will.

You may want to contact Cristina in NYC, I know she incorporates Khaleegi into her shows sometimes.

You read my mind Bul Bul, when I saw the thread title the first thing I thought of was Amera and the way she used to spin while removing the thobe. Fantastic!

Originally Posted by bul_bul_ksa

I remember seeing a dancer, who had significant experience dancing in the ME, come on stage with the thobe, do the dance and then take it off (over head) WHILST SPINNING. It looked fabulous....but I can't imagine how she managed it all without getting dizzy/caught up/thobe attaching itself to the costume underneath.

While I take on the comments re thobe being old fashioned it is still an exciting and pretty costume change for a non-ME audience to see and does add to the performance.

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

According to Dondi, the protocol is to exit through the sleeve. Pulling the thobe over your head is considered more stripper-y than pulling the sleeve over your head and letting the whole dress collapse down off of you and then stepping out of it once it's on the floor.

Thank you, Tourbeau! My troupe has recently been doing a piece where we dance Khaleegy, in thobes, then do Kawleeya. We had to quickly remove our thobes, onstage, in a way that said "now the party's gonna start!" without saying "now we're stripping." (we had dresses on underneath, not bedlah).

I used this exact idea, and it worked perfectly. I didn't remember WHERE I'd gotten it from, until this zombie thread poppped up! But belated thanks to you, and to Dondi.

Originally Posted by Monica

I lean heavily towards not taking things off during belly dance performances. With a few exceptions I tend to find it a bit jarring as an audience member. Personal preference, but also borne of what I was taught as a baby dancer by my early teachers...nothing comes off onstage but the entrance veil.

Also, the dancer Khadijah asked us very clearly in a workshop I took with her last year to not wear thobes over belly dance costumes, as cover-ups or for dancing. She told us that as a woman who grew up in Saudi and who promotes the dance arts of the Gulf, she found it offensive. One woman's opinion, but...FYI. (Off topic, but if you get a chance to take class with her, I recommend it. She is a really knowledgeable and fun teacher.)

Was taught the same way by Marita(Samasem) :-)
When she dances khaleej styles (outside of a brief moment in a magensy,just as wigglewhiz mentions:using parts of costumes as an "impromptu thobe")she wears a long sleeved,relatively high necked non-transparent dress underneith of the transparent one.

So I have lined my own with a faux layer long sleeved dress so that movements doesn´t show a bare arm/naked side of rib cage etc when I dance.

These "precautions" has been complimented and praised repeatedly by iraqi(and one time from a kuwaiti)ladies in the audience.

Originally Posted by Aziza_UAE

You read my mind Bul Bul, when I saw the thread title the first thing I thought of was Amera and the way she used to spin while removing the thobe. Fantastic!

Ding! Ding! Ding! that's exactly who I was thinking of! I remember Amera spinning in a fabulous orange thobe.

Originally Posted by Monica

I lean heavily towards not taking things off during belly dance performances. With a few exceptions I tend to find it a bit jarring as an audience member. Personal preference, but also borne of what I was taught as a baby dancer by my early teachers...nothing comes off onstage but the entrance veil.

Also, the dancer Khadijah asked us very clearly in a workshop I took with her last year to not wear thobes over belly dance costumes, as cover-ups or for dancing. She told us that as a woman who grew up in Saudi and who promotes the dance arts of the Gulf, she found it offensive. One woman's opinion, but...FYI. (Off topic, but if you get a chance to take class with her, I recommend it. She is a really knowledgeable and fun teacher.)

THATS RIGHT!! !!! i took her workshop 2 weeks ago it was amazing!