Davina - Dawn Devine

01/02/2025

Fam-Jam January 2025 - Nerdy Fun!

01/02/2025

Quick visit to see - wd took our mum out to the Riverside to stroll the car museum and the Colorado river!

15/01/2025

It's time to finish the 30th anniversary of my first book, "Costuming From the Hip." All throughout 2024, I slowly marinated in this project. After 30 years as a professional costume maker, there's so much I want to add, change, expand upon, and rewrite to craft my best costuming book. My goal in 2025 is to spend more time working on this book, so I'm carving out more time to write and transcribe the content for "Costuming From the Hip: 30th Anniversary Edition." This means more time spent in cafés and coffee shops, libraries and lobbies, and taking big breaks for deep dives in personal writing retreats....

It’s time to finish the 30th anniversary of my first book, “Costuming From the Hip.” All throughout 2024, I slowly marinated in this project. After 30 years as a professional cost…

15/01/2025

After a break - even m back at work in the studio working with my friends to build a couple of simple but elegant belly dance looks. .wz

Costume is for “Costuming From the Hip” 30th Anniversary edition!

09/11/2024

One week: Fabulous Fall Festival! Visit Babdama.org for all the deets and be sure to sign up for the newsletter - to receive the last newsletter and catch a subscriber bonus!

Save the Date: Fabulous Fall Festival 2024 - Saturday November 16, 2023 - We return to the Grant Community Park in Los Altos, Ca with another year of fun!

06/11/2024

Todays vibe
“Her Thoughts are with her Eyes” by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema

31/10/2024

Dancers at the Turkish Exhibit, Chicago World Fair 1893.

This page is from the original Souvenir Program for the Turkish Theater on the Midway. This theater was sensationally titled the "Oriental Odeon."

A Primary Source - But Highly Inaccurate

If you lead in and read this caption there's some interesting information, not all of it true. I believe the dance "Delkey" is actually the line-dance the Debke.

However one of these ladies is American, not Syrian.

Can you guess which one is "A Local Girl" just by looking at the photo?

I'll be back tomorrow for the answer - and how we know!

30/10/2024

1893, Chicago World's Fair - One of the venues you could see belly dancing was the Street of Constantinople exhibit. According to advertisements, you would see dancers with "Elegant Costumes" performing to music by the "Oriental Orchestra."

However, this exhibit was simply not as fancy or as inviting as the Streets of Cairo just a few doors down.

17/10/2024

We're a month out from our annual belly dance event:
Fabulous Fall Festival!

Here on Facebook, our event organization group, BABDAMA (Bay Area Belly Dance and Music Association) hosts a group to find out more info: Fabulous Fall Festival or visit our website www.babdama.org

Over the next few days, I'm updating the BABDAMA website, and preparing our next newsletter! Are you on the mailing list? Sign via our website.

Now - off to work on the next BABDAMA newsletter and website.

16/10/2024

I went to Archive.org and discovered they are down.. Bummer... I was looking forward to a round of "recreational research" with my morning coffee.

"Rue du Caire" Félix Vallotton c. 1901

This image gives you a sense of the popularity and the kind of buskers that worked outside the theater where patrons could watch the Egyptian dance show. You could catch the Danse du Ventre several times a day for .50 centimes.

15/10/2024

Spending some quality time organizing information. I love fining fantastic vintage imagery like this Egyptian beauty wearing a beautiful assiut shawl.

09/10/2024

We've confirmed Zoe Jakes as our Special Invited Guest for our Gala Show!

OMG - I'm so thrilled to have this opportunity to see her take the stage along with Basinah Raqs Sharqi, Maria Sokolova, Shoshanna Rose, and more!

Time to work on some Fabulous Fall Festival admin. This year I'm in charge of working with our Vendors and updating our Website: https://babdama.org/

Confirmed Vendors Include:
- Bellydance.com
- Carl Sermon and MaShuqa Mira Murjan
- Bali Isle Tribal ArtWear
- Aneena - Silk Veils
- Dhyanis Carniglia
- A to Z Belly Dance - Vintage Dancewear Cathy Azura George.. And More to announce as I work through our inquiry list.

Would you be interested in getting onto this inquiry list?
Email: [email protected]. include RE: Vending Inquiry in the Subject Line

04/10/2024

Are you free on Nov. 16?
Gotta Dance?

We are about to open festival dancing sign-ups for the Fabulous Fall Festival show!

Here's the process:
- Visit our website - https://babdama.org/
- Sign up for our newsletter
- Get the newsletter and use the special link button to sign up

Festival Dancing is "First-Come-First-Served" - so click through to sign up for our mailing list today so you don't miss the announcement! https://babdama.org/

Not sure if you're on the mailing list already? Sign up again - the automated system will confirm if you've already joined.

See ya at the Festival!

27/09/2024

Dancer Ida Rubenstein posing with a cat.
Costume for Helene de Sparte by Leon Bakst c. 1912

27/09/2024

When your slide deck is too big.. you cut-cut-cut...

I love this image - but what a hodge-podge costume with elements of... everything c. 1911

I keep this odd cabinet card image in my archive as an example of an ambiguous image. Is it assiut? Is it tulle with sequin?

Turns out I found ANOTHER card of Koós Margit and it's clear that the overskirt is definitely sequin on tulle.

Practicing my talk for Veils UnVeiled - Next Week!
https://bellydancequickies.com/register/veils-unveiled-from-art-dance-to-belly-dance-with-dawn-devine/

26/09/2024

I use a master to:do list book to keep weekly and daily lists. I just finished the book I started in 2021.

I imply adore the Pukka Pad - the paper and my favorite pen are best friends and this size and shape make it easy to spot on my shelf!!

25/09/2024

For the past few days, I've had guests in town. Now it's time to WORK!!!

Today I'm working on polishing up the Slide Deck for the upcoming talk with Mahin Sciacca - "Veils Unveiled"

Many years ago I had a specialty booklet series that included 8 titles. Two of them became "Skirting the Issues/Pants for the Dance" and are still available. The rest were too expensive to print, and when we flipped to POD (print on demand) they were too short!

Mahin's Bellydance Quickies series has offered me the opportunity to share this material in a live talk on Oct. 6.

Loads of images of primary sources that help us illustrate the history of our dance.

"Veils Unveiled: From Art Dance to Belly Dance"
with Dawn Devine aka Davina - Dawn Devine
A Live Zoom Talk and Q&A
Sunday, October 6th - 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT
60 Min talk - 30 min Q& A
Includes Handout with source bibliography
https://bellydancequickies.com/online-bellydance-events/

Image Source: "Dancer" by Hans Zatzca

12/09/2024

Lobby card image from "The Egyptian" of 1954. This cheesy sword and sandals style film featured an obligatory decadent banquet scene.

This reimagined and kitschy version of history was never intended to be historically accurate. Instead, we're served a spectacle with a fantasy formula including dancers as a signifier of wealth and power.

When you watch the dance, you will see how this closed cape looks in motion - available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/O1024c5pRGM?si=BJPQjIf5YM0ZK5ug&t=36

Dancing with fabric, in the form of veils, capes, and wings, was part of the popular entertainment landscape and became an essential element for working belly dancers during the middle of the 20th century.
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In October, I'm presenting a live talk via zoom with Mahin Sciacca and Mahin's Bellydance Quickies. "Veils UnVeiled" will explore the history and evolution of belly dancing with veils. If you're interested in joining me, follow this link for more information: https://bellydancequickies.com/online-bellydance-events/