Making Bellydancing Pantaloons For The Farmers Market

The pink gauze fabric drying in the moonlight

Standing on tip toes, I pulled the clothes line towards me then pinned the pink gauze on it.   Even though there was half a waxing moon, it was still unusually dark out.

I was hoping to make the pantaloons, but forgot I had to pre shrink the fabric.  Jon and I  had just  gotten back from a trip to Joann Fabric in Glens Falls where I got the pink gauze and the silk flowers (which I’ll wear in my hair).

In less than two weeks, I’ll be Bellydancing at the Bennington Farmers Market with the Bennington Beledi Bellydancers.  The same women that I practice with and learn from every week.

I’ve been listening to the music we’ll be dancing to, practicing my Zilling every day, and thinking about and preparing my costume.  Under my two skirts I’ll be wearing pantaloons. Big billowy pants that the audience really only sees when you spin around.  But they’re as important a part of the costume as everything else.

Usually I’m fine with buying  or borrowing what I need, but I had this impulse to make my own pantaloons.

I found a pattern online and they look easy enough to make.  So last night I bought three yards of pink gauze fabric (my friend and fellow bellydancer, Kat, said gauze would be the coolest since it will most like  be hot at the Farmers Market dancing with all those clothes on).

Even though I really wanted to make the pantaloons last night, I liked the idea of letting them dry overnight in the moon light.  Soaking in her light.

Back in my studio I worked on my coin bra.  Jon bought that for me,  but in our class and many other ATS classes, the coin bra is something unique to each person. (Kathleen, one of my teachers,  told me that one woman she knew used all her cats old rabies tags on her coin bra)  So I’m removing some of the brass coins the bra came with and replacing them with pieces metal that have meaning for me.

I’m not nervous about the idea of dancing at the Farmers Market, not yet anyway.

Maybe because I’m  too busy thinking about getting ready for it.  I’m sure I will be nervous on that Saturday morning, though I’m going to try to turn any fear I’m feeling into excitement.   I realized a while ago that  my body reacts the same to both, so if I can choose what I’m feeling, I’d rather it be excitement than fear.

I’m planning on making the pantaloons today, I’ll post a picture of them, no matter how they turn out, when I do.

And if you’re in the Bennington, Vermont area,  on Saturday, June 22nd between 10am and 1pm, come see us dance at the Bennington Farmers Market. 

2 thoughts on “Making Bellydancing Pantaloons For The Farmers Market

  1. Everything about this is big in such a lovely way. I especially love that you see that fear and excitement register so similarly and you can choose (unless you are truly in harm’s way, which this clearly does not evoke). I hope you have flutters of joyful anticipation, dance for the woman you were when you were watching a few years ago, speak to her and I think all your fear will transmute into a dance for that.

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