I’m working on my costuming for our Bellydancing Performace on August 25th at The Bennington Museum.
Kat (aka Kitty) gave me a pair of her yellow pantaloons. We wear these under our skirts, they look great when we spin and you get a peek of another color as the skirt lifts.
I have a few pairs of pantaloons that I got at thrift stores and one pair I made myself. But I’ve never had a pair that was as big as the ones that Kat gave me.
When pantaloons are made from five yards of fabric, they billow out and help puff out the skirt. This pair is also made from fabric that the skirt won’t get hung up on when it’s moving.
The pantaloons Kat gave me were way too long.
Last week I shortened the elastic waist and cut some fabric off the bottoms of each leg. Then I sewed the fabric I took off the waist, and cut it in half lengthwise. I gathered the fabric on each leg using a basting stitch and pulling on the thread. Then I sewed the fabric from the top of the pants onto each leg.
There’s enough fabric to tie around my ankles.
But when I got it all done, I saw that the pantaloons were too short. So today I undid the work I did last week and sewed the fabric I had cut off of each leg back on. Then I gathered the bottoms of each leg and sewed the fabric to tie around my ankles back on.
With all the cutting I did the pantaloons were now the right length.
Last week in class Emily told us all about a dance performance she saw by The Farm To Ballet Project. This is a ballet about farming that takes place on different farms throughout Vermont. So there are dancing vegetables and animals as well as seasons being represented by the dancers.
The message that Emily had for us was how much fun the dancers were having, how much they were enjoying themselves. Their smiles and their joy were infectious and felt by the audience.
After hearing that, I decided that from now on in class and when I perform, I was going to have fun dancing. That doesn’t mean I won’t take it seriously or won’t continue learning, it just means I’m going to enjoy it, even when I get it wrong which is often.
After all, I’m a 58 year old woman who is learning to dance for the first time in my life. I’m not doing it to be a professional dancer. I’m doing it because it brings me joy, because I really like learning something so new at this point in my life and because I have come to love the women I dance with.
So that’s what I want people to see when they watch me dance on August 25th.
And maybe someone in the audience will see themselves in what I’m doing and try to do something that they always wanted to do but never thought they could.
Our Performance on August 25th at the Bennington Museum is a part of the celebration of 25 years of the Outdoor Sculpture Show. It is free from 5-7pm and open to the public. So if you’re nearby please come see us!
