Majah Hits the Stage

I saw this saying on a T-shirt somewhere:  "my favorite color is glitter."  That's me; always looking for the glitter.  That's why the belly dance costuming was a huge part of the appeal of the dance for me.  

My first belly dance performance was at the Columbus International Festival in 1996.  I’d been taking lessons for just over a year.  17 years ago, beaded Egyptian costumes were hard to come by- remember, there was no Internet shopping to speak of in 1995.  Authentic beaded and fringed bedlahs (bra and belt sets) were very expensive and the only way to buy them was from a mail order catalog or at a dance event from a vendor.   Most dancers made their costumes, and sadly, many of them (mine included) looked homemade.   Not that anyone in the audience would know any different- seeing belly dancers was exotic as it was, who was going to look that closely at our costumes?  If only I’d had a resource like Shushanna’s  “How to Make a Bellydance Costume” website.  I’m sure my costume would have been worlds better than it was.   

My original costume was teal satin with teal and chartreuse fringe.  It took over 40 hours to string the fringe.  My fingers were raw from handling the needles and glass beads.  Rather than hand-bead the costumes, we used sequin appliqués to add sparkle.  My friend Heidi rode to the Festival with me and was still sewing on appliqués on the way to the event.  In retrospect, it was rather a sad little costume.   With the bra and belt, we also wore a full chiffon skirt, puffy harem pants and a sequin overlay panel for a little more flash.  Habeeba considers long hair a part of our costume.  My hair was barely long enough, but what it lacked in length, Habeeba made up for in volume by teasing it into a Loretta Lynn type-do.     

Months of rehearsal and sewing went into the preparations for this event.  As we rehearsed, I constantly compared myself to the other smaller dancers.  I knew I was awkward and my movements weren’t graceful.  It’s easy to look back on that now and realize that I had the same fears that every baby dancer has.   Will I remember the cues?  Will I turn the wrong way?  Will my costume hold together? (!)  Will I make my teacher proud?  Stronger than those fears was the internal fear of looking ridiculous and making an utter fool of myself.  Somehow I was able to power through that- mostly because it was too late to turn back at that point!  I was a bundle of nerves and even though I’d been onstage for other types of performances; singing, band and drama, that was nothing compared to putting myself out there in dance.   

It was a five minute performance- me and three other dancers on a large stage.  I don’t remember anything about it now except the feeling I had when it was over.  I was giddy- I’d defeated my fear, defeated my low self esteem and proved to myself that even a clumsy big girl like me could dance, maybe not so well in my debut, but that’s ok for a beginner.  It’s how we learn.