Davina's Belly Dance Books

Lucky you, you've found the fabulous "How To" belly dance costuming books by popular author, Dawn Devine Brown (Davina). Order one of these detailed books with its hundreds of illustrations and you will see why her books are wildly popular the world over.

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Davina

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Tribal Fusion belly dance is sweeping the nation! This book explores the various layers and elements that compose the tribal style costume. From jewelry and cosmetics to cholis, skirts, and pants, this book is loaded with directions for designing and making these popular tribal costumes. With over 300 illustrations and step-by-step diagrams, this book is an essential addition to the reference libraries of costumers, teachers, and tribal style dancers. Not just for costumers, it also contains costume parts and pieces that can be used to make ensembles suitable for dancers who just want a more folkloric, historical, fusion, or Gypsy look.

2556BK NEW RELEASE

Embellished Bras is the first book from Davina that uses photographs in addition to illustrations. Detailed step-by-step directions are accompanied by clear easy-to-follow black and white photographs. This book covers all the steps in the process of taking a lingerie bra from store onto the stage. This technique has been used to make hundreds of bras and dancers all over the west coast have attended Davina's workshops to learn her techniques. This book is filled with great ideas on how to design, cover and embellish your costume bra. If you've never made a bra, or if you are looking to pick up some new techniques, check out this new book!

The third volume of the "Costuming Essentials Series." This booklet addresses the exciting design possibilities for one of the most ubiquitous but unsung garments in the dancer's wardrobe: pants! Go beyond the basic harem style and explore a variety of options for creating pants for male and female dancers alike. Forty pages.
 

The next installment in the "Costuming Essentials Series." Forty-eight pages of nothing but skirts. All major skirt styles are presented along with illustrations and patterns. Over a hundred original illustrations complement the text.
 

  $12.95   OUT OF STOCK

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NEW! A visual vocabulary of Middle Eastern dance costumes. This forty-page booklet is packed with information that every dancer or costumer will appreciate. Over fifty new, original drawings illustrate the more than 100 dance costuming terms. If you are new to belly dancing and confused about what goes with what or the different styles of costuming, or even what you may like in costuming, this is a great book for you! It makes everything crystal clear. You will know your style and your preferences after reading this book. An excellent investment.

 $14.95   OUT OF STOCK

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The book that started it all. The comprehensive reference for all types of Middle Eastern dance costuming. Dancers, costume makers, designers, and historical re-enactors will like the over 200 illustrations, historical patterns, construction techniques, and hundreds of hints and tips. This book will take you step by step through measuring your body, researching your costume, laying out the patterns, fitting it, and accessorizing your creation.
 

 $21.95   OUT OF STOCK

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This book focuses exclusively on the glamorous "cabaret" style so common in ethnic restaurants and nightclub settings. It is about designing and crafting the elaborate bra and belt sets worn by these belly dancers. Contains hundreds of tips, hints, and directions for making contemporary belly dance costumes.
 

Anklets  Bells   Belts  More Belts    Plus Belts     Belts Too  Books  Bracelets   Bracelets-- Slave   Bras-Tribal  

 Cholis   Coin Bras   Coins   Costumes  More Costumes    Costumes Too  Cymbals 

  Earrings   Harem Pants  Headdresses   Hip Scarves  Kuchi Pendants  

Necklaces  Necklaces Too    Plus Belts     Skirts    Swords 

 Tribal Bras  Tribal   Tribal Too   Tribal More   T-Shirts  Veils     Videos

Zara Black's Web Page  Classes in Redding CA.  Pay For Classes Here  

 How to Choose a Belly Dance Teacher.    

 Belly Dance 101      Flawless Technique       Zara's Bio      

Links  About Zara's Teaching Technique        History of Belly Dancing

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From the author:
Chapter 1 is a brief summary of dance costume in the US over the past hundred and twenty years. While I could have easily written an entire book that traced the evolution of dance costume, I contained my exuberance for this subject near and dear to my heart and squeezed the highlights into a single chapter.
Chapter 2 presents the most popular stylistic themes within the world of dance costume today.
Chapter 3, I feel, is one of the most important chapters of the book, where I introduce the principles and elements of design and provide examples of how this information can be used to design Middle Eastern dance wear.
Chapters 4 and 5 are about the process of design, ways of thinking, techniques for developing designs and the steps necessary to take a concept to a final costume
Chapter 6  takes the principles in chapter 3 and the techniques for design in 4 and 5 and applies them to body analysis. This section explores the ways that line and shape can either emphasize or de-emphasize features of the body to achieve the desired results.
Chapter 7 focuses on bra construction. From choosing the perfect bra base to covering, restructuring and manipulating the cups to achieve the best results, this chapter goes from lingerie bra base to finished costume bra.
Chapter 8 is all about belts. This book introduces a draping method for making a custom fit belt base that shapes and conforms to each dancers individual curves. From building the belt base to reinforcing it, covering it and lining it, this chapter is filled with lots of hints and tips for achieving a good fit.
Chapter 9 introduces the materials and tools required to do complex surface embellishments. From beads and sequins to fringe, mirrors, rhinestones and more, this chapter is a catalog and shopping list for the supplies needed to do beading and other surface embellishment techniques.
Chapter 10, perhaps the meatiest chapter in the book, introduces the most common and popular stitches for applying beads and making custom fringe. There are numerous illustrations to accompany the text.
Chapter 11 introduces techniques for developing beaded designs using clip art. By taking line art and manipulating it to fit the costume and then developing a map for bead placement, beautifully complex designs can be developed without needing to know how to draw!
The final section of Bedlah introduces some of the supporting, accessory and accent garments that complete the look of the costume.