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Here is a resource guide for things you might want for your dancing-good places to get costumes, dance props, music and DVDs as well as information about classes,events and any thing else belly dance related I've restricted the vendors,sites and events to people I've actually dealt with or know personally. The list is growing as I do more shopping!!
Book through www.tasteofcairo.com Excellent agency with dancers available nationwide (including me)
www.aladdinscave.com -excellent service and very fast. Especially good for classwear. Coin belts, shoes, finger cymbals, tops, skirts, leotards and much more. www.faridadance.com - excellent service and some really glamourous performance costumes.Kay sells beautiful Haute Couture Egyptian and Turkish Costumes as well as class wear with diva style. www.theshimmyshop.myby.co.uk again excellent service. Mandy designs and makes lovely original costumes that are beautifully made. She has a great eye for design and the costumes last very well (I'm someone who actually wears out their performance costumes so this is a great tribute!!). She has far more in stock than on the website so if you are in the Bradford, West Yorkshire area look out for the haflas she is attending. Another source for coin belts and practical classwear. You will find her at the Joy weekend event at Saltaire, West Yorkshire www.jewelofyorkshire.co.uk and at the Fantasia Event in London.She is also available to attend haflas with her bazaar. Email her from her website. www.whirling-dervish.co.uk Michelle has a seemingly endless variety of beautiful things from cabaret costumes to gypsy skirts and tops, veils and accessories. Beautiful jewellery as well as Cds and DVDs. She also has a shop that you can visit-Urban Dervish in Manchester-location on her website
There are 2 problems with buying anything from USA sites-one is your credit card provider might get confused that you are buying in the USA and not allow it, the other problem is custom charges which seem to be very random. Sometimes you don't have to pay and other times you do- for a performance costume it can be very expensive. www.dahlal.com Good service if they have the item in stock and a lovely site.I have heard of lots of problems with custom orders -taking too long or not looking as they should or not fitting.They are dealing with Egyptian costumiers so they experience the same problems you can be faced with if you buy costumes in Egypt. As a general rule I have found that if it is the right size and suits you buy it, if not and you are going to order a custom made one-Buyer Beware.Remember also it is in the USA so if you buy a full costume from them it can cost you about £70 customs charge. Do look at the "do it yourself "costume page for easy ideas. it is also a great site for checking the latest designs and finding out the kind of costumes each designer makes. www.bellydancestore.biz great service and amazing selection of designer and non designer costumes. The stock changes frequently.
www.hilarysbazaar.com great source for Turkish spoons, finger cymbals etc. as well as costume items. Hilary also has a belly dance shop in Edinburgh www.hipdrop.co.uk Jane has the most beautiful silk veils at very reasonable prices. www.littlebluegenie.com lovely diamonte waist chains, good hairpieces and wigs at reasonable prices.
Also scroll down to eBay shopping for good prices on Bellydance Superstar items, Raqia Hassan DVDs and music and great Egyptian performance DVDs
Music Download sites www.emusic.com this has a few gems on.Some of the Wash ya Wash series, some of the Hollywood Music Centre stuff.A lot of Turkish pop-Tarkan etc and quite a bit of Egyptian pop too including Saad prince of Shaabi.You can download individual tracks which is good for those times when just one track from a CD is all you want.A lot of the music I recommend can be downloaded from here. You can download so many tracks free and then you can have an account allowing you to download so many a month. www.amazon.co.uk I really like this site. Its not as good as the US Amazon download but there are a lot of gems on there and unlike emusic you just pay for the track you want to download. USA Music sites. Sometimes you get a customs charge sometimes not.
www.rashid.com -USA site. Music including up to date Egyptian Pop. Also the place to get DVDs of the old Egyptian Films with English Subtitles
All the following are shops on eBay, so to find them search eBay shops.I have bought from all of them and found them reliable. I've put what each one is good for. USA shop selling fabulous dance pants and tops particularly suited to curvy girls with big thighs and smaller waists like me-they also suit slim girls but then they look great in anything.The dance tops are one size fitting more small/medium USA shop selling DVDs and CDs. Particulary good for Egyptian performance DVDs from the 1970s,80s,90s and some more recent.Also sells some USA technique and performance DVDs.All good prices UK shop.Sells all Bellydance Superstar label Cds and DVDs at a very good price. Decorators Friend Outlet http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Decorators-Friend-outlet US shop. Perfect battery candles for shamadan Design your world http://stores.ebay.co.uk/DESIGN-YOUR-WORLD US shop. Excellent for Arabic Pop CDs. Very fast service and a good price. Crystals R us http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Crystals-R-us-ironon-beads-crafts For when you just need that extra bit of bling on your costumes
There will be lots of references to these on the forthcoming updated music pages but it is useful to have a list of these sites. Most sites just have what they have and will not translate for you. Those that will I have marked with a *. Somtimes you have to join the forum to get access to this. All are free and depend on goodwill so getting a specific translation from these sites may or may not happen. www.arabicmusictranslation.com Fantastic site with embedded videos and music so you can hear and see the songs being sung. Will translate your requests if they can and put them on the site* www.shira.net about 100 songs some old and some newer ones.
www.bhuz.com very USA biased forum, although there are a few UK users.
www.ishimmy.com online magazine.USA some interesting articles www.gildedserpent.com online magazine as above
www.taqasim.org.uk south/southwest
www.wiggle.org.uk- find a class, workshop,hafla or residential event. www.orientaldancer.co.uk excellent site that is ever growing and kept well up to date.
JOY-Jewel of Yorkshire. Twice yearly event held in Saltaire Nr Bradford West Yorkshire. Large festival with UK and Big Star International teachers MAJMA- Large yearly festival held in Glastonbury,Somerset.UK and International teachers Celebrating Dance-Large yearly festival in Devon.UK and International teachers
www.planetegypt.co.uk- at the moment organises a very popular showcase of talent in London once a month but have plans to organise other events in other places and other types of event such as seminars. Lot of other information on the website about music, costumes and culture
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