There are many make up and costuming tricks dancers use onstage to create a gorgeous, larger-then-life persona...and one of them is the discreet use of body stockings and hose to create the illusion of longer limbs and a toned torso.
For dancers who want to make
their legs look sleek and toned onstage, but feel like body make-up just won’t cut the
mustard, there’s always the option of using stockings.
Fishnets seem to work best for performance, because regular
nylon stockings often create an undesirable sheen under stage lights.
It’s a good idea to invest in professional-weight fishnet hose. Danskin and Capezio both
make them in a variety of styles, and even Leg Avenue now has a sturdy “Show
Girl” hose. Professional weight
stockings are more expensive than regular fishnet hose, but they will hold in
any unwanted jiggle on your legs, and will last for ages, serving you well…I’ve
had some pairs that lasted for years before losing their elasticity!
Of course it isn’t a faux pas
to wear regular, inexpensive fishnets onstage, but you should know that these
cheaper stockings lose their form-fitting properties quickly- sometimes within
minutes of being put on! They also tend to lose their shape, appearing baggy and
loose, and they snag quite easily. With a professional weight stocking, if
you happen to get the material caught in a shoe buckle or on a piece of your
costuming, pretty much the most damage that will occur will be that you lose
the connecting threads of one or two squares. From the stage, this will not be noticeable at all. With
cheaper hose, a long, unsightly run or ladder will most likely appear.
Professional weight fishnet stockings won’t run when you wear
them, OR when you cut them, so you can adapt them to your own personal
style quite easily.
Many gals cut the feet of the stockings off at the ankles if
they are using them while going barefoot for belly dance. I personally also cut the elastic waistband off the
stockings so it doesn’t create a bulge around my hips… and not just for
purposes of costuming, but for every day use as well.
The hose will stay up just fine without it.
Many burlesque dancers cut
off the legs of fishnet hose at the crotch- each leg will stay up by itself, or
you can use the hose with garters for a sexy retro look. Plus, the longer length of hose cut
like this is usually more flattering than commercially-made thigh-high
stockings, which usually seem to hit most gals just above the knee, visually
breaking up the line of the leg, and making even a tall, slender woman look
like her legs are half as
long as they actually are.
Fishnets come in many colors, but the best for stage use are
nude (many shades are available to match different skin tones) and black.
Because of the open net pattern, black hose will create an optical
illusion and make your legs look curvier; nude or flesh tones will make your
legs appear longer. Though The
Radio City Music Hall Rockettes and Las Vegas showgirls are already long-stemmed, they
almost always wear skin-toned fishnets with neutral, high-heeled shoes
precisely because this combo makes the dancer’s legs look like they go on for
miles.
When you choose fishnets for
the stage, make sure to get a style that has smaller “windows” some of the fashionable
styles have larger squares, and though that may look cute up close at a party,
it isn’t that flattering to a dancers' legs when she is onstage.
When selecting fishnets stockings, decide what your costuming
needs are and which illusion you are after.
Dancers with stretch marks, scars, or those with a few more
curves often wear body stockings to smooth out the appearance of the
torso. Body stockings serve to
camouflage imperfections, and there are quite a lot of affordable, serviceable
options available today. Specially
made for dancers, these body stockings come in a large selection of colors,
from skin tones to bright jewel shades.
Some body stockings are more
heavy duty than others, and the material used range from light fishnet fabric
(the same type of fishnet that the stockings are made of) to heavy power net, the type of fabric
that is used in many foundation garments. Some of these body stockings hook in
to the bra and belt, some attach by shoulder straps, others are constructed more like a long-line girdle.
The weight and
stretch of the net will have different visual effects on your body as
well. The light to medium
weight nets will probably do the trick for covering up scars or stretch marks,
as well as smoothing out the appearance of the flesh itself.
The heavier nets tend to look great when the dancer is
standing still, but once she is in motion, because of the thicker material, the
net can actually look odd, and though it holds in any jiggle or “reverb”, it can
actually create bulges or rolls that wouldn’t have been there in the first
place!
There are many Egyptian belly
dance costumes available with the net already built in, often with beautiful
bead, sequin and rhinestone embellishments curving across the torso in
flattering lines. Some of these costumes are the standard two-piece bedlah, but
with the netting already in place, connected to the bra and belt; others are
constructed like dresses, but with many “open” panels of netting, to give the
illusion of a bare midriff.
Most of the older Egyptian
belly dance costumes came with the nets sewn in…but they also had really thick,
ugly zippers up the back, along the spine. For years, I wondered about this…how could the Egyptian costumers
do such amazing tailoring and hand beading, yet not know how to install an
invisible zipper?
After asking around, I
finally found an answer from an Egyptian costumer. Due to the strict laws governing licensed Oriental Dancers in Egypt, the
midriff had to be covered. This is why dancers like Fifi Abdou and Soheir Zaki often appeared
wearing colored bodystockings to match their costumes. And, apparently, the large zipper
in the back of the flesh-colored nets wasn’t there because the costumers didn’t know how to
sew… it was installed so that if the Vice Police happened to visit a club to
check on the dancers for “decency”, they would merely have to stand at the entrance
to clearly see the dancer on the stage- and the tell-tale zipper in the back of
the costume- to know she was appropriately covered! I’m not sure if this is an urban legend, but it sure makes
sense!
It is also fairly easy to make your own midriff body nets by
altering a pair of professional weight hose. Purchase a pair of fishnet tights a size or two bigger than you would
normally wear, and cut the legs
of the stockings off a few inches below the crotch,
Leaving the elastic waistband
on the hose, step through the legs of the hose and pull the waistband up to
just under your bustline. Try on your costume bra, and mark the inside of the
bra- and the waistband of the hose- where you want to affix them to each
other. One body stocking can be
interchanged with a number of costumes, so try on whichever costumes you would
like to use the nets with, and make sure that the marks all correspond. To fasten them, use heavy-duty hooks
and eyes, sewn in horizontally to the inside of the bra and the waist of the
body stocking. Some gals use
heavy-duty snaps, but depending on how athletic you get onstage, these can pop
open pretty easily.
Some dancers get a separate
set of hose, cut the legs off and then sew the entire waistband into the bra,
then step into the legs of the body stocking before fastening the bra.
RESOURCES:
Professional Weight Fishnets by Capezio; Capezio Women's Professional Fishnet Seamless Tight,Caramel,Small/Medium
Body stockings at Dahlal Internationale
Body stockings at The Belly Dance Shoppe:
Custom Belly Dance
Bodystockings by Sugar Petals: http://www.sugarpetals.com/body_stockings.asp
Body stockings in different
colors—power net midriff body stockings http://www.adiradance.com/dance_costume_cp/BL-001/D_BellyDance/i1/o/Midriff+Power+Net+Body+Stocking.html
PHOTOS: Fifi Abdou wearing a fishnet body stocking, Princess Farhana in Danskin professional weight stockings: credit Gary & Pierre Silva
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