I love dancing with veils.
In belly dancing, veils are considered a prop, but for me, it’s part of costuming. Because it is a big piece of fabric, it adds so much to your overall look.
So I have been collecting ideas for ways to wear a belly dance veil, and thought to share my notes with you 🙂
In this video, you’ll see 27 ways that you can wear your belly dance veil in 5.5 minutes! I’m hoping these will spark ideas for your entrances and poses as part of dancing or photography, and some of these can be used as a cover-up for your costume before and after performance. Enjoy!
Click here to sign up for the Sparkly Belly newsletter!
27 Ways to Wear a Belly Dance Veil
Here are the ways shown in the video and their sources. If the sources are not specified, they have been in my head for a long time, and I really don’t know where I learned them or how I came up with them. Although most of them are pretty simple, I’ve added explanation for more complex ones 🙂
1. The classic neck veil
2. The wedding veil
3. The Belle
4. The face veil – wrap yourself with a veil, and fold the veil in half. Take the folded veil up to cover your head completely, then bring down the top hole to just show your eyes. Hold the rest with one hand at the back of your head.
5. The summer dress (Mao’s regular coverup 😉 )
6. The Sari – I learned this from this video at Free Bellydance Classes
7. The maxi dress – I learned this from this video at Free Bellydance Classes
8. The criss cross
9. The big sailing ship – fold about your skirt length at the short end of you veil. Tuck the folded ends at either side of the waist of your skirt, making sure the longer side is on top of the shorter side. Take the top layer and hold the short end above your head.
10. The small sailing ship – inspired by this beautiful video
11. The circle – I learned this from this video
12. The mystical ghost – inspired by this video
13. The curtains
14. The wings
15. The goddess
16. The cape – take one of the long ends of your veil, and tuck it at the waist of your skirt. I usually start by tucking at either side of my waist, then clean up the edge by tucking the rest into the waistband. Then hold the other long edge of your veil like a cape. I like to come out of this by turning and letting the veil go, which makes the veil look like another layer of your skirt 🙂
17. The hugging drape
18. The sexy drape
19. The Rachel Brice – inspired by Rachel Brice’s photos found here.
20. The superhero cape – inspired by this dancer’s strong entrance in this video.
21. The Shakira’s circle – inspired by this cute video of Shakira belly dancing.
22. The Mercedes Nieto – I LOVE her dancing! This was inspired by this piece, and I was so fortunate to have been to her workshop to learn a version of this choreo!
23. The Greek god
24. The Aziza – inspired by this beautiful piece by Aziza.
25. The loose coverup – inspired by this vintage dancing.
26. The headdress – this is my interpretation of words of wisdom shared in this thread at Bhuz.
27. The faux drape sleeves – this is also my interpretation of words of wisdom shared in the same thread as above at Bhuz.
Hope you enjoyed it! Next week I will come back with another DIY belly dance costume project. So sign up for the Sparkly Belly newsletter from the below link to get updates and free access to patterns and resources that I share only with newsletter subscribers 🙂
Click here to sign up and get access to the subscriber only page 🙂
Thank you for reading, and keep sparkling!
P.S. Pin this photo as a reminder 😉
Want to make costuming bits yourself?
8 comments for “27 Ways to Wear a Belly Dance Veil in 5.5 minutes!”