Belly dance veil moves are demystified in Belly Dance Veil with Sarah Skinner. It offers techniques that suit dancers of all levels and provides a comprehensive range of techniques to enhance one’s repertoire. Sarah covers topics like handling different types of veils, unraveling complex moves, and adapting moves for personal style. She has a user-friendly presentation, clear instructions, and a charismatic teaching style.
This DVD focuses on belly dance veil moves, techniques, and performance. This video is a valuable resource for both beginners and those looking to refine their veil dancing skills. Sarah thoroughly explains and breaks down the techniques, offering short dance sections for each veil move set to music.
The instructional content goes beyond traditional belly dance classes by even addressing mishaps during performances and veil moves. Sarah’s teaching style is clear and engaging, with an emphasis on practical application.
She covers a wide variety of moves, providing variations and sequences for choreography. The DVD also includes a dance performance in full costume, which she dissects, so you can learn the choreography easily. The choreography is enriched by great music and innovative combinations.
Sarah’s expertise shines in discussing veil materials, sizes, and fabrics, enhancing dancers’ knowledge of selecting appropriate veils. This DVD has depth, detailed instruction, and showcases both basic and intricate veil maneuvers.
The DVD has high production quality as with all World Dance New York videos.
Everything to know about belly dancing with a veil. From choosing a veil, to veil movements, to a complete choreography.
Belly Dance Veil Moves – The Basics
Sarah begins the video explaining the different types of veils, fibers, and construction to help you select the perfect veil for your performance. She is surrounded by a sea of colorful veils on the floor.
She mainly discusses the different types of silk chiffon fabric veils. The lighter a veil is, the floatier it is. It doesn’t sink as fast as a heavy veil, which gives a dancer more time to complete moves and is visually appealing to the audience. She describes the differences between a $10 vs $30 a yard veil. The more expensive veil is going to be smoother in your hand and doesn’t catch on itself.
When you buy a costume from Egypt or Amazon it usually comes with a cheap veil. The veil snags. The veil is made from a low thread count per inch, which keeps costs low. It’s like the difference between low and high thread count sheets. These cheap veils usually have a beaded edge. These veils are meant for the dancer making an entrance, not for an entire veil choreography.
If you buy from China, you get a great price point, but everyone will have the same veil colors. This is when you might want to get a hand painted silk veil to match your costume.
Momme is a Japanese word used to described the weight of silk fabric. Sometimes you’ll see momme abbreviated as mm in a veil listing. The smaller the momme number, the lighter the silk fabric
A 5 momme silk veil is lighter and thinner than 8 momme silk veil. The 5 momme veil is very see through veil allows you to see where you are stepping, but it is easily damaged. An 8 momme veil will last longer. Longer veils, such as 4-yard veils. are much lighter if go you go with a 5 momme vs 8 momme fabric. .
Sarah, next discusses veil shapes and lengths, which are a dancer’s personal preference. She likes a 45” wide fabric to use for a veil. 60” wide fabric is heavier, but very dramatic. She likes for the veil to meet floor when she has it draped around her neck. She likes an unhemmed veil edge because it makes the veil lighter.
Working with a Veil
She next talks about her preferred way to hold the veil and nice posture, including how to breathe in sync with your veil.
Belly Dance Veil Moves – Wraps
She says that typically you dance your first song in a veil wrap and then unwrap the veil in the second song in your performance set. She gives detailed instructions on five veil wraps/unwraps to use when coming on to a stage. She then demonstrates each wrap to music. This video instruction about belly dance veil moves is about 13 minutes long.
- Basic Wrap: She shows this wrap with a standard length veil and a 4-yard veil.
- Basic Double Wrap: This veil wrap is suitable for a 4-yard veil.
- Toga Wrap: This is simple veil wrap to unwrap.
- Goddess Wrap: Sarah has a clever way of unwrapping the veil with a sail and tent move.
- Turkish Turtleneck: This is a more complicated wrap, which is hard to find instructions on how to do. This wrap is good for barrel turns with a veil.
Belly Dance Veil Moves – Turns
When one thinks of belly dance veil moves, spinning with the veil is the first thing that comes to mind as it’s the most intuitive way to float a veil. She doesn’t give a lot of explanations about turning technique, so you should be comfortable with turns before adding a veil to your turns. The veil turn instruction is about 8 minutes long.
- Balance: Sarah says that drinking lots of water helps her prevent dizziness when turning. She also talks about spotting during turns.
- Variations: Height of body, arm positions, and speed. She gives tips on arm positions.
- Traveling Turns: She demonstrates spotting while doing travelling turns.
- Varying Speed: Slow to speeding up turns.
- Turn with Head Rolls: Explains head rolls as coming from the chest to not injure your next and tips for not losing your balance.
- Levels Change: Demonstrates going down and up with entire body while turning with the veil.
- Barrel Turn: Gives a technique to use to do a barrel turn if you can’t bend because of back issues.
- Character Turn: A character turn is one when arm is overhead and one out to the side.
- Cycle and Cone Turns: These are variation of the character turn in which you face is concealed by the veil
Buying Belly Dance Veils
Read our review of the top fan veils we’ve used.
Skill Focus Time Breakdown Infographic
Belly Dance Veil with Sarah Skinner is 112 minutes long. The following infographic is an approximate breakdown of how many minutes are included in the DVD for various belly dance skills. As you can see, most of the video is devoted to belly dance veil moves and technique.
Belly Dance Veil Moves – Cascades
Veils behave differently in each of these belly dance veil moves because of the fabric and length, so make sure to practice when you get a new veil. A veil cascade is basically a veil movement pattern. She demonstrates some timing variations and leg movements for the veil cascades.
Sarah does several practice sessions of these veil cascades strung together in mini choreography sequences. This belly dance veil movement section is about 14 minutes long.
- Kiss: The veil kisses over your head and then cascades down.
- S-shape: This a variation of the veil “kiss” move. The kiss can be done with one arm at a time or both arms.
- Tornado: A variation of the S-shape, in which the veil flutters down.
- Venus: Sarah demonstrates 3 versions of the “Venus” veil movement, including front-to-back, with a pop, back-to-front (step over the curtain/veil), flicks, and snake arms. You can do a head flip during this movement.
- Waterfall: She demonstrates a lean out with waterfall for a nice body line.
Belly Dance Veil Moves – Traveling Steps
Sarah likes the rumba step and its variations for slowly moving across the stage with a floating veil. Your dance will look flat if you do all your belly dance veil moves while standing in one spot, so you need to integrate some traveling steps into your routine. This veil movement section is about 7 minutes long.
- Basic Rumba: Step-step-pause with a releve. She demonstrates the basic rumba traveling steps with some of the veil movements from the previous cascades section to make two combinations.
- Rumba-Arabesque: In this version, the releve is replaced with an Arabesque step and an arm movement pattern. She demonstrates the rumba-Arabesque traveling steps with some of the veil movements from the previous cascades section and pivots to make two combinations.
- Rocking Rumba: In this variation, the releve is replaced with stepping back. She demonstrates one veil movement combination using the rocking rhumba step.
Belly Dance Veil Moves – Switches
Switches are the most tricky belly dance veil moves because your veil is more likely to get caught or knotted while doing them. She demonstrates the switches in a three mini combinations. The sandstorm switch movement is an unusual veil pattern that you don’t see that often. She shows the dramatic movement of coming in and out of the veil envelop and framing the dancer’s body while doing hip movements. The tented butterfly move tangles and untangles the veil, which is another uncommon veil movement pattern.
This veil switches section is about 22 minutes long.
- Matador
- Basic (sometimes referred to as the washing machine veil movement)
- Turn
- Hip Circle
- Rocking Step
- Sandstorm
- Butterfly
- Envelope, which also shows the peek a boo and the turban
- Tented Butterfly
Veil Dance Endings
Sarah gives tips and ideas on how to put the veil down after finishing your veil routine and then how to pick the veil up elegantly at the end of your dance performance. You don’t want to leave your veil on the stage when you exit. The ways to set the veil down include a the “neat drop,” “let go,” and “fold it up.”
Veil Mishap Recovery
Sarah advises to practice veil mishap recovery tactics. It gets caught on a chair in a restaurant performance, dropping an edge, the veil gets twisted, the veil gets caught on your head or face, dropping the veil completely.
Veil Choreography
Sarah first demonstrates the choreography. Ten combinations make up the choreography, which is slightly over 6 minutes long. The choreography includes a veil wrap entrance with an unwrap. The veil choreography uses almost all of the movements she taught, including the veil cascades, wraps. Traveling steps, and spins. She uses almost all the veil moves she taught in the video.
The belly dance movements are minimal, which makes the choreography suitable for a beginner dancer who is comfortable with spinning. There are lots of spins in the choreography. The music is slow and melodic. Including the introduction taksim. Sarah first demonstrates the complete veil choreography in a beautiful cabaret costume in blue and green before she breaks the choreography into step-by-step combinations by 8-counts.
Veil Music Used
The following are Amazon links to some of the music used in the Belly Dance Veil with Sarah Skinner DVD.
Choreography Music
- “Nihavent Oriental” by Burhan Ocal album “Sultan’s Secret Door”
Music in Veil Moves Sections
- “Sagapo” by Avram Pengas & The Noga Group album “Santorini”
- “Tulum” by Pangia album “Pangia Volume 2”
- “Bir Dimet” by Amir Naoum & Elias Sarkar album “Bellydance – It’s Your Show”
- “Ciftetelli Taksim” by Amir & Elias Sarkar album “Bellydance – It’s Your Show”
- “Takasim Amniyat” by Amir Naoum & Elias Sarkar album “Dance Today” Bellydance & Samba”
Used for teaching veil cascades, traveling steps, wraps, turns, and switches.
Used for teaching veil cascades, traveling steps, wraps, turns, and switches.
Dancer Skill Level – Beginner
This video is a beginner level. However, any level of dancer can incorporate these veil patterns into their dance.
DVD Review Rating – 5 Stars
We give this video a rating of 5 stars because it has over 30 veil movements or steps, which is plenty to learn for a dancer to have a large veil move repertoire. With the choreography divided into 10 combinations easily accessible from the main menu, it makes it easy for a dancer to learn each combo without having to hunt for the section in a long video. A dancer could also shorten the choreography by eliminating some of the combinations as 6 minutes is a long veil routine.
Everything to know about belly dancing with a veil. From choosing a veil, to veil movements, to a complete choreography.