The veil is the first prop which you should get introduced to in belly dancing. It is made of sheer fabric such as silk, chiffon or any material which is very light and floaty and comes in various patterns and colours. I find chiffon to be the best material to use. It comes in various colours, 2 tones and patterned fabric but remains light and floats well.
PLEASE stay away from Organza. The array of colours is beautiful but it is rather stiff and creases very easily and cannot be used for veil work. You will find it difficult to work with and will soon dislike veil work and that is what we are trying to avoid.
The preferred length for your veil is 2.2m in length. When you hold your fabric straight out in front of you with arms straight out to the side, the veil should come just below your knees.
Sew the edges all around your veil to avoid fraying and leave one self edge on one side of the longest edge of your veil. The self edge is for your own purposes to be able to draw your veil up correctly and not draw it up on the short edge. However should you choose to sew all 4 edges it will just take practice to ensure you draw it up correctly.
Please avoid decorating your veil with ribbon and beads. It looks nice but makes your veil heavy and difficult to work with. The Egyptian veils which you can buy at flea markets have beautiful sequin / string decorations around all 4 edges. Please do not buy these veils as you will end up tossing it around more than dancing with it.
Holding your veil
When we hold our veil, we don’t want to grip it with clenched fists. The veil is your friend so treat it with love and respect.
Hold your veil between your middle finger and index finger like you are grasping it with scissors. Straighten your arms out to the side. Your arms will look elongated with the way you are holding the veil in your hands and you will look more calmed and relaxed.
The veil should not be hanging in front of you, it should be tort unless a movement requires it. A great way to make sure you hold your veil correctly would be to grab it with your two fingers in the middle and slide along the veil opening your arms out to the side.
So now that we have our veil, let us go through some veil movements.
Remember though that nothing can replace the benefits real classes can offer you.
Around self rotation
- Bring your left hand over your head towards the right side
- Let the right hand follow behind your left hand
- Rotate the veil all the way around until you are back to the front
- Now repeat
- This movement can be done to the left as well where you simply let the right hand lead and the left hand follow.
Half, half, whole
- Your arms are about a ruler length apart from each other and down in front of you
- Swing your veil to your right with both arms until your at right shoulder
- Come back and swing it over to the left side until your at your left shoulder.
- Come back to the right but now draw a full circle with your arms coming above your head to the left and complete by coming back down to in front of your body
Fountain
- Hold your veil in front of you again.
- Alternate by bringing your right hand up first and then your left hand goes up as your right hand goes down
- Repeat movement fairly quickly in front you.
Double Snake or Double ‘S’
- Hold the veil behind you
- Toss the veil over your head and as your bring your arms down, draw small S’s into the air
- Continuing going down until the floor and as you are going down to the floor kneel down with your veil.
- As your veil reaches the floor you should be in the kneeling position sitting up straight.
- Immediately stand up and turn bringing the veil behind you. When you stop turning the veil will now be behind you where you had begun.
Pose and turn – This movement is a nice dramatic pause within in your veil song
- Veil should be behind you
- Toss the veil over your head and bend over with the veil
- As soon as the veil touches the floor, drop the veil in your left hand and come back up tossing the veil back behind you with your right hand (do not let go)
- Take a moment to pose for 2 seconds with your left hand up and your right hand down behind you.
- Turn anti clockwise with your arms out to the side
- When you stop turning draw your veil up over your left arm.
Tumble
- Place the veil over your shoulders and let go of it.
- Take both your hands and grab the veil in the middle which is hanging over your neck
- Pull it off your shoulders and straighten your arms out as if you were holding the veil drawn up.
- Rotate the veil forward whilst holding it in your 2 hands. You will notice the veil starts to wind up.
- Stop and immediately rotate the veil backwards and end by tossing it over your head onto your shoulders.