Dancing with silk and how silk behaves

Imagine the veil is like a large lung, when it is full of air, is it open and colorful and it floats.  When it has no air in it, it folds in on itself and deflates.  Use your hands, your arms, your whole body to OPEN the veil and BREATHE into it.  Imagine you are breathing your AURA into the veil.  Then let your hands, arms and body slowly (and artfully) drop, allow the silk to take its time fluttering down.  Don't cheat your audience out of the visual pictures silk makes on its own, just with the air.  Never rush your movements with veil, in particular with silk.  

You can realistically expect it will take as long to learn how to dance with a veil, specifically silk veil, as it does to learn how to dance with any other prop such as zills, sword, cane, etc.  Do not expect your veil to instantly behave and do not expect yourself to be an instant expert at veil dance.  Veil dance is a moving meditation that requires effort, patience, and practice just like anything else.  

Holding the veil

How you hold the veil, believe it or not, will largely influence how you dance with the veil.  Even holding a veil and doing some simple dance moves should be practiced.  You want to become comfortable holding the veil different ways, using different hand holds, and learning how to shift your fingers and hands around to change the hand holds.  

It is also imperative that you PRACTICE dropping your veil and finding the edge again without looking.  Practice this over and over so that when it comes time for performance and you accidentally drop an edge, you will know how to regain control without looking like it was an accident.  You can learn to incorporate accidents into your dance routine.  

Dropping and finding the edges will take practice.  Silk, because the fabric is so  light, may require extra practice.  If you let go of silk, it has a tendency to float and ripple on its own right out of your grasp.  Other fabric veils may fall limply to the floor, but silk has a magic way of moving and it will literally fall on the air and ripple right out of your grasp.  

Once you are comfortable dropping and finding the edge, do some simple combinations with the veil, or spin around and drop an edge again.  PRACTICE dropping your veil during dance movements and spins so that you learn how to recover WHILE YOU ARE DANCING as well.    Mastering this simple skill will give the dancer a professional appearance instead of an appearance that the dancer is still a beginner.

Illustrations show hand holds specific to silk double veil. They work for the large Wings or the Little Wings. 

Let's say you want to spin so each veil is in one hand and you are in the center, sort of like in the center of a vortex, and the veils make a big colorful space around you.  You will need a large space to do this.  Trust me I've knocked over a lot of stuff before :)

When you are dancing with double veils, (1), (2), (3) will most likely be your most common hand holds. You can transition into many different movements with double veils when your hands are in this position.

Hold the veil in front of you so that the curved edge is on the bottom and you are holding the straight edge along the top.

To dance with two veils, you will hold one veil in each hand as shown here - (1). 

The picture (2) shows a veil held in my left hand.  Note how the silk lies across my palm which is facing upward.  I hold the veil with my thumb to steady it.  Your palms should remain open while you are trying to float the veil.  By floating I mean doing a move like a spin where the veil is fully open and does not close in on itself.  The veil remains open like wings spread open.   You want the veil to SIT on the air.  I can't stress the importance of the palms up enough. 

• You will want to grab the left top edge of the veil with your left hand (on the straight edge, about 6 to 8 inches from the left top edge of the veil)
  
• Place your left hand palm facing up under the edge of the veil.  You will hold the edge as pictured, so that the straight edge lies over your extended palm and is secured by your thumb. 
  
• The next picture shows a veil held in my right hand - (3).  Same way of facing the palms upward and securing with your thumb.  
  
• Do the same with the second veil with your right hand.  But grab the left edge of the veil that goes in your right hand.  So you will be holding both veils, one in each hand, palms up, veil 1 is left edge in left hand, veil 2 is left edge in right hand.  

Are you holding them correctly?  Experiment with hand placement to figure out where it's best for you to hold them.

This hand hold is also useful if you want to dance with the large half circle veils as Wings. 

Creating the "Butterfly Effect"

Look at the photo (4), this is using two large Wings, one corner of each veil is tucked into my costume belt.  You will want to tuck it deep enough to give the veils a good anchor (it's easy to pull them out accidentally!).  When you tuck the edge of the veils into your belt or skirt, make sure to drape the silk so it rests gracefully and looks like part of the costume. 

Use your arms and hands to paint pictures with the silk.  Make your movements big and dramatic, and allow the silk to fall down slowly and flutter in the air. 

Lift your arms together at the same time and open the silk Wings.  Extend your body and tip back your head if you are comfortable with it. 

Spinning and Windmills

You can leave the edges tucked into your belt to spin inside the veils or do a Butterfly or Windmill turn.  Lift one arm up and keep the other arm opposite.  The veils are easier to control when they are tucked in your belt, and it's easier to rest your arms.

Email me at akaisilksinfo@yahoo.com for more info and tips.
Website: Akaisilks.com

Comments
SumayaSaahir
Jes, you are a toal veil goddess. :)