Happy Holidays!
This year has been tremendous and I want to thank you all for visiting my site, buying my books, and supporting my creative projects in a myriad of ways. As a thank you, I have put together this holiday gift. I would like to introduce you to Johara, a belly dance paper doll to color. You can download her and her wardrobe as a four-page .pdf.
In 2016 We Published Not One, but Two books!
Becoming a Belly Dancer & Zills: Music on Your Fingertips
2016 was one of the biggest, fullest, and most productive years of my professional career. From January of 2015 through November of 2016, I had the distinct pleasure of working with a team of belly dancers, authors, costumers, and performers on the seminal book “Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage.” by Sara Shrapnell, Poppy Maya, Alisha Westerfeld, and myself. This comprehensive guidebook for students and performers of belly dance is 402 pages filled with “learned in the trenches” tips from professional instructors and performers.
In 2016, I also joined a team of three including photographer Alisha Westerfeld and illustrator George Goncalves, we completed the book “Zills: Music on Your Fingertips.” This book is filled with lavish photos, clear illustrations, and lots of information on the history, use, selection, playing, and care of finger cymbals. Both of these books are now available on Amazon.com and I’m so pleased with how well they both turned out!
Download Johara and her Wardrobe to Color
Simply download this four-page .pdf and print it out and color her in! I suggest using colored pencils, markers, or gel pens. And for the best results, print her out on heavier paper or card stock. Download a .pdf
2017 Here we come!
During the upcoming months, I’ll be back at work on the second book in the assiut series, “Assiut Belly Dance Costumes in Detail,” a guide to designing and making belly dance performance costume. This book will serve as the more hands-on, sewing manual companion to “The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut.” This is my big main project for the year, and I look forward to designing and building a dozen new assiut costumes that I will document along the way and present in beautiful photos by Alisha Westerfeld and Michael Baxter. If you are interested in this new book, be sure to join my mailing list for my bi-monthly updates, and follow me on YouTube for sewing vlogs or over on Facebook where I’m always sharing images, memes, and lamenting about never having enough coffee!
With all the trouble and the strife that’s happening in this world today, it’s nice to turn inwards and nurture our creative souls with music, movement, color, and life.
I wish you all a very Happy Holiday season!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Dec. 28, 2016