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parasitegirlI slept in on the 12, not sure if I would be kept up all night by Sema Yildiz.
My morning tourist activity was the Basilika Cistern.
Pictures of day 5 &6 (but mostly 6) starting with me and Sema at a bar.
www.facebook.com/album.php
Around 12:00 I headed to the Taxsim station and walked down to my now favorite internet café. Before doing so I made sure I knew the location of Fazil Studios NYC so that I wouldn’t be late for my 2pm class.
When I’d talked to Gonul on the phone she’d given me directions, which I only half jotted down. None of the places referenced in the instructions made sense to me at the time, but I didn’t worry. I had the address and directions from the web page! I can find things on maps.
Before the Internet café I walked to make sure I could find the studio…I found the street address from the web page, saw a metal plate the studio name. Gonul had mentioned it was in the same building as a restaurant. Check. I went off to update my blog with the warm fuzzy feeling one gets when one has correctly navigated a foreign country and found an address.
Around 1:30 I left the café. I was ready to meet and take a private lesson from a diva. You don’t keep a diva waiting.
I mean we're talking about Princess Banu. Google her. Enjoy the pasties. Princess " In those days, in Turkey, dancers took off their skirts, it was part of the dance. I took off my top and revealed the pasties, it was my gimmick. All of my costumes were designed solely by me." Banu!
I feel ok about calling Princess Banu a diva on my public blog, because she used the term more than once to describe herself. Gonul, when talking to me over the phone, must have used the term diva about six times in a minute to explain what I should expect.
”She is a real diva. We don't really have divas here. Topkapi ıs no diva, she's really sweet. Princess is a diva though, I mean she's earned the right to be one...she's a diva.”
I climbed the stairs to the third floor. I briefly thought Gonul had said something about it being on the first floor (which, in Turkey, is not the same things as the ground floor. The ground floor is 0) but dismissed it thinking maybe what I thought of as the third floor was really what I’d usually be thinking of as the 2nd floor (thus the Turkish 1st floor)…I didn’t think much about it because there were these great retro movie posters framed in the hallway to entertain me. I waited on the stairs infront of a there was a large door that said Fazil Studios NYC. No one replied to my knocking but I was 20 minutes early, so I sat and relaxed, looking at the prints.
About five to two I started to worry. I activated my iPhone, long distance charges be damned, and called Gonul at the studio. She answered, although I had not heard the phone ringing. She asked where I was and I told her I was at the studio. She asked if I was outside her door and I said I was. She opened the door and I was not there.
She asked about the directions she’d given me, which I had written down but not brought.
You see, Gonul had problems at the first location of the studio…the studio I was at. For the record: the current studio is not across from the British Embassy. She gave me directions and I said I’d call again once I’d turned the corner after the Russian Consulate. She told me it was a bit of a walk or something to that effect.
You know how I said that when you’re lost all mosques look alike? Foreign Embassies? Same. I walked past the Russian one and turned at…um…Sweden? I called and she started describing things I should be seeing “there’s a man on a cycle…” and once we realized I’d missed the mark I scurried back the way I came. Gonul had stressed that I should just ask directions…but I didn’t. I’m not usually that stubborn. I think part of it was the voice in my head that screams “I can find things on a map in Japan! Countries with STREET NAMES should not be able to defeat me!!!” I turned down what I thought to be the right street and called again.
“…There’s a woman in a red top running…”
“That’s ME!”
“Take your time, dear.”
I still managed to walk past it and have to double back.
Gonul said “Aren’t you lovely?!” and hugged me hello.
Gonul led me up to her studio. Princess was seated in the front room. She gave me the tiniest finger squeeze as a greeting. A REAL LIVE DIVA!
A few more words about Gonul. I felt as comfortable in person with her as I had over the phone. Those of you readers who knew me when I had short, spikey/messy, black hair and dramatic hipster glasses…Gonul looks a little like the big-sister version of that me, albeit a more Turkish me. Digging around her Facebook photos and seeing her as a bleached-blonde with roots only solidified that gut reaction. I’ve had that hair!
Here is Gonul with Ahmet Ogren. See?
I regret I did not remember to take a picture with Princess...but here is a picture stolen from Sema Yildiz's friends page, which you should check out because it is impressive and you get to see lovely ladies like Didem without make-up...they're still lovely, but more...real!
I mean...this better than anything else illustrates Diva Vs. Slightly Exhausted "Mom-to-many-dancers" Yildiz.
The three of us talked. We got on the topic of costumes because…well…I’m me and she's Princess Banu!…and I had a wallet full of Euros I was planning to bring to Bella after my lesson. Gonul told me that Princess makes and sells costumes and that they’re unique and unlike anything she’s really seen (which, as you know, can mean many things, a few of them good).. I said that I do too (and eventually I whipped out the iPhone pictures to show that “No! I really make the good kind!” ). Princess then brought from her bag a red Egyptian dress that looked like so much of what I’ve always seen…and I don’t do dresses. They eat me.
I expressed the fact that I don’t really do dresses, which Princess objected to because it’s really one of THE ways to go with Egyptian style (which is what she’s trained in). Gonul objected to the fact that THIS wasn’t one of her creations and that she really should show me her creations…which she hadn’t brought.
Did I want to see Princess Banu’s costumes? Of course I did.Princess Banu is famous and infamous for her costumes and lackthereof.
It’s PRINCESS BANU! You don’t get much more iconographic than that. I paid too damned much (49$?) for a horribly written book about (Turkish) Oriental Bellydance because of the pictures included in it. It is a book I turn to when thinking about photoshoots and vintage styled costumes. It is the book to own if you want to see the visuals of why Turkish style appeals to me…and sometimes is treated like a dirty stepchild who doesn’t know how to behave like a proper girl…sometimes it doesn’t know how to behave. Sometimes it is vulgar! Sometimes the line between burlesque and bellydance was blurred. I do wish someone would do comparative research into Romani music and dance in Turkish variety theater before WW2 and Jewish music and performances in the American vaudeville scene.
I’d suggest that if you don’t have the book and you’re in Istanbul, you can probably buy a copy off Princess Banu…but I told her how much I paid for mine, maybe even inflated the cost to flatter her, so I doubt she’d give you a good price.
I still regret not buying Zarifa Aradoon's The Belly dance Costume Book for 100$ when I had the chance…but that’s another story. Someday.
When Princess went to get changed, Gonul told me that story about Princess being kidnapped by a sheik for 90 days…also true.
I went and got changed into a half top and my silk skirt. A thin, tall girl in the hall gave my look and midriff a big smile and “nice” gesture.
The studio space was lovely, open, filled with natural light…and it would have been an amazing place to work even if I hadn’t been coming from the dark, cramped, subterranean studios of Japan.
There wasn’t much, if any, warm up, some following her traveling moves. I would highly stress that anyone who does a private or workshop with Princess Banu take the time before to warm up and stretch…and to up the yoga and stretching in the weeks before…and to wear knee pads. I would advise against going with legs aching from too much walking/calves knotted and inflexible…as I had.
We did some travel and follow and she said I did well, but my arms needed work. My hands still kill some of the lines my arms make, so she sat me down and made me imitate her arms/wrists for a while and told me to practice with grapes or something between my thumbs and first two fingers to raise awareness…so between practice with zills, I hold the leftover tokens I didn’t need once I'd bought my Akbil.
Princess modified her moves. She’s done permanent damage to her knees and can’t do the backbends she used to. I remember that Sema Zildiz had a few similar limitations when she taught in Japan. Princess was, however, getting me to go deep into backbends for very dramatic large hip circles with slight bouncing. I think it would be possible to do these, and floorwork, more often, but I would stress to dancers to crosstrain with yoga/pilates, coretraining, and muscle building. You don’t NEED the crosstraining to start, but would need it to prevent these moves from doing you damage. These aren’t movements that are, by themselves, super dangerous, but they are movements that have a great potential for damage.
I had a hard time understanding her at points and in clarifying the moves she could not do but wanted me to try, sometimes I tried too often in an attempt to fulfill her wishes. I think in a private lesson you can get enough corrections (and pursed lips when you’re doing it wrong) that a translator isn’t needed….but if it were a small workshop I’d want a translator.
One of the aspects of belly dance that often gets a bad name, and is somewhat out of vogue (and not permitted in some countries) is “floorwork.” It is, as the name suggests, done on the floor…in reclining poses and on your knees poses…so I think you can imagine why some folks find it taboo…it also takes some very strong thigh muscles. I’ve had floorwork workshop sections before (Artemis and Sema Yildiz) so I knew the basic vocabulary. Princess ran me through a series of floorwork combos, corrected, re-ran me through, corrected.
If you want some old-school floorwork in all its glory (and some of its questionability) she's your diva. Some of the moves we worked on were lovely, sensual, and “useable” for me for the few times a year I have a venue where floorwork would make sense. Occasionally a move felt too sexual or absurd for me to think I could ever use it (resting my weight on my elbows and forearms, my head down, one leg extended and one jackknifed, as my hips rise up and down from the floor/ pulling myself in a circle on my arms…) but those moments were what I had seen in older footage/knew there was a history of use. Floorwork still pops up in Turkish Oriental style, and does appeal to me (I used to do it more often, but my moves were limited). There;s a clip on youtube of her doing floorwork. I know some of you will find it vulgar, and some of it doesn't appeal to me...but she taught me more than just that...as well as teaching that.
That clip feels rushed, she's more languid now
This is a clip of her when younger, and feels a bit less rushed. Looking at this clip I realize that I shouldn't have been surprised that her vintage costume fit me so well...and I think "When I go back to Istanbul...if Princess has any of THESE vintage costumes...I'd pay bella prices...but shhhh...."
'the floorwork, they love too much, they love too much the floorwork and the..how you say..rıtm solo...just too much they love.
A clip with the same costume modified for her changing body and modesty.
I loved it. When she danced I could really see her grace and stage presence coming out. She’s got contained grace now. When I go back to Istanbul I would be interested in reviewing floorwork with her and doing a private lesson on her interpretation of Egyptian style oriental.
Baby Banu!
But, I was in no condition to do the private lesson. At the end my knees were heavily bruised (mostly from dropping down on them) and I’d bruised the tops of my feet. My back was unhappy and I strained muscles in both thighs. In the future I would ramp up yoga and stretching the weeks before a private in floorwork, and I would do it earlier in my visit.
She had me show her my zills, but I couldn’t hear the music over the zildjains and disappointed her.
We took turns changing into street clothes. I talked to Gonul as the princess changed. I kept seeing movement in the hall.
“She’s practicing her model walk,” Gonul explained…and sure enough, the thin girl I’d seen was walking back…and forth…back…and forth…and was there in the hall doing the same thing during my first two privates with Ahmet.
Princess brought me to her home to show me costumes. I knew I would probably have to buy something, regardless of the quality. I was right. She makes them. You must tell her they are better than Bella. You have no choice. 'Prıncess, I buy any more and Ahmet wıll ask why you took all my money and I cannot pay hım!!'…I also had to promise “Next time I come here first, Bella after.” Her apartment is bright, and the room I was in had a minimal amount of furniture. She has me I put on special slippers in silver lame with smalls heels. She introduced Habibi, her tubby tabby cat, who made a squacking noice and waddled quickly away to hide under the table. She asked me if I knew what habibi means, I did.
She apologized slightly for the fact that all the surfaces (except the wood floor and the excersize bike) were covered with blankets and newspapers because of Habibi. She said he doesn’t like it when she travels…but my mother and I have owned that sort of cat. My mother used to have to cover the couches with plastic tarps before she went to sleep…which made the room look like we had Japanese homeless people living with us. I assumed “doesn’t like it when I travel” means “cat will pee on things and do damage the moment I am not looking. Been there!
She made me some instant coffee and asked if I was hungry…I admitted I was (I'd shoved the sugar cubes in my mouth as soon as her back was turned, I was so hungy and low on bloodsugar that I’d started to shake slightly. She offered me cake (turned out to be storebought cookies) and I said “please!” She also offered a sandwich but I felt it was only a formality of hospitality and assured her there was no need….then she went to get the costumes.
I wasn’t crazy about most of the costumes. The colors and shapes were good, but the newer things she’s making are below what I can make. They’re covered in sequins, but on the larger side of the sequin scale. If I made the same costume I’d be using smaller sequins and be throwing more beads and stones into the mix.
But there was one…WOW. It was obviously an older, used, vintage costume of hers. In the Oriental BellyDance book I have, in one of the pictures she’s wearing a belt made out of the same materials…it’s the silver one I posted pictures of…I choose it and another costume I was less in love with to try on…
(not from the book, but here's the same materials on another belt)
And SHIT that's my bra with different fringe!!
That clip also has sort of rushed quality in it, like the floorwork clip of the same era. Maybe not a great time for her. I also think it's about this time she may have done a playboy (playboylike?) magazine spread. No idea.Wild speculation of mine is this: I know Princess Banu doesn't drink now, she lives a rather private life...now.
On me!
I have to go back...because she might have the headpiece or gauntlets hidden away!
"That 'strass' ıs from germany. You cannot get now. Nowadays you see fabrıc on costumes, but then ıt was all strass and pallete. Thıs cape..wıth the lıght behınd ıt? They love too much."
And then she opened the chest of skirts!!! Some vintage styles of skirts I can't make because there are fabrics you just can’t get anymore and Japan doens't have the same thrift markets America does! Next time I will beg to get a crack at buying skirts and veils without bras and belts. She brought out a stunning skirt and CHIFFON CAPE (for the silver costume)…
The costume I wasn’t crazy about she brought out a lovely embellished chiffon skirt and veil for…
my homemade gold with her skirt and veil.
When she saw how much I loved the silver one I knew I would have to buy a second I did not love..I whined and moaned and we came to a price…at the time I felt robbed but happy….but afterwards as she did the math she seemed to be a bit annoyed with herself for not getting more…and when I returned to my hotel and really REALLY drooled over the silver I was giddy with excitement over the fact it is now mine…more giddy than any Bella made me feel.
After I bought the costumes and after we talked a little more I got giddy...maybe it was the sugar high and teh costume high but I found myself getting a little teary eyed and asking...
"Can I hug you?"
She obliged.
Eventually she walked me to the bus stop...well...far enough so that I could see the bus stop at which point she got this nervous/striken look and realized she had to hurry back because she realızed she left Habıbı wıth the unpacked skırts. I know that feeling so I cheek-kissed her goodbye.
I returned to my hotel and ended up calling Sema and rescheduling for the following night. I was too tired and my body too exhausted.
And just so you know...Prıncess Banu's card ıs bıgger than any busıness card holder wıll ever fıt.
My morning tourist activity was the Basilika Cistern.
Pictures of day 5 &6 (but mostly 6) starting with me and Sema at a bar.
www.facebook.com/album.php
Around 12:00 I headed to the Taxsim station and walked down to my now favorite internet café. Before doing so I made sure I knew the location of Fazil Studios NYC so that I wouldn’t be late for my 2pm class.
When I’d talked to Gonul on the phone she’d given me directions, which I only half jotted down. None of the places referenced in the instructions made sense to me at the time, but I didn’t worry. I had the address and directions from the web page! I can find things on maps.
Before the Internet café I walked to make sure I could find the studio…I found the street address from the web page, saw a metal plate the studio name. Gonul had mentioned it was in the same building as a restaurant. Check. I went off to update my blog with the warm fuzzy feeling one gets when one has correctly navigated a foreign country and found an address.
Around 1:30 I left the café. I was ready to meet and take a private lesson from a diva. You don’t keep a diva waiting.
I mean we're talking about Princess Banu. Google her. Enjoy the pasties. Princess " In those days, in Turkey, dancers took off their skirts, it was part of the dance. I took off my top and revealed the pasties, it was my gimmick. All of my costumes were designed solely by me." Banu!
I feel ok about calling Princess Banu a diva on my public blog, because she used the term more than once to describe herself. Gonul, when talking to me over the phone, must have used the term diva about six times in a minute to explain what I should expect.
”She is a real diva. We don't really have divas here. Topkapi ıs no diva, she's really sweet. Princess is a diva though, I mean she's earned the right to be one...she's a diva.”
I climbed the stairs to the third floor. I briefly thought Gonul had said something about it being on the first floor (which, in Turkey, is not the same things as the ground floor. The ground floor is 0) but dismissed it thinking maybe what I thought of as the third floor was really what I’d usually be thinking of as the 2nd floor (thus the Turkish 1st floor)…I didn’t think much about it because there were these great retro movie posters framed in the hallway to entertain me. I waited on the stairs infront of a there was a large door that said Fazil Studios NYC. No one replied to my knocking but I was 20 minutes early, so I sat and relaxed, looking at the prints.
About five to two I started to worry. I activated my iPhone, long distance charges be damned, and called Gonul at the studio. She answered, although I had not heard the phone ringing. She asked where I was and I told her I was at the studio. She asked if I was outside her door and I said I was. She opened the door and I was not there.
She asked about the directions she’d given me, which I had written down but not brought.
You see, Gonul had problems at the first location of the studio…the studio I was at. For the record: the current studio is not across from the British Embassy. She gave me directions and I said I’d call again once I’d turned the corner after the Russian Consulate. She told me it was a bit of a walk or something to that effect.
You know how I said that when you’re lost all mosques look alike? Foreign Embassies? Same. I walked past the Russian one and turned at…um…Sweden? I called and she started describing things I should be seeing “there’s a man on a cycle…” and once we realized I’d missed the mark I scurried back the way I came. Gonul had stressed that I should just ask directions…but I didn’t. I’m not usually that stubborn. I think part of it was the voice in my head that screams “I can find things on a map in Japan! Countries with STREET NAMES should not be able to defeat me!!!” I turned down what I thought to be the right street and called again.
“…There’s a woman in a red top running…”
“That’s ME!”
“Take your time, dear.”
I still managed to walk past it and have to double back.
Gonul said “Aren’t you lovely?!” and hugged me hello.
Gonul led me up to her studio. Princess was seated in the front room. She gave me the tiniest finger squeeze as a greeting. A REAL LIVE DIVA!
A few more words about Gonul. I felt as comfortable in person with her as I had over the phone. Those of you readers who knew me when I had short, spikey/messy, black hair and dramatic hipster glasses…Gonul looks a little like the big-sister version of that me, albeit a more Turkish me. Digging around her Facebook photos and seeing her as a bleached-blonde with roots only solidified that gut reaction. I’ve had that hair!
Here is Gonul with Ahmet Ogren. See?
I regret I did not remember to take a picture with Princess...but here is a picture stolen from Sema Yildiz's friends page, which you should check out because it is impressive and you get to see lovely ladies like Didem without make-up...they're still lovely, but more...real!
I mean...this better than anything else illustrates Diva Vs. Slightly Exhausted "Mom-to-many-dancers" Yildiz.
The three of us talked. We got on the topic of costumes because…well…I’m me and she's Princess Banu!…and I had a wallet full of Euros I was planning to bring to Bella after my lesson. Gonul told me that Princess makes and sells costumes and that they’re unique and unlike anything she’s really seen (which, as you know, can mean many things, a few of them good).. I said that I do too (and eventually I whipped out the iPhone pictures to show that “No! I really make the good kind!” ). Princess then brought from her bag a red Egyptian dress that looked like so much of what I’ve always seen…and I don’t do dresses. They eat me.
I expressed the fact that I don’t really do dresses, which Princess objected to because it’s really one of THE ways to go with Egyptian style (which is what she’s trained in). Gonul objected to the fact that THIS wasn’t one of her creations and that she really should show me her creations…which she hadn’t brought.
Did I want to see Princess Banu’s costumes? Of course I did.Princess Banu is famous and infamous for her costumes and lackthereof.
It’s PRINCESS BANU! You don’t get much more iconographic than that. I paid too damned much (49$?) for a horribly written book about (Turkish) Oriental Bellydance because of the pictures included in it. It is a book I turn to when thinking about photoshoots and vintage styled costumes. It is the book to own if you want to see the visuals of why Turkish style appeals to me…and sometimes is treated like a dirty stepchild who doesn’t know how to behave like a proper girl…sometimes it doesn’t know how to behave. Sometimes it is vulgar! Sometimes the line between burlesque and bellydance was blurred. I do wish someone would do comparative research into Romani music and dance in Turkish variety theater before WW2 and Jewish music and performances in the American vaudeville scene.
I’d suggest that if you don’t have the book and you’re in Istanbul, you can probably buy a copy off Princess Banu…but I told her how much I paid for mine, maybe even inflated the cost to flatter her, so I doubt she’d give you a good price.
I still regret not buying Zarifa Aradoon's The Belly dance Costume Book for 100$ when I had the chance…but that’s another story. Someday.
When Princess went to get changed, Gonul told me that story about Princess being kidnapped by a sheik for 90 days…also true.
I went and got changed into a half top and my silk skirt. A thin, tall girl in the hall gave my look and midriff a big smile and “nice” gesture.
The studio space was lovely, open, filled with natural light…and it would have been an amazing place to work even if I hadn’t been coming from the dark, cramped, subterranean studios of Japan.
There wasn’t much, if any, warm up, some following her traveling moves. I would highly stress that anyone who does a private or workshop with Princess Banu take the time before to warm up and stretch…and to up the yoga and stretching in the weeks before…and to wear knee pads. I would advise against going with legs aching from too much walking/calves knotted and inflexible…as I had.
We did some travel and follow and she said I did well, but my arms needed work. My hands still kill some of the lines my arms make, so she sat me down and made me imitate her arms/wrists for a while and told me to practice with grapes or something between my thumbs and first two fingers to raise awareness…so between practice with zills, I hold the leftover tokens I didn’t need once I'd bought my Akbil.
Princess modified her moves. She’s done permanent damage to her knees and can’t do the backbends she used to. I remember that Sema Zildiz had a few similar limitations when she taught in Japan. Princess was, however, getting me to go deep into backbends for very dramatic large hip circles with slight bouncing. I think it would be possible to do these, and floorwork, more often, but I would stress to dancers to crosstrain with yoga/pilates, coretraining, and muscle building. You don’t NEED the crosstraining to start, but would need it to prevent these moves from doing you damage. These aren’t movements that are, by themselves, super dangerous, but they are movements that have a great potential for damage.
I had a hard time understanding her at points and in clarifying the moves she could not do but wanted me to try, sometimes I tried too often in an attempt to fulfill her wishes. I think in a private lesson you can get enough corrections (and pursed lips when you’re doing it wrong) that a translator isn’t needed….but if it were a small workshop I’d want a translator.
One of the aspects of belly dance that often gets a bad name, and is somewhat out of vogue (and not permitted in some countries) is “floorwork.” It is, as the name suggests, done on the floor…in reclining poses and on your knees poses…so I think you can imagine why some folks find it taboo…it also takes some very strong thigh muscles. I’ve had floorwork workshop sections before (Artemis and Sema Yildiz) so I knew the basic vocabulary. Princess ran me through a series of floorwork combos, corrected, re-ran me through, corrected.
If you want some old-school floorwork in all its glory (and some of its questionability) she's your diva. Some of the moves we worked on were lovely, sensual, and “useable” for me for the few times a year I have a venue where floorwork would make sense. Occasionally a move felt too sexual or absurd for me to think I could ever use it (resting my weight on my elbows and forearms, my head down, one leg extended and one jackknifed, as my hips rise up and down from the floor/ pulling myself in a circle on my arms…) but those moments were what I had seen in older footage/knew there was a history of use. Floorwork still pops up in Turkish Oriental style, and does appeal to me (I used to do it more often, but my moves were limited). There;s a clip on youtube of her doing floorwork. I know some of you will find it vulgar, and some of it doesn't appeal to me...but she taught me more than just that...as well as teaching that.
That clip feels rushed, she's more languid now
This is a clip of her when younger, and feels a bit less rushed. Looking at this clip I realize that I shouldn't have been surprised that her vintage costume fit me so well...and I think "When I go back to Istanbul...if Princess has any of THESE vintage costumes...I'd pay bella prices...but shhhh...."
'the floorwork, they love too much, they love too much the floorwork and the..how you say..rıtm solo...just too much they love.
A clip with the same costume modified for her changing body and modesty.
I loved it. When she danced I could really see her grace and stage presence coming out. She’s got contained grace now. When I go back to Istanbul I would be interested in reviewing floorwork with her and doing a private lesson on her interpretation of Egyptian style oriental.
Baby Banu!
But, I was in no condition to do the private lesson. At the end my knees were heavily bruised (mostly from dropping down on them) and I’d bruised the tops of my feet. My back was unhappy and I strained muscles in both thighs. In the future I would ramp up yoga and stretching the weeks before a private in floorwork, and I would do it earlier in my visit.
She had me show her my zills, but I couldn’t hear the music over the zildjains and disappointed her.
We took turns changing into street clothes. I talked to Gonul as the princess changed. I kept seeing movement in the hall.
“She’s practicing her model walk,” Gonul explained…and sure enough, the thin girl I’d seen was walking back…and forth…back…and forth…and was there in the hall doing the same thing during my first two privates with Ahmet.
Princess brought me to her home to show me costumes. I knew I would probably have to buy something, regardless of the quality. I was right. She makes them. You must tell her they are better than Bella. You have no choice. 'Prıncess, I buy any more and Ahmet wıll ask why you took all my money and I cannot pay hım!!'…I also had to promise “Next time I come here first, Bella after.” Her apartment is bright, and the room I was in had a minimal amount of furniture. She has me I put on special slippers in silver lame with smalls heels. She introduced Habibi, her tubby tabby cat, who made a squacking noice and waddled quickly away to hide under the table. She asked me if I knew what habibi means, I did.
She apologized slightly for the fact that all the surfaces (except the wood floor and the excersize bike) were covered with blankets and newspapers because of Habibi. She said he doesn’t like it when she travels…but my mother and I have owned that sort of cat. My mother used to have to cover the couches with plastic tarps before she went to sleep…which made the room look like we had Japanese homeless people living with us. I assumed “doesn’t like it when I travel” means “cat will pee on things and do damage the moment I am not looking. Been there!
She made me some instant coffee and asked if I was hungry…I admitted I was (I'd shoved the sugar cubes in my mouth as soon as her back was turned, I was so hungy and low on bloodsugar that I’d started to shake slightly. She offered me cake (turned out to be storebought cookies) and I said “please!” She also offered a sandwich but I felt it was only a formality of hospitality and assured her there was no need….then she went to get the costumes.
I wasn’t crazy about most of the costumes. The colors and shapes were good, but the newer things she’s making are below what I can make. They’re covered in sequins, but on the larger side of the sequin scale. If I made the same costume I’d be using smaller sequins and be throwing more beads and stones into the mix.
But there was one…WOW. It was obviously an older, used, vintage costume of hers. In the Oriental BellyDance book I have, in one of the pictures she’s wearing a belt made out of the same materials…it’s the silver one I posted pictures of…I choose it and another costume I was less in love with to try on…
(not from the book, but here's the same materials on another belt)
And SHIT that's my bra with different fringe!!
That clip also has sort of rushed quality in it, like the floorwork clip of the same era. Maybe not a great time for her. I also think it's about this time she may have done a playboy (playboylike?) magazine spread. No idea.Wild speculation of mine is this: I know Princess Banu doesn't drink now, she lives a rather private life...now.
On me!
I have to go back...because she might have the headpiece or gauntlets hidden away!
"That 'strass' ıs from germany. You cannot get now. Nowadays you see fabrıc on costumes, but then ıt was all strass and pallete. Thıs cape..wıth the lıght behınd ıt? They love too much."
And then she opened the chest of skirts!!! Some vintage styles of skirts I can't make because there are fabrics you just can’t get anymore and Japan doens't have the same thrift markets America does! Next time I will beg to get a crack at buying skirts and veils without bras and belts. She brought out a stunning skirt and CHIFFON CAPE (for the silver costume)…
The costume I wasn’t crazy about she brought out a lovely embellished chiffon skirt and veil for…
my homemade gold with her skirt and veil.
When she saw how much I loved the silver one I knew I would have to buy a second I did not love..I whined and moaned and we came to a price…at the time I felt robbed but happy….but afterwards as she did the math she seemed to be a bit annoyed with herself for not getting more…and when I returned to my hotel and really REALLY drooled over the silver I was giddy with excitement over the fact it is now mine…more giddy than any Bella made me feel.
After I bought the costumes and after we talked a little more I got giddy...maybe it was the sugar high and teh costume high but I found myself getting a little teary eyed and asking...
"Can I hug you?"
She obliged.
Eventually she walked me to the bus stop...well...far enough so that I could see the bus stop at which point she got this nervous/striken look and realized she had to hurry back because she realızed she left Habıbı wıth the unpacked skırts. I know that feeling so I cheek-kissed her goodbye.
I returned to my hotel and ended up calling Sema and rescheduling for the following night. I was too tired and my body too exhausted.
And just so you know...Prıncess Banu's card ıs bıgger than any busıness card holder wıll ever fıt.
