Performing in extreme weather

[gwinity]

I was wondering how you ladies (and gents) feel about performing in extreme temperatures, or in un-airconditioned venues. Do you dance in the heat or in fierce cold? Or does it not bother you?

It's been scorchingly hot here of late (yesterday was around 43C/110F), bone-dry, and the venue we were performing in was not airconditioned. Despite countless bottles of water, and trying to keep cool backstage, I don't feel any of us did our best, and I know I royally stuffed up. It was too hot to concentrate on what we were doing.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation, or have any tips for keeping one's cool while dancing in the extremes? What about in the extreme cold?

 

[Aniseteph]

I did go to a workshop in the summer when we were having a heatwave, and no airconditioning in the studio. We all pretended we were in Cairo

What about some nice and easy laid-back emergency routines for hot weather? Or a couple of those huge electric fans to provide a bit of desert breeze through your veils? For the cold, bouncy energetic routines with lots of big shimmies (and sequinned thermal underwear of course ).

 

[Mouse]

Being in Perth (Australia) we get some nasty hot weather in summer. I haven't ever missed a class due to weather, but a lot of people avoid class in the heat. Luckily we have airconditioning at our current venue, but the last one didn't and it was like a sauna. A slower paced class is the way to go in extreme heat IMO. I much prefer to dance in the cold than the heat.. its always much easier to get warm than cool

 

[joyisadancer]

Cold Weather Performance

Having danced in both Alaska and North Dakota I have a lot more experience with cold weather performance than hot. Our practice studio in Alaska was an old heavy exupment garage with cement floors and walls (except for the one wall that was a huge garage door). Needless to say if it's -20 or colder outside it's going to be a little chilly inside. If we were doing a dress rehersal and you had metal jewelry you would have to put it on at home 'cuz if you just threw it in the car it would be freezing before you got to the studio.

I know I mentioned flanel lined harem pants in a prevous thread but I really wasn't kidding. We did perform outside in the winter some (only in the above 0 temps) and you do warm up eventually but the total performance has to be a lot shorter than something in the summer because when it's that cold and you're using that much energy hypothermia is something you have to watch out for.

Now that I'm in Georgia temporarily, I'm discovering that I'd much rather have the cold than the heat. You warm up in cold weather but in hot weather you just get hotter

 

[Viv]

115 is a nice summer day around here so I'm way used to dancing in the heat. We cope by having hand held feather fans for when we are "background" instead of center stage, a frozen bottle of water in the car for immediately after the show (they melt to be icey cold water while your dancing), cotton headbands under headdresses/headbands that have been wet down with cool water or refrigerated for a bit, ice cubes tucked up in the back layers of a turban wrap, and my favorite drinking a gatoraide while I'm getting ready for a show so I can stay hydrated during the show. We also all have water bottle covers to use so we can have small water bottles on stage with us. We keep them to the back with veils, zills and other props and just kneel down and turn away from the audience to grab a quick drink when we aren't dancing. I've found if I can keep hydrated, I don't overheat anywhere near as much during a show no matter what the temp is.
Hope that helps!

 

[Miss_Winnii]

Ive performed a lot this heat summer, I always took a menthol before getting on stage, its keeps you cool for 3 minutes

 

[da Sage]

What Viv says about the frozen bottle of water is the same trick I use for walking in summer heat. You just refill a standard Coke or water bottle 4/5 full of water, freeze it overnight, and then slip it in the front pocket of your pants. The cold bottle cools your body (it sits on the fleshy part of your thigh, so it's fairly comfortable). Your body and the air both warm the ice enought to melt it, so you get cool water to sip.

 

[gwinity]

Thanks for the tips (and phtbhtbthtbht to Viv for being so blase about such hot weather!) Mouse, I haven't missed a class due to weather either, but if I'd have known I was going to be so affected by the heat (dizzy, loss of concentration, limbs not working properly), I might've been tempted to drop out of the performance and been murdered by my teacher afterwards. As it was, I could only do one of the pieces we'd been booked for.

Aniseteph, sadly it was all choreographed to specific music, and as we're a student troupe changing at the last minute would have equalled disaster! :lol:

The ice cubes in the turban sound like a good idea. We all had chilled water bottles in the dressing room, but couldn't bring anything on stage, for obvious reasons. Do you use energy drinks/gatorade/similar instead of water to keep from losing whatever minerals the body loses when you perspire?

Joy, I hadn't thought about the shorter performances and hypothermia in the extreme cold. Apart from keeping it short, how did you cope?

 

[teela]

For hot weather, you could also try something nice and damp inside your top as it helps keep you cool. If you are able to, some sort of cloth choker with lots of something that can be kept damp round the neck, damp headbands for the back of the neck.
For cold weather, i've done long johns under something with a gawazhee coat to try to stay warm.....LOL.
Either way you adjust and do what you need to do.

 

[Viv]

(and phtbhtbthtbht to Viv for being so blase about such hot weather!)

LOL!!!! Just call me a desert rat. I don't get warm until its over 100 degrees out. I don't count our normal summer temps of 112 to 117 as hot. Now when we hit 120 out, its hot

I highly, highly recomend drinking something like a gatoraide before a show on a hot day. I find it helps a lot.

 

[joyisadancer]

cold weather performance

Gwinity,
For cold weather performance we do a lot of the same things we do for cold weather living. Lots of layers is key. Warm harem pants with long johns underneath. 1 or 2 full skirts. Layered tops. Usually we at lease start with a Ghawazee top though we might take it off once we warm up some. No traditional cabaret style costumes as they are just not warm enough. Body stockings are very nice. Warm coverups for arriving and between numbers. We have to be careful to keep moving if you have a rest between #s because if your muscles start to cool down they cramp up pretty fast. Watch out for metal jewelry because it will get cold and sting you skin. Watch out for fristbite. (people think it has to be deathly cold to get frostbite but if the right part of your body is exposed and if it's wet like with sweat you can get it fairly easily. I got frostbite on my ears in a highschool gym class when we were sking outside).

Sounds crazy but oh my goodness it's fun to dance in the cold. People never expect to see belly dancers in the winter. We danced at a Christmas Festival one time and were surrounded by white snow and lighted evergreens. I have never seen a more beautiful or memorable setting for a performance.

 

[Safran]

Although coming from a relatively cold country, I can't recall a single time we've had a problem with too cold venues. Maybe that is because ouside the three summer months we consider performing outside absolutely out of the question Weatherwise, we are more afraid of unexpected (it always is, isn't it?) rain, when performing outside in the summer.

But my teachers have told me about an opposite problem in the winter - the performance venue was just way too hot! The host had been worried about ladies who aren't wearing that much clothes, so he had turned the heat to maximum and set the "stage" next to an oven.

 

[Yshka]

Hi girls, interesting. I've only had experience performing in rain and heavy wind (veil dance lol, looked really cool). The Netherlands don't really get extremely hot or extremely cold. Mostly it just rains a lot.

I've danced a few times maybe in a hot or cold venue, but usually then I just warm up thoroughly and make sure I cover up immediately after. For warm places I keep bottles of iced water close.

Now these are some pretty good tips. If I ever dance in extremely cold/hot places, I'll be sure to rely on those

 

[Shanazel]

All Wyoming weather is extreme- we take great pride in how awful it is since we can't do anything about it. What gets us most in outside venues here is wind. Not just a gentle zepher that wafts your veils gently into your face, but sustained 30 mph winds with gusts that threaten to blow you and the veil into Nebraska. A few years ago, a big gust tore a board off the barn behind our house and put it through our garage wall. Harem pants tend to be popular here for outdoor use. Small dancers using wings of Isis are frequently tossed aloft and found clinging to rooftops. Ja, you betcha, dancing in the wind can be a challenge.

 

[Yshka]

Ja, you betcha, dancing in the wind can be a challenge.

:lol:

 

[Aniseteph]

We danced at a Christmas Festival one time and were surrounded by white snow and lighted evergreens. I have never seen a more beautiful or memorable setting for a performance.

That sounds beautiful. A white Christmas with bellydancers. Perfect!

 

[Sara]

Aniseteph- you mean England has had a heatwave? :shok:

I can imagine wind being a big problem. :shok: The audience must feel it too in cold situations cause they aint moving.

 

[gwinity]

Ooh, Joy, that sounds beautiful.. and dreadfully cold! I can't imagine performing outdoors and risking frostbite - it simply doesn't get that cold here, but I'll remember that and the layers for a Canadian dancer-friend.

Small dancers using wings of Isis are frequently tossed aloft and found clinging to rooftops.

:lol: :clap:

 

[Kiraze]

Thanks for all the great tips! When I moved from cool Finland to hot and humid Singapore the biggest shock was not in fact the heat (which can be considered moderate as average is between 85 and 100) but the horrid humidity of the climate (average more than 80%)... Even though most of the dancing venues are almost too-well air-conditioned so that there is almost cold inside the humidity is so high that I feel that I am sweating all the time and my clothes never dry so the most important thing is to choose clothes where sweat cannot be seen...

My local dance friends try to convince that after some time body gets used to the climate and sweatting will be ceased but again some my Finnish friends here laugh that probably that will take several years

 

[sparklyraven]

I have danced in the pouring rain, which makes veil work a laugh riot and in the wind. yep - harem pants are your friend. I have costumes that are designated "outdoor costumes" and "indoor costumes". We have unpredictable weather soif there's an outdoor performance, you wear the outdoor costumes. period.