Floorwork and costumes

[Nejmeh]

Besides the obvious'look their is a beaver'splits, are their other things to avoid? I guess a very lucious, lots of fabric-y skirt would do best? Are their other things to think about with your costume if you are doing floorwork?

It should be a light and natural dance, so a costume that matches...

 

[Shanazel]

Wear something sturdy and washable. Rolling around on the floor can snag delicate fabrics, soak up dust and odd spills, and then there's always the wonderful moment when you get a foot of knee caught in the hem...

 

[Greek Bonfire]

When doing floor work, wear a costume that you can get back up in without getting caught in it and tripping. I didn't practice for that one time and it got on video. Luckily, the video was not released anywhere because otherwise, it was a pretty decent performance.

 

[Amulya]

I never want to do floorwork due to the risk on the costume. Most fabrics get damaged or dirty

Shanazel, you can make it sound so glamorous :lol:

 

[Shanazel]

I did floor work for a long time because it was expected and did not find it the least bit glamorous. It hurt my knees, was hard on my costumes and in some venues I simply felt safer on my feet.

 

[shiradotnet]

I used to wear harem pants when I knew I was going to be performing floor work. Sometimes I'd wear the harem pants instead of a skirt, and sometimes I'd wear them under a skirt.

See this link: Tips and Tricks for Dancing with a Sword and scroll down to the header that says, "Costuming Issues When Using a Sword". You'll see a photo of me kneeling in a red costume with a sword on my head. In that photo, I'm actually wearing red pants made of the same fabric as the skirt, so it's hard to tell which is which. The pants have a front slit from the ankle to mid-thigh, so in this pose the fabric was able to fall away and show my leg, but up near my hips I still had the pants covering everything that the audience would hope would be covered.

 

[Gia al Qamar]

Avoid belts or skirts with beading that falls around the knee area...kneeling on beads, sequins or rhinestones hurts!
Harem pants by themselves or under skirts and terrific and can hide knee pads if you need them. A-line skirts can be moved to work with your movements on the floor...knowing that you're 'covered' will allow you to dance withour being self conscious.
Make sure that you have a GREAT fitting bra too...when not in the 'upright' position, breasts have a tendancy to fall away from the edge of bra cups...proper fitting with avoid gaps!

 

[Greek Bonfire]

I did floor work for a long time because it was expected and did not find it the least bit glamorous. It hurt my knees, was hard on my costumes and in some venues I simply felt safer on my feet.

Knees, elbows, hip bones - they all hurt. Now when I do it, it is very brief, and I am usually sitting in a kneel position so I don't have to put pressure on my knees. But then the tops of my feet hurt <sigh>

 

[~Diana~]

don't wear anything with long fringe!! It tends to get stuck in your toes and that just ends in disaster when trying to get up or move.

 

[Amulya]

Harem pants by themselves or under skirts and terrific and can hide knee pads if you need them.

Knee pads! Great idea.

 

[shiradotnet]

Knee pads! Great idea.

Before a Turkish drop gone bad put an end to my doing floorwork, I found that I needed knee pads and top-of-the-foot pads when practicing. Otherwise, it just hurt too much. However, I found I did NOT need the pads when performing - when performing, I was "in the zone" so much that I didn't notice any kind of discomfort on my knees and tops of my feet.

I always thought that was an interesting phenomenon.

 

[Yame]

I just did floorwork for the first time in a performance last night for a very brief amount of time. I was wearing pants and a bra and belt set, so I knew nothing would peak out that should stay hidden, and that the pants could be washed if they got dirty. Plus, having something--even if it's just a thin piece of fabric--covering my knees is better than having my bony naked knees touching the floor without any protection.

Floorwork isn't normally a part of my repertoire because I feel like to be able to do it, the situation needs to be perfect in every single way. From what you are wearing to how you are feeling to the type of venue you are performing in. The audience needs to be set up in such a way that you are still visible when down on the ground, and that you are not unintentionally "crotching" half your audience when you go into a kneeling backbend. You need to have been more careful pinning your costume because it's easier for it to shift when you do floorwork than when you're just standing. Certain types of flooring don't lend themselves to floorwork and certain performance areas are not safe or clean enough for you to get down on.

So those are all things that need to be considered.

 

[Nejmeh]

Thank you all for yur advice!

Hmmm, I see a lot of you ladies don`t like floorwork. Is that because it`s painfull and/or not always as usefull(as yame points out; stagewise etc) or because you just don`t like the look of it?


As for the kneepads, which kind do you use?