Dance costume stitching

For Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Mohiniyattam, Kathak dance forms

Stitching a Bharatanatyam dance costume or any other classical dance dress for your child has become such a cumbersome process nowadays. Especially if you live outside India, spending time to search for the correct color saree and finding a nice tailor is at least one full day’s work. The cloth shops in India are extremely crowded no matter what the season is and tailors are always busy. Unless you know the tailor personally, getting a dance dress stitched in couple of weeks is a herculean task. Needless to explain the process of taking measurement at the tailors place!

How about doing all this without leaving you house at your convenient time, and get the costume of your choice delivered to you within 5 weeks? This is exactly what you can do from our online store http://www.DanceCostumesAndJewelry.com. We have experienced tailors in Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Cochin and Delhi to make the costume of your choice at its own authenticity. Most of our Bharatanatyam dresses are stitched from Chennai or Coimbatore and the Mohiniyattam dresses are stitched at Cochin. We have tailors in Hyderabad and Delhi for making Kuchipudi, Odissi and Kathak dresses.

How does the process of stitching dance dress online works? Ok, we will explain the process of ordering your own custom stitched dance dress from beginning to end, in the following paragraphs. First you need to create an account in our online store. Creating an account is very important and has many advantages. Once you create an account and enter your shipping address, our store remembers it and you need not enter your address each time. However, for security reasons, we do not store your credit card number. You have to enter it each time you process an order with us. This gives you the flexibility to use any card for your order. We accept all major credit cards – VISA, Discover, MasterCard and American Express.

Before you place an order to stitch your dance costume, please open this page and see all the different types of dance costumes we stitch. Then click on the appropriate costume type. For example, if you want to stitch a Bharatanatyam dress, you would arrive at this webpage. You will see two pictures associated with this product - a line drawing and a photo of the dress. Open the line drawing and go through the measurements and the numbers associated with each measurement – for example the measurement number 8 is the sleeve size of your blouse. If you are the dancer, you need another person’s help to take the measurements. If your child is the dancer, you can take the measurements for her/him. Decide the color you want for the costume. We always ask for two choices because the sarees of a particular color and type may not be available all the time with our saree vendors.

When the dancer is ready, use a flexible tape to take the measurements and start in the order given in the website. Please see our YouTube video before you start. The first measurement you take will be height of the blouse. Please call us anytime if you have a question about how to take a measurement. You need to fill in all the columns before you click on the “add to cart” button. There is an option to mention the style of the dance costume. In this column, enter any comments you have such as – full covering blouse, 2 fans only, three fans etc…Also at the end of the page you will see the material type. The cost of the dress varies according to your selection. If you select the art silk material, the dress is less expensive and the Dharmavaram silk is most expensive. Make sure you selected the correct material and verify the price.

Once you completed all the measurement entries and clicked on “add to cart” the order will be placed on your cart. Nothing will happen until you pay. Since you are logged in, this will stay in your account, even if you log out of the system. You can come back next day and then place the order. When you are ready to place the order and have the credit card ready, go to your cart and “Proceed to check out”. You need to enter the credit card info in the next page. After entering all the necessary information, proceed to complete the order and you are done. Please make sure you have received an email from us confirming the order. If you have not received the email, check your spam folder. Please note the order ID and write down it in a safe place. You need to mention this number if you need to call us to enquire the status of the order.

As soon as we receive your order, our order processing staff in India will start looking for the correct color sarees and materials in our stock. We usually have the stock of most of the fast moving colors in Art Silk and Apoorva Silk. They will also see which tailor is suitable for this dance costume depending upon the type of the dress and how busy each tailor is. If we have the suitable saree, it will be given to the tailor immediately along with the measurement. The tailors will go through the measurements and check if everything is OK. If they see any discrepancies, they will call us and report the issue and will not stitch the costume until we give a green signal. Once cleared, they stitch the costume and send it to our shipping center. From that place your costume will be shipped to our warehouse in Indiana, US. Once it reaches here, we verify the costume for color and measurements again, before shipping out to you.

Thank you for reading and hope this will help you to make the order placing easier.

Indian classical dance make-up

The Indian classical dance makeup should have a graceful look and should be suitable for stage light rather than day light. It also should be equally suitable for dancers with dark or fair skin colors.


Make-up may smudge! Keep your face oil-free. Some dancers become very emotional just before the dance – but don’t cry!!!

Below is the list of Items you need for Indian Classical Dance makeup. This is applicable for Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam, Kathak and Kuchipudi.

Note: All the items except the items in the first line are available in any makeup kit available from Wal-Mart or Target

Altha, Sindoor, Kumkum, Bindi (preferably Maroon color)

Black eyeliner or Kajal

Blush

Eye shadow

Facial powder / Talcum powder (inhaling or swallowing talcum powder is dangerous)

Light foundation

Indian dance makeup – step by step procedure:

1. Using a gentle soap wash face and wipe with a soft lint free cotton cloth

2. Apply an oil-free moisturizer. We recommend you to use herbal moisturizer. Remember, chemicals are harmful !

3. Apply a light coat of facial powder

4. Apply the foundation. This can be a nice thick (just noticeable) coating. The foundation color should be little bit lighter than your skin color

5. Over the foundation, apply a coat of facial powder

6. Now apply blush

7. Draw the outline of both eyes using black eyeliner. Make sure the end of the outline is curved so that the eyes appear like a lotus petal.

8. Apply multiple coats of black mascara

9. On the nose, especially on the sides, apply dark foundation to the sides of your nose.

10. Select an appropriate color lipstick with some gloss and apply

11. Place a maroon sticker Bindi in the middle of your fore-head. For round face, use a rain drop shaped bindi. For a long face, use a round bindi

Hair makeup is a different topic and it varies depending upon the dance style. However, irrespective of the dance style, all uses false hair and hair kunjalam. We will cover the hair makeup in a separate blog.

Ankle Bell models from IndiaMartInUSA.net

Have you ever looked at the different models of Ghungroo we have in our online store? We have almost all the best quality ankle bells available in South India in our website. The Ankle bells are known as “Salangai” in Tamil and “Chilanka” in Malayalam. Basically they are two types – Leather and cloth. There is one more less popular type made of Rexin also. As you know, the quality and confort of these are not well known.
Ankle bells made of genuine leather are very comfortable to wear and knwon to last long – you may get bored with them before they start tear apart. These have cushion pads behind, where it comes into contact with your ankle and so are very comfortabe to wear during hours of long practice or performance. The buckles, once fastened won’t come apart and are worry free. Some dancers prefer cloth type and would like to tie the Ghungroos instead if buckle them up.
The size of the Salangai depends upon the number of bells in each of them. It is appropriate to wear a two line Ankle bell for a seven or eight year old dancer, while adults prefer to have a four or five line Ghungroo. Based on the size, the number of bells in the Ghungroo will change. A good quality Ankle bell will have atleast 10 bells in each line. There fore, a 4 line Ghungroo will have about 40 bells in one pad. The quality of sound depend upon the size of the individual bell. The small size bells make less sound since the ball inside the bell is also small and its movement is lesser than that of a big bell.
Ankle bell coming off from the dancers leg during a performance is considered as a bad sign. Also it is dangerous and may injure the dancer. So it is important to select a good quality Ankle bell and one should make sure it is fastened or tightened properly before the dancer goes to the stage.

How to get coupon code from IndiaMartInUSA.com

http://www.indiamartinusa.net/ sells Ayurvedic herbal beauty care products, Indian classical dance jewelry and Indian dance costumes in US and Canada. Most of the calls we receive from customers are enquiries about the coupon code. This small blog will help you to find some answers. The discount coupon from IndiaMartInUSA.com is mainly intended for the dance teachers who are registered with us. They can use this coupon code, when they purchase dance jewelry and/or dance costumes for multiple students at a time in a single order. These orders generally vary from $250.00 to above $1000.00. We have coupon codes for 4% discount and 6% discount. Each coupon code is unique and will only get activated if the minimum purchase amount is reached in the shopping cart. The shipping charges will not be taken into account while calculating the discount or minimum order value.

The dance teachers are encouraged to register with us before requesting the coupon code. Registering your dance/music school with our website is absolutley free for dance professionals. This will enable new comers of your city to find you easily. Please click on the “Dance/Music school signup” tab on the top right corner on oru home page. After registering, please go to the “contact us” page and request for a coupon code. Please include the tentative purchase value while requesting the code. Our staff will send you the appropriate coupon to your email address. Most of the coupon codes will work for orders of $100.00 or more.

If you are not a dance teacher and are planning to buy for more than $100.00 in your next order, you may also apply for a coupon.

New Bharatnatyam costumes added to our product line

This week we have added two different types of Bharatanatyam costumes to our product line at the online store of http://www.indiamartinusa.net/. One is made of Dharmavaaram type silk saree and the other one is made of art silk saree. Both will be stitched in India as per the measurements provided by the customer. The delivery time is around 4 – 6 weeks. Please download our costume measurement chart, fill it up with correct measurements and fax to 240 241 5171. We already have dance practice costumes which can be used for Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi or Mohiniyattam dance practice lessons. The cost of our Bharatanatyam costumes are very reasonable. Please check out our website for more information. Apart from the Bharatanatyam dance costumes, we also have imitation temple jewellery and dance make-up accessories including false hair, Kunjalam, hair bun etc…

Types of Bharatanatyam Jewelry

Most of the online stores selling Bharatanatyam jewelry has usually three different types of ornamants. The jewelry with red and white stones, imitation temple jewelry, and real temple jewelry. Out of all these, the cheapest is the first catagory. The base metal to make these and imitation temple jewelry are the same. Only the color and type of the stones are different. The real temple jewelry is made of silver and coated with gold. The stones used for this are the kemp stones imported from Srilanka.

Kerala Sarees and Set Mundu

Set mundu is the traditional dress of Kerala Women. Set mundu is also known as mundum neriyathum. It is the oldest raw form of the saree which covers only the lower part of the body. In the set mundu, the basic traditional piece is the mundu, the lower garment worn around the waist. The set or neriyathu forms the upper cloth. Looking back to the Kerala culture, it is very evident that the neriyathu is added very recently, may be after 1960s to the mundu. The set mundu, in recent years, is worn in the modern style with the neriyathu placed over the blouse. Typically it is worn diagonally from along the right hip to the left shoulder covering the blouse and upper part of the body. The remaining loose end of the set (neriyathu) hangs freely from the left shoulder like the pallu of any Indian dress. Because the material is pure cotton, the set mundu or mundum neriyathum is starched and thoroughly ironed before wearing.The set mundu is originally cream in color has a colored strip at the border known as kara. This is usually known as kasavu kara because this border is always in golden color made of kasavu material. The kasavu kara is usually artificial material which looks like gold strings. Mostly this is fine copper strings with gold plating or similar coating. The pure gold kasavu kara is used in expensive Kanchipuram silk sarees and even in expensive set mundu. Until recent years the mundum neriyathum was only woven by handloom. Now these are made in power looms in various parts of Kerala. Still handloom woven set mundu are in high demand and they cost slightly higher when compared to their power loom counterparts.At different parts of Kerala the set mundu is known in different names and the style varies slightly based on the local culture and life style. Though mundum neriyathum is the most common name, set saree, kasavu mundu, mundu saree, Kerala saree are few other names for set mundu.

On festive occasions like Onam and Vishu, set mundu is the preferred costume of all Malayalee women irrespective of where they live. Thiruvathirakali and Kaikottikali are two traditional dances, Malayalee women perform in groups during Onam. The costumes for these dances are always set mundu or Kerala saree. Another big advantage of the set mundu or Kerala saree is that it can accommodate any color for the blouse. The plain golden jewelry always goes with these costumes. Mohiniyattam, the classical dance originated from Kerala also has costumes similar to set mundu with more fan and pallu.
As mentioned, the set mundu is the traditional and cultural costume of Malayalee women and often referred as Mundum Neriyathum. The beauty, elegance, grace and appeal of the kasavu kara contrasting with the otherwise plain white set mundu has become symbol of malayalee women.