25 Yards Gypsy Skirt Q n A

I get a lot of similar questions about my Gypsy Skirt stuff. It baffles me still because it was very common & popular  stuff in the mid-late Bush Era and even still in the early Obama Era as well.

People that often do recognize this style often tell me it looks San Franciscan.

I will also post this to my Pirate Wench OC Cosplay Page.


Surely, THIS will address ALL the usual questions ANYONE could possibly ask, AND HAS:

How to tuck your skirt: 
Go Tuck Yourself!

Make Your Own if u have the Patience

Typical ATS/Tribal and other Gypsy Skirt steps & moves:

Folkloric Bellydance Steps:

Female Culture was massively suppressed in many forms, as were "Gypsy", or Romani, or Bohemians/Boheme. I also noticed no one ever gets upset if you say Gypsy in German which is: Zigeuner, Zigeunerin (female Gypsy), or Zigeunerjunge (Gypsy-boy).

Much of my style has roots in Raqs Sharqi (Belly Dance) as other Tribal styles.

But the most modern versions are Folkloric & ATS which were made from a bunch of ancient styles in the USA. Most notably were Bal Anat and Fat Chance Bellydance which was the origin of American Tribal Style (ATS) which altho borrows from all over the world and history as well as prehistory, but is totally made up as a new style. From that brnched Tribal Fusion. Tribal Fusion is my favorite, but I also studied Raqs Sharqi including Arabic & Turkish, but also Egyptian, and North African.

Gypsy is often referred to as Romani in modern times, but can have any number of meanings. It's often considdered as an offensive word, even tho their own ancesters called themselves this and claimed they were from Egypt even tho they were from India. Romani/Gypsies were notrious for making trouble, and I've read several books about them in actual libraries about their cultures. They have a different view on life and the world, and even things like personal property. Today, most Romani are forced to live in modern neighborhoods in many nations by governments, so they do.

Altho the term Gypsy is often viewed as derogatory to many people these days, it's odd that the term Boheme or Bohemian is not, because its the exact same thing. But the word Gypsy can also mean a free spirit or wanderluster. I personally never viewed this term as hateful nor ugly like other racial words, but some people seriously get upset about it. So, I don;t want to hurt people. I often use the word Boho or Bohemian instead. This word has also evolved several definitions as well.

There's no 1 specific type of "Gypsy" or Romani, and there's so many varieties in many nations, and they had also changed and evolved.

A lot of people like to freak out about "Cultural Appropriation" but many of these dance forms were actually cultivated by women whom have heritage in those ethnic groups, and much like Bruce Lee felt the desire to "teach anyone who wants to learn" in order to earn a living.

ATS Dance

Tribal Fusion Utilizing Authentic Gypsy Romani Style moves & Steps:

This one is a personal favorite of mine making use of Spin performance and props:

The same dancer in her new band in Ghawazee style:

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More ATS & Folkloric Style bellydance:

Tribal Fusion

Vintage Zafira Dance Company

Tribal Fusion began to break off from ATS. ATS was Improvisational, but Tribal Fusion brought back choreography since many of the dancers had backgrounds in Jazz, Ballet, and Popping & Locking. 

2 of my very personal favorites back in the day were Zafira which incorporated a lot of dance moves & dance vocabulary from India, and The Indigo.

Vintage Zafira Dance:

The Indigo Bellydance Company:

My other top favorite vintage dance company/troop was The Indigo Belly Dance Company. The Indigo was probably the most influential and the most famous. It has started and grew with the belly Dance Super Stars, until 3 dancers remained, and they did several shows with burlesque style comedy which even mixed in elements from Road Shows & Vaudeville like "Yard Dogs Road Show" and "Beats Antique" as well as real like Balkan Brass Bands, and authentic Gypsy moves.

They  had incredible zilling dance numbers that blew my mind with such precision, and a lot of quirky off the wall comedy, often with real bottles of wine, or liquor, but also mixed in pop culture, glam, fantasy, and all manner of eclectic fusion. They often made their own costumes from scratch, or borrowed pieces of costume bits from their friends.

They even started belly dancing wearing boots and heels, when most Tribal dance was done barefoot or in sandals. They also had their own small film as they were also heavily inspired by antique Silent Films:

And, since we're at it, because I KNOW it's gonna come up eventually, here's some pop culture songs from Europe:

Exotic Vintage Silk Bohemian

This was a large, and long so-called scrap of vintage Chinese silk, given to me by my mother-in-law from China, whom might've gotten it form an old neighbor.

This silk is no longer a just a piece of long cloth, but has become a Ghawazee Coat.

I'm sure I would've shot more of these, however, my battery died, and that was the end of it... and my daughter needed  dinner.

Shot in Summer 2010.

Bohemian Experiments: The Sarong 002 [Rave]

These came out much different looking than the other set, because I used a Daisy Light, used by DJs. I love all things RAVE since the 1990s.

Late 1990s Eurodance Techno from BlackUniGryphon on 8tracks Radio.

Bohemian Experiments: The Sarong 001

Bohemian Experiments: The Sarong

I believe I did these in either 2010 or 2011. Nearly ALL of my makeup went mysteriously missing after a wedding photo shoot commission I got in Philadelphia, which was incredibly stressful, and I went over 2 weeks with very little sleep, because I not only had a store in the mall that was contractually obliged to be open EVERY SINGLE DAY, but THE MOMENT I got back my spouse stubbornly decided THAT WAS THE DAY we would get new "wood" floors, and from a cheap-ass local Chinese company, even tho' Empire was having a MAJOR deal at 70% or something off due to the economic crash, and were ACTUALLY REPUTABLE! Oh, and Mercury Retrograde had JUST STARTED.

I WAS F@#$ED!

What was ONLY supposed to take about a day a a half, stretched past 2 weeks, and they even had a Mexican SLAVE. You read that right, a SLAVE. SLAVE! As in SLAVERY! They guy was made to sit outside, IF, and ONLY IF, he brought his own food, meanwhile the prick bosses (a man and a woman) would actually cook their own food, or purchase some, and force him to work, eating and laughing IN FRONT OF HIM, and never offering the slave ANYTHING.



My husband, became very suspicious of these people after the 3rd day, and began actually cooking food for the SLAVE guy. He said the man worked so hard, didn't speak Chinese, and barely any words in English.

I was NOT a happy person, and at the time, whenever I was at my store, we ACTUALLY had quite a bit of customers, and punk kids. My husband didn't tell me about the SLAVE until it was over, because he was afraid that I would call the cops, and then WE would get in trouble, in his mind, and have to go to court...

The whole thing made me VERY ANGRY, and was like 1 stroke of bad luck, after another. I also had very bad pain in my lower back due to some wrong dance practices that I had totally screwed up, was still dealing with pain from a tubal surgery, and a very very bad foot surgery that dis-aligned my toes.


So, as the summer went on, and after the kid finally had her birthday party, the Girl Scout Party, and Bridging Ceremony, and slammed with Independence Day stuff, I finally began to pick up my camera in mid summer.... after having looking through several kinds of old SLR camera tricks, and photos, I decided I wanted to play around with experiments of my own... even tho' I'd already started to deplete the charge life of my only battery at the time... (I have several batteries now... lesson learned)

I experimented with these of different days, in different rooms, at different times of the day, and also directly TO my computer instead of the memory card, which ACTUALLY looks quite different.


The makeup I had was this REALLY TERRIBLE "smoky eye" thing in some kind of plum color, which looked like a dark brown and pink-ish kinda-sorta purple... it was supposed to be just a 3 step simple thing, bt you could barely ever see anything on the eye, and I did NOT want a black one, since I shy away from too much dark colors, often, unless I'm doing stage makeup (at least back then anyways). Of ALL the makeup that could've gone missing, WHY THIS ONE didn't is beyond me!
Oh, wait- it sucks! That's why! It cakes onto your face, and melts off, and looks awful!



I used to LOVE pretty much everything by Cover Girl, however, I've found in the past 5 years, they often are cheap, miss the mark, and don't preform well on the face, or fall apart... the lipsticks are still fine, which I still have and use, but I HAD to throw that stupid smoky eye thing away.
How did that thing even go into production? It was terrible!


Anyways, if I look like my face isn't very made-up, it's because at the time, I had almost no makeup at all. I had to save up my dollars, and coins, bit by bit, and used coupons to pay for stuff... I also wasn't that great at applying makeup, and still don't think I am, but I think I'm at least somewhat better now....

Also, these were long exposures in low level light, so there will often be some blurring.

Emotive Dark Gothic Bohemian Tribal Fusion [Unfiltered] 003

Oh, jeez! Was it Friday all day?
Well, I guess so!

Well, have some photos, n stuff!

Here's some more from my 2008 set.
I know this was scheduled to publish on April 8th, a few weeks ago, no idea why is hasn't. 

Within My Forest At Dusk from BlackUniGryphon on 8tracks Radio.