Welcome all Newcomers, Stumblers, Dancers, and Curious Citizens!
My name is Heather and I'm the owner and designer of Red Banshee Dance and Design! Here's a little about Me!
Seamstress and Costume Designer:
I grew up participating heavily in the SCA (
http://www.sca.org/). The SCA is a pre 17th century historic reenactment group that spans the globe. Here's a little blurb straight from their website!
"
The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Our "Known World" consists of 19 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Members, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which feature tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more."
My mother was a seamstress in her "off" time and some of my earliest memories of sewing were working with her on new costumes (called "garb" in the SCA) for some SCA event or other. By the time I was a young child I was making very simple things on my own and when I was eleven I made my very first costume all by myself! That costume started an almost twenty year love affair with sewing, designing, creating, and altering that I still haven't given up! I've designed dresses for myself and my friends, made my own patterns, put modern twists on classic lines and dressed up "boring" with extraordinary colors and textures and put just a little blood, sweat, and tears into everything I've ever made.
Bellydancer:
When I was fourteen my Mom convinced me to take a bellydance class with her for fun. So we signed up together and took a six week class with a well known teacher in our area. I fell in love with it but teenage angst and life got in the way and I didn't go back to it until I was 24, ten years later!
As I'd gotten older and put on weight, I decided I wanted to do something new and exciting and I got to thinking that maybe I should look into bellydance classes again. Much to my delight and surprise, there was a huge community right in my area! I found the closest studio to my apartment and signed up for an initial six week class with a lovely Egyptian style dancer who had only just begun teaching. That class lead to another six week class, and then another, and then two classes with two different teachers a week, and then to three classes with different teachers a week. Before I knew it, I'd become a "full time" bellydance student. I performed for the first time about five months after I started dancing at a student hafla in the Durham area. I made my own costume of course and had an amazing time with the other dance students in my class. I now perform with an Arab-Spanish fusion troupe called Moorish Gypsy (
http://www.moorishgypsy.com/) out of Cary North Carolina as well as with my best friend and "dance-wife" Kai. Rumor has it there may be a solo in my future!
Dancer & Designer:
When I became active in the local bellydance community, I always got a ton of compliments on my costumes and designs. I'd blush (yeah, I'm a little shy about that) and thank them but it never really occured to me to try to make a business out of it. That's when I started getting requests: "Heather, can you show me how to make a choli?" "I love those harem pants, they're amazing!" "That's the neatest cover-up I've seen in a while!" "Do you sell your costumes?" "You MADE those dread locks?" "Help! I need to shorten this skirt but I don't know how to sew!"
Finally at a hafla after my first performance with Kai as a duet, I was cornered but the lovely ladies of Bella Luna who are a tribal fusion ATS troupe in my area. I was politely "informed" that the harem pants I was wearing might be in danger of being stolen off my body and asked when I was going to start selling things I made. Usually I just laughed these kinds of things off, but one particular lady was vehement and begged me consider making basics for the dancers in the area. "We want to have local vendors but there just aren't that many in this area! And NONE who make pants, cholis, and vests!"
I told them I'd think about it...
I thought about it and here I am. I hope you enjoy wearing my designs as much as I enjoy making them!
Red Banshee Designs
Durham, North Carolina
919-972-8635
