Confessions of a City Slicker

Exactly what does it take to prepare for the hafla?  We found out we were going to be one of four classes that will be performing as early as last year, so a huge part of every class is used to practice for that routine.  Our teacher added some sugar & spice to the piece so that it’s not so boring.

Practice, practice, practice

As early as a month ago, we started to get together for additional practice sessions on Saturday mornings.

The Costume

Too many chefs spoil the soup, so they say.  It was not a good idea to have too many inputs from too many people so we decided to let a small group to pick out the costume.  Once we’ve agreed, there came another problem.

The shop didn’t have enough bras to supply all 18 of us so we had to buy our own bras then give it to the shop to have them sequined for us.  With so many orders, we only got it back about 2 weeks before the hafla.

The skirt was so sheer that there was no possibility for me to go commando in it.  So I went to a tailor to have a lining sewn in along with a few alterations.

It was too long and I didn’t like that the waistband was elastic, therefore giving me the muffin top appearance around the waist.  So I asked my tailor to put a zipper in and make it so that the skirt just hangs around my hips without hugging.

The Makeup

At first a cosmetic company was supposed to come in and do our makeup, but they just didn’t have enough manpower to handle so many of us.  So I turned to the only other source to get tutorials - YouTube.com.

Two weeks of practicing with what limited makeup I do possess before finally creating a somewhat messy smoky eye look that I am satisfied with, without looking like a hooker.

The end result - will have to wait until I get the pictures back first to find out :p

So exactly how expensive is it to attend a hafla where you will also be performing?

• Ticket = RM30.00
• Costume = RM85.00 (This only includes the price of the skirt and labor charges to sew sequins on our bras)
• Cost of altering the skirt = RM19.00
• Bra from Tesco = RM19.90
• Hip scarf = RM35.00
• Rental of dance studio for practice sessions = RM6.00

Total cost to attend this hafla = RM194.90

Normally, if we were not performing, we would just make do with what we have, maybe get some additional enhancements from the usual shops like Sam’s Batik or Chinatown Fashion.  Since we were performing together as a group, we had no choice but to have some sort of uniform costume.

Here’s what our costume looks like.  Sorry, no pictures of me in it yet.  We actually brought our cameras but since there were professional photographers there, we might as well request them to take our pictures.

I’ll add the pictures later on once we’ve got them back from the photographers.

So exactly how expensive is it to attend a hafla where you will also be performing?

• Ticket = RM30.00
• Costume = RM85.00 (This only includes the price of the skirt and labor charges to sew sequins on our bras)
• Cost of altering the skirt = RM19.00
• Bra from Tesco = RM19.90
• Hip scarf = RM35.00
• Rental of dance studio for practice sessions = RM6.00

Total cost to attend this hafla = RM194.90

Normally, if we were not performing, we would just make do with what we have, maybe get some additional enhancements from the usual shops like Sam’s Batik or Chinatown Fashion.  Since we were performing together as a group, we had no choice but to have some sort of uniform costume.

Here’s what our costume looks like.  Sorry, no pictures of me in it yet.  We actually brought our cameras but since there were professional photographers there, we might as well request them to take our pictures.

I’ll add the pictures later on once we’ve got them back from the photographers.