"Never light your veil on fire." :)

"Use tiny hair rubber bands to create flounces, tucks and even create sleeves in your veil. Once you remove your veil in your dance, simply snap and the bands fly/snap off and you have a flat fabric to dance with."

"Roll your unwrinkled and pressed precious silk veil onto a gift wrap cardboard roll. Once you arrive at your gig, you simply unroll your veil and it will not be a typical wrinkled mess at all! Other dancers will be in awe.."

"Learned from my days in the circus: Ever had your hair stick to your lip gloss or have your wet lipstick smear on your teeth or your veil??? Instead of using a lip gloss to create the wet look, simply place a small area of fine silver body glitter in the middle of your lower lip (over your matte lipstick color). Your lips will look wet from a distance."

"Keep a dance journal. You never know when inspiration might strike, so keep a notepad with you to write down choreography ideas. Let the natural world spark your imagination. Sometimes the simplest things like the curve of a flower petal, or the sound of rain against the window can be the beginnings of your next dance piece."

"Drilling daily will help technique and confidence improve the quickest. Remember to practice a relaxed face as well as the rest, this will keep you from making funny faces when performing. Drills don't have to be long or complicated, 10 minutes of basics a day can rapidly improve the dance as a whole."

"Push through your mistakes with the confidence and energy you want to emote on stage, even during rehearsals and drills. If you shake your head or wrinkle your nose through mistakes in practice, you can bet you'll do it on stage as well."

"Always, always rehearse in a new costume before you perform in it! It's best to discover potential costume malfunctions in private so you can fix them before stepping onto the public stage!"

"Pick music that you love. Then, when you dance, show us how that music makes you feel!"

Save your dry cleaning plastic bag covers. After you iron your silk veil or skirt, fold it lengthwise as few times as possible, so it fits across the width of the plastic bag, then lay it inside the long plastic. Gently roll it up lenthwise and place it on top of your costume bag to take with you to your gig.

"If you find that your veil has somehow got stuck to your face, don't panic and fight with it...just blow (with your mouth) and it will fall right off."

"It is important to choose music and costumes that reflect the style of dancing you have chosen for your performance. It is off balance to say you are dancing "Egyptian" then perform to Greek music, as the music will inhibit your ability to give a good reflection of the music to the dance. The same can be said for different styles of dance with-in the culture, such as dancing and costuming oriental to folk styled music."

"Learning and mastering correct technique right from the start will add speed to your progress and will increase your self-confidence, while allowing you to enjoy the feeling and execution of the moves."