Becoming Rich and Famous

Every one knows that becoming a belly dancer full time or part time, is not about becoming famous or rich. You will be lucky if you can pay your rent on time. This is an art form and like any other art form you must have regular work, and constant work. So unless you are in excellent shape, and can handle running from one gig to the next you can forget about doing it for a living. I have performed at least five shows in one night after teaching a class for an hour and a half. The next day my thighs would be trembling from my complicated and long drum solos. Because that is my thing. Drum solos and performing with the sword are my favorite.

Then you have famous belly dancers who have made it, like fifi Abdo, Souher Zaki, Dina, Nadia Gamal and that is just to name a few. These are names of just a few dancers that I personally look up to.

However you can be famous and not even know it. I mean famous in the belly dance community. You see there are dancers that all of us dancers look up to and give them the credit they deserve. We talk about them and praise them, and wish one day we can be as good as they are.

This art form is not about getting rich, in fact all of the money that you make goes right back into it. The majority of dancers end up spending twice as much money as they make. Most professional costumes are $600. and more
Private lessons can range from $60. an hour and more.
Regular classes on a regular basis could run you $200. a month or more.
If you are taking two classes a week at $20.-$25. per class every week, well this adds up,
you do the math.
I have not included veils in which you would want all colors for different costumes. Silk veils can cost up to $70. Coin belts which become addictive to buy. Don't forget the sword, cane, baledi dress, and wings.

If you want a candalabra that is going to cost you more that $100. Remember that you have to take a cab home if you are dancing after midnight and you don't drive. After all you don't want to be in the train with gobs of make up a heavy suit case and a sword. I have not even included the DVD's, and CD's. Whew now that I got all of that out of my system I feel so relieved.

Most dancers are, or can become obsessive with this art, by taking numerous workshops that can be very pricey, and end up spending an enormous amount of money on just about everything. How do I know this I am one! I am obsessed O.K. I admit it, while I am kicking and screaming. I LOVE DANCING!!!!!!!! I LOVE PERFORMING!!!!!!!
I feel so lucky that I am doing what I love for a living. My primary goal is to just perform, teach and be happy.

Performing for Curious Neighbors

Most of my neighbors know what I do for a living. Some of them do not approve of my dancing. After all when I first told my grandmother that I wanted to belly dance for a living. Her first words were: Is your husband going to let you do that? I was so surprised by this. What century are we living in? Am I doing anything bad? Do I need permission from my husband to bellydance? I explained to her that my husband is very supportive and he even purchased my first costume for $600. Secretly, I was even shocked when he went into his wallet and pulled the money out for the costume. That is a lot of money to dish out for one costume. You do get what you pay for, because I still have it and it is in mint condition.

When I first started performing, he was my driver, and my body guard. He was very proud of me, and in the beginning went to almost all of my shows. Ofcourse things died down, when he realized I did not need a body guard and he got so sick of the music. Arabic music is all I played at home. Every time I was about to practice, he would just give me a look and ask can you please practice after I leave the apartment. I can't stand listening to that music anymore.
Some of my neighbors did not even like the idea of their husbands looking at me or even talking to me. Some people are just very insecure, and me being a belly dancer did not make things easier. I felt as though I was being judged at times, or maybe it was all in my head.

I was hired to perform for a restaurant owner in the neighborhood. I will give him the name Mike. Mike is Egyptian and I have worked for him before. In fact he is the one who gave me my very first belly dance job 7 years ago. It was my birthday and I charged in the restaurant with a group of ten friends. I was very excited to see a belly dance performance, since I had just begun taking lessons. When Mike told me the dancer had already performed and the show was over. We were all so disappointed. I explained to Mike that I had been taking lessons for about eight months or so. He and my friends all were cheering me on and pretty much convinced me to perform. I only lived two blocks away, so I ran home got my costume and my music. I only had one costume at that time and it was a red beaded costume the one my husband bought for me. I was so excited as I put it on. Wow this costume was really heavy, I still hadn't got use to the weight. I was so nervous, but I think I did pretty good.

My friends all tipped me and so did the other customers. The restaurant was packed, and everyone got up to dance with me. It was great! I loved it, my very first job performing. I had performed before, but only in student shows, retirement homes, and any free gig I could get for practice. This was my very first paid gig. Some of my friends had this on going joke that one day I am going to forget that I am bellydancing and I might just break out into a kata throwing a round house kick and yelling at the top of my lungs. We all laughed about that, I found it very amusing.

The next day when I went to thank Mike for a wonderful experience, he offered me a job performing on a weekly basis. I was thrilled. He did mention that I danced too fast, and I needed to learn how to slow down. He was right, at that time I was like speedy Gonzalez. I really appreciated his honesty and the manner in which he told me. So I was the feature dancer at his restaurant for about 8 months. I was not very confident, but I still tried my best. I asked Mike why he didn't hire a professional dancer for his restaurant again putting myself down. He said you are good and working on a regular basis will only make you better. Why should I hire a stranger that I don't know, when you are my friend and my neighbor, and you live two blocks away. Be happy with what you have and where you are. You are a professional.

He was right, I am a professional and I should be happy and enjoy where I was, besides if I was aweful I am sure I would not be there. It turns out I had regular clientele coming to see me on a weekly basis. It was so exciting. Some of my neighbors came to see me, but not all of them. After eight months or so, it died down so Mike did not have any more performances in the restaurant after that.
Mike's wife who is very nice to me, happens to approach me about performing for Mike's 50th birthday party. Now keep in mind this is 7 years later. Ofcourse I agreed, I was very excited. I was also very nervous, because it was important to me for Mike to see how much I have improved through out the years. I have studied so much, attended so many classes, spent so much money. I put my heart and soul into this art form. Mike's wife also added that I would be a surprise. Well the belly dancer is usually a surprise, so that was good.

Then Oh My God, I just realized that a lot of my neighbors would be attending this big event. I guess after this performance they would not be curious anymore. I had heard through the neighborhood grapevine that there was some curiosity towards my life style. There were certain sterio types that I was unaware of. When I heard some, I was shocked and appalled. Some were: Belly dancers like to sleep around, they only like attention, and enjoy showing there body. This is only what I heard around here. I know some of them have never seen a belly dance performance in person, and a lot of my neighbors never really gave me a chance to get to know me as a person first, with out passing judgment. I was excited and nervous all at the same time. Time seemed to be passing so slow. Finally the day arrived when I would be performing at Mike's birthday party.

While I was stretching in the restroom, I noticed my thighs began to tremble and shake uncontrollably. Oh my god I thought to myself, I am really nervous. I had to pull myself together. Then I realized I had gone on a bike ride to prospect park today, and I had performed twice before arriving. I laughed to myself thinking what a nut I am sometimes. I wore my favorite magenta costume filled with rubies and diamonds. My body was glistening with glitter. The long gloves covering my arms gave the costume a look of elegance. As I entered with my
ty-die magenta and blue colored veil, my diamond necklace and earrings sparkled.

I entered with a huge smile, as I was filled with confidence. As I entered I noticed some familiar faces looking at me with pleasantly surprised looks on their faces. I glided through the room as I reached the center stage area.

My drum solo was flawless, and my sword act was great. All I could think of when I balanced the sword on my head as I went down into a split was DON'T DROP THE SWORD!!!! I received a good exchange of energy from the audience. Mike was the first person I got up to dance. He was very happy and everyone could tell. Then an elderly man came up and showered me with money as he danced with me. He looked very familiar, I then realized we had breakfast at the same restaurant. I wonder if he recognized me. It was difficult getting people up to dance, most every one was very shy. Two Arabic men came up to dance with me, and tipped me very nicely. I was very happy with my performance and the audience loved it. Mike's daughter and her friend danced with me as well. A few more arabic men came up to dance with me and tip me.

As my finale approached I picked up my veil and glided around the room for one last goodbye. Through out my entire performance the audience was mesmorized, all eyes were on me the entire show. That was a good sign, and I felt very pleased. I asked the waiter for some water, and drank three glasses. I noticed some water melon, and asked the waiter if I could have some. He gave me one slice, as if that is going to do something for me. Mike's wife pays me and thanks me for a wonderful job. She then hands me a bag filled with my tips. It was a good night.

On my way out some people complemented me on my performance, and I felt great. Then one of my neighbors complimented my performance as his wife gave me a dirty look, and walked away in a huff. I am going to leave here tonight holding this to my heart as a good experience, and not let anything bother me. The energy from the audience was uplifting and positive. It was important to me to leave with a good feeling, and I did. After all I still had one more show to do tonight, and that one was very important to me. I would be performing at a party I was throwing at my place. There would be more than eight belly dancers performing, most of whom were my close friends and students. The excitement continues...........

Hello World!

Discovering belly dancing was the best thing that ever happened to me. I immediately fell in love with the music, the dance, and oh lets not forget about the costumes. I love the costumes. The music is amazing and very hypnotic.

After a few years of Karate, and finally achieving a black belt is when belly dancing entered my life. Being flexable definitely helped my dancing. Karate helped me most with aquiring the mental strength neccesary for the physical exertions of belly dancing. The karate disipline trained me to have the endurance neccesary for several minutes of physical activity. My specialty is the sword ofcourse. I have a collection of 7 swords now. Some from my karate days, and now some from belly dancing.

Anyone can tell you that doing this for the money is just not a possibiltiy, however they don't know what they are talking about. I have spent so much money on classes, costumes, private lessons, music, videos etc….. I can ofcourse go on and on. I do it for the love of the art.

You would be surprised to know that there is a large number of people that have absolutely no idea of what a belly dancer is. The following offended me.
When I was working at a law firm and one of my co workers found out that I was teaching belly dancing. His immediate remark was “what could you possibly be teaching them? “How to shake their boobs or their ass? “I don’t understand how you actually have a class of women going to you just to learn how to shake” I can not explain to you how upset that made me. Hadn’t this man with a college degree and his own office even comprehend the word choreography! Didn’t he know that belly dancing is more complex than anything I have ever experienced before. Was he just an idiot? I did not realize that these types of people even existed. A large number of people seem to believe that it is easy. It is not easy at all and takes many years of commitment, classes and dedication to acheive the professional quality of a New York City Belly dancer.

I have now been performing as the feature dancer at Les Babouches for almost two years now. It has been one of the best experiences of my life. I love love it love it. The owners are an amazing married couple. We have all become family through out the years. It is a pleasure to work for them, and they make my experience a wonderful one. They are very supportive, and understand all of the hard work and effort that is put into the performance. Because of the support that they give me it empowers me to give the most amazing performances. Their encouragement and support gives me strength. I would hope that other restaraunt owners would follow their example.

However there is another restaurant that I work at where the management can be rude. They are mostly unpleasant and seem very unhappy with their lives. They don't realize that a dancer needs support to do a good job to make people happy. It can be difficult and uneasy to perform after being yelled at. As a dancer I walk into a restaurant and raise the energy level of the entire place with my enthusiasm and happiness. People respond to this by getting up and dancing and feeling the same happiness that I do when I dance. Can you see how difficult it is to perform when management is MEAN. However I don't let it bother me, and I give a fantastic performance, because I know how to spread happiness and joy, and I love it. I believe that professionalism is about the end product which is spreading that happiness and joy.

There are also a lot of funny moments.
Costume malfunctions are always funny. My girlfriend was performing and her nipple popped out with out her realizing, I had to signal her, and I could not stop laughing. She laughed too. Another time my girlfriend balanced a cane on this older man, and his hair piece started moving back and forth we laughed about that for weeks. And I will never forget when I first started performing, I was wearing a brand new costume and I had no idea how far the skirt went up when I turned. Needless to say I was wearing thong painties and everyone got an extra show. I was mortified! I would have never known if this belly dancer in the audience did not tell me. I was eternally grateful to her. No one else said a word! where is the love?! There was a lot of belly dancers in the audience! When I have more time I will give you an update on my future adventures and more info on belly dancing.