"The" Decision
So, you’ve decided to try your hand at being a professional Belly Dancer! This is an important decision, and before you book your first paid gig, there’s a ton of things that need to be considered, and having the right costume just may be one of the least important of them all. The first thing you need to do, is have a real heart to heart talk with your current or former instructor. If she is truly in it for the love of her art, and not just for the paycheques, she will be honest with you about your abilities and give you some pointers to help you get started.

Have an open mind and learn from her mistakes... that way you will be able to avoid making costly ones of your own. Even if your instructor agrees that you are ready, that doesn’t mean that you will be dancing in the best places next weekend. Now that you have the support of your teacher, the hard work is about to begin, and your life is about to become very expensive. You have no doubt heard the old adage, ‘You have to spend money to make money’. It is about to become your mantra.

"Your job as a dancer is to make the music visible for the audience" Easier said than done!!! This is where your ability to do some heavy research is going to make or break your career. A really good idea, and one that will make your life easier, is to start a dance journal. Write everything down that you can think of that you may later forget, even if it doesn’t seem important at the time. Here are some examples of things to record that you may not even think of normally.

Scenario #1: You have accompanied your teacher to a paid gig she has. There is a large number of Arabic people there. Watch their reactions to songs that the dancer has chosen, and record which ones have the best and worst reactions from the audience. This may prevent you from one day using a song about lost love and heartache while dancing at an Arabic wedding reception. As they say ‘Hindsight is always 20/20’.

Scenario #2: You have been asked to assist at an outdoor dance festival. Are the dancers wearing glitzy beaded numbers with lighter than air sheer chiffon skirts, as they would onstage, or are they wearing more ethnic and natural looking costumes that will stand up to wind, tree branches, and all the other things dancers are likely to encounter while performing outdoors? Is the music style different from that of a stage performance?

Always try to be sure that your show is appropriate to the audience and to the venue. If you know that there will be lots of children at the event, please do not wear the skimpiest costume with the highest slits in the skirt. Also, if dancing at a wedding, never outshine the bride.

Always remember that you are there for the entertainment of the audience, they are not there for the furthering of your career. At times, dancers are hired to perform while not being the actual focus of the event, sort of like background noise, as is the case while dancing in local restaurants. People are there to eat, drink, and celebrate, and you are just an added bonus that they may not even expect. Sometimes a dancer can do a whole 30 minute restaurant show, dance up a storm, and seem to be hardly be noticed by the audience. At times like that our ego’s can get a little bruised.

Try to remember that they were there for another reason, maybe a birthday party or some other celebration, and that they will most likely remember your show and mention it to others the next day, after the excitement of the birthday or other event has cooled, and they will in all probability, say good things, it’s just that you won’t be there to hear it. They may even go back to the same restaurant to see another of your shows, but they may never mention to you, that they came back to see if you would be dancing again. We often don’t hear the big compliments, but be certain, we get them.





Costumes For The Real World

Truthfully, how many costumes do you have that potential clients would pay money to see you dance in? The old thing you threw together at the last minute for that student recital last year won’t work in a Middle Eastern or Greek restaurant. There is probably not a professional venue anywhere that will hire a dancer covered in fabric fringe and two dollar sequined appliqués found at Michaels Craft Store. You are going to have to spend real money on at least two good cabaret style costumes. If you are an inspired designer and skillful with a sewing machine, you can whip together costumes that look like they were made in the secret workshops of some far away Eastern Palace. You will still have to fork out some real coin even if you do make your own costume. I have spent well over $150.00 just for the fabric to do a bra, belt, skirt, and veil. Don't even ask what I spend on beads, fringe, coins, elastic, casings, thread, jump rings, rhinestones, and all the other little things it takes to make costumes.

If you plan to make your own costumes, or have someone make them for you, you will need a good supply of beaded fringe and/or coins. The coins though, shouldn’t be the cheap ones you get at your neighborhood craft store. There are lots of suppliers on the web that stock coins from Egypt and Turkey. There are some from Syria that are just gorgeous and sound heavenly. Beaded fringe usually comes from Egypt, and has to be ordered over the internet, unless you have a supplier nearby, and in that case, you are one lucky girl!

A Beledi Dress for more folkloric shows is a must as well, although, having a good cabaret style costume is always a first priority. Beledi Dresses are much easier to make, and can have fabric fringe galore, if it’s done right.

A caftan or cover-up of some sort is a very necessary part of your costume closet. There will be venues that you will perform at that will not have an area for dancers to change, and at those times, you will be getting ready at home. It’s best to not show your costume until the first moments of the performance, so arriving at the venue in full glitter is not the best for your reputation. Occasionally at venues, there may not be anywhere to store your purse and other items, so a good trick is to put your car keys on a large safety pin, pin it to the inside of your costume, and leave everything safely in the trunk of your car until after the show. If you have someone accompany you to the show, they can hold your belongings.





Starting Out

Professional Photographs And Dance Resume

Professional Photographs

We spend months and years on training, we spend big dollars on costumes, we spend lots of energy in recitals and festivals, yet when wed try to dig through all the envelopes of pictures, we can’t find even one decent one that we would be proud to use in a promotional kit. Here’s why… as dancers we are in constant motion, and that never makes for a good picture. We are either photographed with our shoulders crunched at the beginning of a snake arm, or worse, with an outstretched stomach, and bent over in mid undulation. Bad pictures are not really anyone’s fault, we are just not good material to catch in motion. Add the sweat, windswept hair, and the odd look of intense concentration on our collective faces, and show photographs should probably never be used in advertising.

I have heard dancers say that getting professional photographs done would be something that would make them look conceited. Wrong!! It’s just plain smart advertising, and something every business needs to do regardless of what they sell. A good photograph can be the best tool for promoting your show. They get passed around, pinned up on walls, and sometimes even end up in the hands of the people who write the cheques. A dancer can be either hired or passed over on the merit of her photos. Using one from a stage show with unattractive body positioning would definitely get a dancer passed over.

When you get professional photo’s done, you can control all the things that you can’t otherwise. Someone is there to do your hair and makeup, place props, and check for ‘shine’ etc. One of the biggest advantages of studio pictures is that you can test the costume ahead of time to see how it will look in the end product, because truthfully, your most amazing stage costume may not look quite so divine in print. You may have a costume in your closet that is simpler in person, but may look absolutely heavenly in photographs though. The fabric may co-operate beautifully when it is placed ‘just so’, or it may have the most amazing sheen when lit ‘just right’.

Lighting is another element that can make or break a picture. In a studio, nothing is left to chance, and all the little flaws we have, can be erased with just the right placement of a bulb. Backgrounds can be chosen and set beautifully, remember though, the background and costume should contrast, a pale lavender costume shouldn’t go in front of a light background, always go for the most drama possible within reason. Stay away from colored lights, they will change the color of your costume, and makeup. Purple based make-up is probably not that great for photographs, as the bright studio lights may turn the colors to grey and mud-black.

Posing practice is always good to do ahead of time, practice in front of a mirror, even trying out facial expressions and eye positioning. You definitely want to avoid being a victim of the dreaded “Look at the stupid look on my face” syndrome. That can blow even the most miraculous photographs out of contention for later use. Rehearsing even the little things like facial expressions with a video camera is always good practice, you can get a better idea of what you want to portray, and convey that information more clearly to the photographer.

Look at photos in fashion magazines, and try some of the more interesting poses, think about how they would translate into what you are trying to do. Always remember, the best and most interesting poses feel very awkward or downright silly when you do them, but look just dynamite in the picture. Bear in mind, that while posing in the studio, you will be asked to hold a pose for many minutes straight sometimes, the lights and focus all have to be fiddled with for each picture. It will be up to you to initiate the pose, and then the photographer will fine tune it… the tilt of the head and other little things that will enhance the finished picture. Expect this for every pose. This may take a lot of time and money, but the end result will enhance your reputation as a professional, and will certainly help get you better jobs, as well as raise the bar for all the professionals who just can’t be bothered with photographs, which will help us all in the end.


Dance Resume

This will be a little different than the standard resume. Its more like the biographical data sheet that actors send out to agents. It will be in more of a paragraph format although it will show your teachers, past jobs, and volunteer work just like any other resume, just all related to your dance. If you have danced at charity events or fundraisers, put the info on there. A small wallet sized photo is good to have on the upper corner of the resume, printed on, not attached with a paper clip, as they always tend to get lost. However, your home address and S.I.N. should definitly be left off of this one. Your website and voicemail should be placed either on the very top or the very bottom.




Business Cards

Once you have the costumes, and have had amazing pictures taken in them, pick the best picture and put it on your business card. Yes it’s more expensive, and you may not be able to print them up on your own computer, but having pictures on your card is incredibly valuable as a selling tool. It will make you seem more elegant and polished right from square 1 than the dancers who don't. Although most dancers have some sort of logo, some will not go to the expense of paying loads of cash for something they are just going to give away in the end. Yes, it’s costly, but often negates the need to send an 8x10 glossy which costs a great deal more.

A card with a photo puts a face to the voice on the other end of the voice mail. It doesn’t have to be a glaring full frontal shot in full blazing color, it can be just a soft enigmatic image in muted tones, or even just a closeup of a mysterious pharonic looking eye looking out at the recipient with a yearning glance. The prospective client almost feels like they are already azquainted with you just by seing your picture, and won’t get that feeling by a text only card. It’s a small psychological trick, but works very well in the overall scheme of things. Use the photo that best overall represents your personal style.

It is best to only put on the front of the card, the information that won’t change, or that is least likely to. Imagine putting a lot of money into cards with your website emblazoned across the front of the card, and then have your service provider crap out on you.

Aside from your photo and name, the only other thing on the front should be things like ‘performer’ or ‘instructor’. All the other info should go on the back, that way if the info changes, such as you moving into your dream house, or getting a new voicemail # or website address, you can have stickers with the same font made to place over the outdated information. A valuable time and moneysaver if I do say so.





Growth


Electronic Presence

Every professional dancer needs to have a website, even if it is small to start with. A very important thing to consider even before building the site is that having you own domain name is imperative. A short name like www.halas-place.com is far superior to something like www.Telus/ universe/world/country/province/city/dancer.com or something equally long.

Having your website on the free space your internet service provider gives you is not such a good idea. What if your ISP goes out of business or merges with another and changes it’s name. You will have to recreate your site on a different provider and keep the old one active for months in order to point everyone to the new site, not to mention all the fliers and business cards that are now floating around the place with an invalid website address.

These and other considerations must be taken into account when going professional on this level. A website is a very good place for potential clients to develop their first impression of you. It is where you should showcase photos that show the different looks you can achieve, and the different styles of shows you can present. There should also be a page with your dance resume, a biography of sorts. It should list the well known places you have danced, all your regular teachers, as well as some of the better workshops you have taken, by now you will have such a long list of workshops that there is no need to list each and every one.

Your dance schedule should have a page of it’s own, so that people know where to go see you perform. You must absolutely keep this page up to date, when you receive new bookings put them up on the site immediately. This page should have an e-mail link, voice mail number and any other information people will need for booking one of your shows. A price list is a must, and the prices should be exactly what all the other dancers in the city are charging for the same type and length of shows. Your instructor will let you know what the going rates are.

A nice touch on a website is to add little articles that you’ve written. It shows people that you know what you’re talking about and that you have done your homework. You can also add link pages for dance friends and other sites you feel deserve recognition. Another electronic assistant you may find quite helpful is having the address of your website in your phone book listing, yellow pages of course, internet dancer lists are another good place to be listed.

Audition Tapes And C.D.'s Versus Show Tapes And CD’s

You must have show tapes and CDs ready before you accept your first paid gig. Do not think for a moment that you can go to a job with just a tape, or just a CD and get away with it. Chances are that Murphy will jump and bite you righ in the coin belt if you do. Either the CD player won’t be working, or will have been stolen just the night before, or your tape will get mangled in the deck. Now, if you have both formats with you, the client will just assume that you are a genius, but if you don’t, they will just suppose that you are always unprepared, even if the original tragedy is their fault.

You should ideally, have several styles made and ready to grab on your way out the door. One should be very modern, one should be very traditional and orchestrated, and another should be very folk oriented. I promise they will all get used.

Even more ideally, you should have several different ones in each style. Depending on how often you perform, and at what venues you dance at, you will be able to vary your music to order. Keep in mind, it is always a bad idea to use the same music twice in a row somewhere, even if you have three weeks between shows at that venue. The clients will probably remember at least one song you use, and won’t want to hear it two shows in a row.

A clever (but illegal) idea is to make a few CDs to hand out as audio auditions. When you give your dance resume and photo business card to a venue owner or manager, you can also give them a CD to listen to later as they look over your info. Use upbeat and lively music, and at most, one or two of the best songs of each style you perform regularly.

Advertising

There are many ways to advertise. Local dance newsletters are a good place to start, if your city is large enough to have one. Make sure you put links on every and website you come across, buy adds in dance zines, both print and online. These are the cheapest but most effective methods of getting noticed in the short term.

If you have a good computer or are in tight with someone who does, fliers should be promptly made and distributed. Make both the stackable and hanging types with ripable phone number tabs. For the stacking type, you can put three on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, and cut them yourself. Seing as these sometimes get lost in the other piles of papers businesses have to deal with on a daily basis, don’t bother to go to the extreme expense of adding photos, it’s a waste of good ink, and it would take a lot of ink to put pictures on a hundred fliers. Soft background photos almost like watermarks can be put of the full page hanging type of fliers, behind all the info, so that people have to look closer than normal to see the picture. They will inadvertantly see all the info you have over the picture, and it will be stuck in their mind for a while at least.

Ask managers and owners if you can leave fliers at places such as gyms, community centers, dance supply shops, new age places, book stores, libraries, women’s centers, health food stores, and any other place where creative people gather. Some funkier restaurants have areas by the doors where fliers can be put up, try those as well, even if they are just your average neighborhood burger joint. They might even be interested in the occasional show, just for the fun of it.

Keep track of where you leave your fliers and cards, always get the name and number of contact person and call occasionally to see if they are still showing them or if you need to drop by with more. The upside of this is additional chances to network with businesses. Even before you sit down at your computer to start the design, look at other fliers up all over the city to get ideas. Make sure yours look as good or better than others on the boards. Event planners are great to network with, as are booking agencies, even if you don’t like the idea of giving them a cut of your cash, they are a great help sometimes. They can get you work with film and TV shows if your’e lucky and in the right place at the right time.

Types Of Shows

There are so many different types of shows and venues that can keep a dancer busy, and most are outside of restaurant venues, which is exactly where most bellydance students expect most of the work to be. It is through work at restaurants though, a dancer will make most of her contacts for other shows. Someone who sees you in a restaurant may hire you for birthday parties, anniversary or wedding celebrations, or even fundraisers. Cultural and corporate events are also places where we are often seen. Other types of shows we can be seen at are outdoor festivals, bat and barmitzvahs, charitiy functions, museum events, civic events, new years eve celebrations. We also perform at long term care hospitals, seniors centres, shopping mall publicity events. If there is a floor, we can dance there!!!!!

There are a few types of shows that should only be undertaken with special care. Be very careful with private bellygrams and stag parties. When doing shows of this nature there are good reasons to be extra cautious. These events are usually organized by private individuals and not organizations, and are sometimes not very well thought out. They could be held in places you wouldn’t normally want to be in. You may also have to contend with rowdy drunks that may well expect you to strip or even spent a little “extra time” with the groom. We have worked for so many years to get rid of the stigmas surrounding what we do, that Belly dancers who do stag parties are quickly ostracized by their peers. In the city I live in there is a term, ‘truck stop bellydancer’. It is used for these types of dancers.

There are other things to consider when booking a private show. Some will require you to have your own ghetto blaster, always come with full batteries in case there is no power source. Always check ahead whether this will be the case. Even if a sound system will be supplied, it is a good idea to have your own stereo in the trunk just in case. If the event is in the summer, it may be held outside. In that case, a different type of costume may be in order.

I bet you never thought that going professional would be so complicated?

Collecting Tips

This is an area where there are no hard and fast rules. Some dancers will collect tips and some won't. If you are one of the dancers that will choose to collect tips, read on.

There are some do's and don'ts when it comes to tips. The first and most important don't is.... no money in the cleavage!!! Another place that it is really wrong to collect a tip is front and center of your belt. When a dancer collevts tips in her costumes, the placing of the money is up to her and not the audience member.

If someone tries to place a bill somewhere you don't want it, feel free to suggest another place. I like to wear upper armbands of some sort, for two reasons. First is that it is nice to have seatbelts on my flabby tricep areas. Also, if someone is trying to put a tip somewhere I don't want it, I will turn and offer the upper arm area. Only once have I had someone try real hard to slip a bill between the breasts, I just danced away and ignored him for the rest of the show. Most people will get the hint right away. Never, have I had a woman try to put a bill somewhere impropper. One thing I have fun with occasionally is this; if someone is offering a tip and he or she seems nervous, or embarrased by friends and family, a little humor will make them at ease. I will offer the side of a hip, and just as the bill is about to be slipped in I will give a sudden shimmy or a few quick hipcircles. It's hard to aim a bill when you're in mid giggle fit. This works especially well on all the little old grandpas in the audience!

Some dancers like to carry small baskets or other containers, I am not sure I would like that, it would make me feel like a begger, while tips in the belt will make other dancers feel like strippers. Tips are a very personal thing, only collect tips in a way you are comfortable with and from people that you are comfortable collecting tips from.

One last word on tips..... If someone puts a business card in a folded bill, it's a pretty good bet that he's hoping for some private time later, and chances are he'll offer you more money for something you are not willing to sell. NEVER NEVER call anyone who leaves you his business card!!!

Questions To Ask Potential Clients

Always make sure you get all the information that you will need for your show as well as info that you are pretty sure you won't need. Here is a list of things you should confirm;

1. Date and time of show. To avoid any confusion by either party, always make sure that the information is exact. For instance, 'Saturday at 10' isn't really exact enough for me, I would be a little more detailed, especially as some of the events I have danced at have been in the morning. To have ' Saturday July 7th at 10 p.m.' will absolutely gaurantee that you don't show up one week and 12 hours early.

2. Exact location, including suite or apt. numbers, phone number, and contact person. It is a good idea to find the venue on a map days ahead of time, so that way you can be assured of getting there on time. We have all been surprised by construction delays, traffic jams, and the ever annoying one way streets. With a little planning, we can avoid all the things that delay us every other day of the week.

3. What type of floor will you be dancing on, always good information, as the type of footwear you chose may either help or hinder your dance, for instance, if you know that you are going to be dancing on a plush carpet, you would really not want to bring high heel pumps with those pointy little heels. As well, you probably won't want to dance on concrete in bare feet.

4. Type of sound system. It is always a good idea to bring a boom-box with full batteries just in case something happens to the sound system at the venue. You know that "Murphy's Law" will catch up with you eventually if you are not prepared.

5. Confirm the length of show. While some audiences may want you to dance for a full half hour or more, another audience may become bored after only ten or fifteen minutes. Also find out what kind of occasion it is, if it is a birthday or some event with a special guest, make sure that you can pay very special attention to your 'victim' and hope that friends and family get lots of good pictures of their loved one's moment in the spotlight to bring out at the next big family event!

6. Always find out as much as you can about the audience. If there will be a large number of Arabic families in the audience, your music will differ from the music for an all North American audience. If there will be a large number of children, you could add some music that children could get up and dance to easily. A large group of uninhibited kids "getting down with their wiggly selves" always makes a crowd happy.

7. Expectations... Find out what the person hiring you expects out of your show. You will be surprised at how often they actually don't know. It may be helpful for you to give brief descriptions of the dance styles and music that you use in your shows, and be sure to let them know that you do not do lap dances or any of the other things that are sometimes mistaken for 'bellydancing'.


Meet And Greet

When going to meet a potential employer, always make sure you look your best. Old jeans and a careless ponytail absolutely will not do. Try to look the part for each meeting, even though you don't always look like an Eastern Princess on a daily basis. Having your makeup done and maybe a few pieces of bellydance jewelry on will help you look the part even when you are out of costume. Stunning clothes made with unusual fabrics will sometimes go a long way towards sealing the deal. If you look amazing, mysterious, and otherworldly when you are just out and about during the day, they will want to see you in costume at their venue!



In Conclusion

Before you jump into the whole "Professional" thing with both feet, be sure that you have done all the planning you can, asked for all the advice you could possibly want, and most importantly, taken the steps to start out with the most professional costumes, music, and cards that you can afford. You can always get better ones later, but having good ones at the beginning will help your image get off on the right foot.

Remember this always.... you got into this to have fun, and even now, it should be fun. The day it becomes more of a chore than anything else is the day you should hang up your zills and take up another hobby.