Thread: Tips for Dancing in Restaurant

Hi Everybody!

Just recently, I was offered a job to dance in a local restaurant (Hoorah! ..l;,). This will be my very first time performing in a restaurant setting. For those of you that have some experience in this area, would it be too much to ask if you could share some of your expertise with me? What kinds of things should I look out for? I really want to make a good impression and provide a good show, as well. With that said, I also want to be certain that I make smart decisions and that I represent myself on a professional level. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Andalee

P.S. Not sure if this thread already exists - if so, please accept my apologies ..g.:

Check out Michelle Joyce's Secrets of the Stage series, especially #2. It has tons of great tips for restaurant dancers and pro dancers in general.

Belly Dance DVD - Secrets of the Stage 2- Michelle Joyce

Congratulations! Here are my points of advice, although most are kind of common sense...

Be on time. Switch up your costumes and music to accommodate for repeat customers. Make sure you have backup dancers you can call who will do a good job in your absence, but who will also respect your territory. If possible, set terms beforehand that lay out what happens if the restaurant cancels on you at the last minute, or if you get there and there's one table - and also what your private party prices are. (Restaurants think that if they pay you $100 for a regular set, you'll come in and do all their parties for the same price! Make sure they know what constitutes a "special event" before they go misquoting your prices to their clientele.) Leave plenty of business cards and socialize a bit after your sets in order to get private parties out of it, as well as jobs at other local restaurants. Have fun! And remember that a belly dancer should be treated like a queen. I used to dance in a restaurant where the owner would bring a cocktail to the dressing room and carry my bags to the car after the show. Not that I've had that experience in any of the other restaurants I've danced at, but it was great while it lasted!

Hope it turns out really well for you and that the staff members and diners are nice to work with. I think that restaurant work really helps you develop your skills and professionalism, as well as your confidence in yourself as a dancer. Enjoy it!

Serafina
www.serafinabellydance.com

This is all great advice.
I'd also say- seek out a local teacher who can mentor you.
Make sure you are charging at or above the local rate for a standard length show for your area. Remember that "splitting the show in two" actually constitutes two shows.
If they want you to wait around a LONG time to dance - don't. They are paying you to dance, not hang out for hours...which relates to the following:

Originally Posted by bellyfina

....Leave plenty of business cards and socialize a bit after your sets in order to get private parties out of it, as well as jobs at other local restaurants.
Belly Dance by Serafina

This is a good idea- but remember to keep the professional balance. There is a huge difference between thanking people who have tipped you or gotten up to dance with you (and then leaving), and totally shmoozing; hanging out for hours after the gig as if you have nothing better to do. Keep it short and sweet; answer questions about the dance, exchange a few pleasantries and of course business cards. Just this alone, along with your fabulous dancing will get you more business (I'm sure that's what serafina was talking about; I just feel it's good to clarify this one).
It can be a real easy trap to fall into, but staying too long 1) makes it more difficult to keep the time of the show fairly standard, 2) sets an unfair precedent for other dancers who might sub for you and 3) can really create the "wrong" impression.

Yes, that's true! If you hang out too long after the set, joining people at their tables and telling them your life story, it does set an unfair precedent for future dancers (and for yourself on nights when you're in a hurry to get out!). I have fallen into this trap in a sense, but only at one restaurant where I would often have friends and family come out to see me. If it was a Friday night and I didn't have any shows afterwards, I'd sit with them and have dinner, which never looked bad to people (especially because I was treated with the utmost respect at this place)... But it could make me or another dancer look bad on a more rushed night. A little bit of networking, however, is a great thing and has led to tons of outside business - and tips - for me. Anytime I was tempted to hop out the back door but went through the restaurant instead after the show, people would get up to thank me and hand me generous tips. Not that that happens everywhere either, but it's something to look out for!

Also when you burn your music try to see if you can put each song on a different track instead of editing together your set and having 1 20min song on the CD, this way if the CD player mess up, you can just skip to the song you were at instead of fast farwarding. I learned this the hard way.

Wow, thanks for all of the feedback! It's tough being a newbie when it comes to the restaurant scene. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I guess its like anything else - trial and error - am I right? Well, all of your comments are really useful! Some of you touched on some topics that I never even thought about.

I actually have a great mentor/teacher in town that will sort of coach me during the process, however, I also welcome the advice from fellow bhuzzers. This way I am able to weigh the different opinions and then find my own footing along the way. At the end of the day, I hope to put on a phenomenal show and represent our dance community in a positive and respectful way.

Thanks so much!

I'm sure there have been lots of other threads on this topic, so look back through the pages...

But one extra tip - don't expect to be able to do a choreography. Instead, improvise. That way, if someone gets up and dances with you, or the space is very awkward, or some doofus skips through one of your songs on your CD, you won't be thrown.

Originally Posted by toria_dances

Also when you burn your music try to see if you can put each song on a different track instead of editing together your set and having 1 20min song on the CD, this way if the CD player mess up, you can just skip to the song you were at instead of fast farwarding. I learned this the hard way.

Also, be absolutely sure that your media is playable!.p:: Many people forget and burn CDs as data CDs and not as audio CDs!

At a recent BD competition I attended, the person running the audio (this person is a veteran of working audio at bellydance events - both shows and competitions) had a sign there, and while I don't remember all of the wording, I do remember this: If it plays on your car stereo system, it will play on our system. ..g.:

Yes, buy good quality CDs for burning, and test them before you're out the door. Also bring an original (non-burned) Cd as an emergency back-up.

Here's one I learnt last Friday - don't assume that the window in the room they've ushered you into to get changed is actually non-see-through. "Of course they wouldn't put me in a room right next to the diners to get changed, if you could see through the tinting, right?" Wrong!!!

Ugh! That's terrible Jewel, how did you handle that?

There's some really good info here. I like reading about your experiences.

aside from the nuts and bolts info so far -

remember that your job as a dancer is to entertain and help people to have a good time. you're kind of like a hostess at a party. greet everybody with a smile and eye contact when you get on stage, keep active contact with them during your show, involve them via audience participation, scan them to see who would enjoy more attention, who is shy and could be brought out of their shell, who looks on the fence about the whole thing and needs your most skillful diplomacy. greet them individually when you go to each table for tips, say hi and thank you for coming and thank you very much if they tip you. be sure to return to the stage after tipping to let them know that you're done and you had a great time dancing for them.

if there are children in the audience, play up to them. dance for the women first, if it's a couple. somebody famous said "dance as if every woman is your mother, and every man is your son." this is such excellent advice!

remember that it's not your awesome technique that the audience is going to enjoy. it's your personality, presence, ability to involve them, and your JOY. HAVE FUN DANCING, AND SHOW IT! :) be silly, have fun, play!

ok, some more nuts and bolt tips now. what has worked for me: try to stick to traditional bellydance music with lots of rhythm changes and accents to play with for the main part of your show. save the pop songs for your tip music. its' better to have four three-minute songs than two six-minute songs - variety will hold the audience's attention more easily. if there is a dance floor where you work, you don't have to stay there the whole time you dance - it's ok to briefly go around the audience once during the middle of your show. but don't leave for too long or too often! floor work is almost never a good idea if you have a ground level area to dance and people are in chairs at tables. only the first row of people will see you, and the floor may be icky. cultivate beautiful arms and hands and use the space above your head often: in some venues, more than half the audience may not be able to see you below your shoulders! they will never see your hips! if your venue is like that, it can be fun to choreograph a drum solo where you stand on a chair (also an opportunity for audience interaction as you make one of your admirers give up his chair for you and hand you up and down off it!). I prefer to have a LOT of tip music tacked on the end of my show cd, rather than finale music in a set place, so I have the option of working out in the audience for as long (or as briefly) as I want to.

somebody posted a link here recently to zaheea's article on tipping on gilded serpent - lots of great advice for new restaurant dancers. worth looking up.

good luck, and have FUN FUN FUN!

Originally Posted by jasani

Ugh! That's terrible Jewel, how did you handle that?

There's some really good info here. I like reading about your experiences.

Well, I didn't know I could be observed until I'd already changed in there! Apparently they can't see in if the lights are dimmed, but of course I probably turned them up so I could see what I was doing. Fortunately, I tend to change with my face to the wall, because I'm so used to people barging in at inopportune moments. And also fortunately, this is not a regular gig, so if anyone copped an eyeful, hopefully I won't run into them again! .w.:

Thanks Elisa for the very informative tidbits! I especially enjoyed reading and learning about your "tip music" advice. I really am learning so much under this thread.

Again, thank you ladies for all the suggestions, information and advice. Your input is truly priceless!!

one more thing - go and watch other restaurant dancers as much as you can, to see how they do things, what music they use, how they work the crowd, so on and so forth. you can help *them* out by being the first person in the audience with your money out to tip them, to help get things started. :)

If you're driving to the gig listen the music you will be dancing to in your car so you are prepared. If you are not driving put the music on your ipod (or other portable music device) and listen to it on your way. Listen for variations in rhythm and emotion so you can properly convey these to your audience.

And please don't force a smile the entire time you're out there. If you are enjoying youreself you will have fun and smile naturally. A natural expression is always so much better then a forced smile.

Don't use a veil unless you are absolutely sure you have an area where you can flap it around without hitting diners, tables, food, or waiters!!

Originally Posted by halftruths

Don't use a veil unless you are absolutely sure you have an area where you can flap it around without hitting diners, tables, food, or waiters!!

ha! good one! :) if you have a tiny space to dance in, those half circle veils with the metallic ribbon edge (like petite jamilla uses) are pretty controllable.

Originally Posted by elisagamal

somebody famous said "dance as if every woman is your mother, and every man is your son." this is such excellent advice!

This deserves quoting often.

Originally Posted by elisagamal

one more thing - go and watch other restaurant dancers as much as you can, to see how they do things, what music they use, how they work the crowd, so on and so forth. you can help *them* out by being the first person in the audience with your money out to tip them, to help get things started. :)

This! Besides picking up on new tricks and ideas, you'll get inspired. try recruiting other dancers and it will quickly become girl's night out :)

Also, we should be supporting each other as much as we can.

Bring extra saftey pins, needle, and thread- just in case! I've had a few "wardrobe malfunctions" that I needed to fix while changing. I'd say the most obvious one was the shoe style I wore dancing at a Greek restaurant. It was the kind where it has laces that go up your calf (it was the only suitable pair I could find for this at the time). While dancing, the one came untied and I obviously couldn't stoop down and tie it back up without it being very obvious, so I tried undoing the other and dance barefoot. Well, I must have tied that one really well. It was very obvious, so I stopped struggling and ended up finishing my set with only one shoe! Luckily they weren't heels. My point is, stuff is going to happen at some point. Be as prepared as possible and when it happens- go with it.

I was very nervous my first time dancing in a restaurant. Once the music started and I saw everyone smiling and having a good time, I realized it WAS fun. The more I enjoyed it, the more the patrons liked it. Relax and enjoy yourself!

Another thing to consider:

Ask the owner/manager what type of music do they want you to use. I worked with live music at a Greek restaurant as a sub; mostly Greek, Turkish and Armenian music was played. The first time I danced there to recorded music, I used the same type of music. Came to find out (from the house dancer, not the owners) that the owners preferred Egyptian music!

Go figure.

Of course, if this is a location you've visited before and/or your mentor knows the place, then asking the owner might not be necessary.

Good luck and, as elisagamal posted, "HAVE FUN DANCING, AND SHOW IT! :) be silly, have fun, play!" I get by best as an entertainer who shows the audience that BD is really fun.

Deborah

This is a great thread. I will be dancing in a restaurant setting for the first time ever next month. Does anyone have rules of thumb for using the small spaces between tables and how long to spend near each table?

Haha, those little spaces between the chairs, I love those! Gives me an opportunity to show my adaptability. I'll get up on releve and maya or shimmy sideways between them. I don't know if the audience catches those little feats, but I know I feel pretty slick when I accomplish something like that without tripping or bumping into the chairs/tables.

A tougher challenge for me is not whacking the waiters/waitresses upside the head when they sneak by me. I'm getting better at it, though I know one of these days there's going to be a hookah-charcoal disaster. It's inevitable. Hopefully I won't be wearing my best costume that day. ..g.:

As far as how long I spend at each table, it varies. It depends on the table's reaction. Some tables completely stop what they are doing and watch, I may stay at those tables for a full verse of the music. Others just want to take a picture then go back to socializing, and others I get the complete cold shoulder from, so I may stop at the table for a couple seconds to acknowledge them, but then move on. I swear it sometimes feels like I do a whole show for one or two tables, it all depends on the audience.

I also try to be aware of who's on the cell phone or having an intimate conversation so that I don't play zills in their ears when I dance by their table.

Originally Posted by nidawi

As far as how long I spend at each table, it varies. It depends on the table's reaction. Some tables completely stop what they are doing and watch, I may stay at those tables for a full verse of the music. Others just want to take a picture then go back to socializing, and others I get the complete cold shoulder from, so I may stop at the table for a couple seconds to acknowledge them, but then move on. I swear it sometimes feels like I do a whole show for one or two tables, it all depends on the audience.

Great rules of thumb! Thank you!

There's some really great advice here; this thread is definitely a keeper. I especially loved the "mother-son" philosophy. Do all restaurants require that you use zills each and every time?

where where? We wanna come and watch :)

Originally Posted by david

where where? We wanna come and watch :)

You guys would really come out to see me? Oh my God, the pressure!! (smile) Okay, David, now the palms of my hands are beginning to sweat and butterflies are fluttering around in my stomach. I think I will call out sick the day I know you guys are coming ..l;,.

Seriously, I will PM you the details. It is always so nice to see friendly, familiar faces in the audience. BTW, I am still talking to people about the Egyptian Veil Workshop that you taught earlier this month. I learned sooooo much in the short time I was there - it was fabulous! Thank you, thank you....

Originally Posted by Andalee914

You guys would really come out to see me? Oh my God, the pressure!! (smile) Okay, David, now the palms of my hands are beginning to sweat and butterflies are fluttering around in my stomach. I think I will call out sick the day I know you guys are coming ..l;,.

Seriously, I will PM you the details. It is always so nice to see friendly, familiar faces in the audience. BTW, I am still talking to people about the Egyptian Veil Workshop that you taught earlier this month. I learned sooooo much in the short time I was there - it was fabulous! Thank you, thank you....

Awww, that's so sweet. I'm glad you got some exciting material out of the workshop - mission accomplished then :) Come play with us again any time you want.

Dont worry, I'm a very well mannered audiencer and unless someone specifically tells me to look for areas of improvement - I prefer not to be working when I watch dancers. I do that enough as it is :)

DaVid

any tips on modifying your choreo for "in the round"?...I've danced at restaurants before, but with a very defined stage....I'm stuck on this piece for Wednesday, as I'm worried I'll just be turning in circles with too many direction changes, or having my bum towards someone for too long. This is one of those long corridor-type spaces between tables that maybe 1.5 of me could fit through, with a teensy open space at the end..maybe.