Thread: Greek Restaurant Shows

Should the format of a Greek restaurant show be different than that of an Arabic restaurant show?

Do you need to use Greek music only?

Do you use Greek pop song for audience?

Thanks!

I worked in a small Greek restaurant for a time, and I did try to use Greek music, although my boss made it clear he understood that belly dance was Arabic, and he didn't mind Arabic music.

I would think the owners would appreciate a nod towards their culture, and personally, it was a fun change of pace for me to dance to the Greek stuff - I felt very old school!

A lot depends on the type of audience your Greek restaurant tends to attract. It's not necessary to use exclusively Greek music, although if the audience has Greek people they'll enjoy having some familiar music. One good song is Misirlou, another is Tien Afto (which appears on one of Harry Saroyan's albums). There's an old belly dance album called "Feenjon Goes Greek" which has some great music on it - I think it's now sold on the Smithsonian Folkways web site.

It's fine to use Arabic music. According to the musician Chris Kalogerson, the reason Greek restaurants in the U.S. have belly dancing is traced to Egypt, not to Greece. It seems that ethnic Greeks who ran restaurants in Egypt (in most cases, in Alexandria) would feature belly dancing in their restaurants because that was the popular thing to do in Egypt. After the revolution in the 1950's, Egypt's surge in nationalism and its move toward a socialist economy made it financially unattractive for these Greeks to remain in Egypt. Many of them left, and some made their new homes in the U.S. where they opened restaurants that offered what they offered in Egypt - Greek food with live music and belly dancing entertainment.

The advice I received for dancing at Greek restaurants:

1) They love fast music and zills are a must
2) Arabic music is fine but Turkish is a big no-no
3) If you can incorporate Greek music it will be VERy much appreciated
4) You can't go wrong wearing blue

~~Kimahri

I've used Turkish instrumental music, as some regions in Greece have very similar music traditions.

At one of the Greek restaurants I dance at I use 2 types of music.
1 is Greek (sometimes Turkish, yet it's ok, a little more on that below), and 2 is Arabic.
I usually bring 2 different cds and look at what type of audience we have. A lot of times it's mainly American, (or generally speaking Western) and Greek - I use a cd I made from Bellydancing with Katia. I think it's a wonderful cd, with lots of short songs (1-3 minute) and they can be blended together. It is very upbeat and fun, peaople always love it. If you use this cd make sure you don't use some of the tracks that are more folky - you wouldn't belly dance to it, such as the Zembetiko, etc.
I use fast - slow (veil) - fast (maybey tsiftetelli, there are couple of songs on Katia's cd) then a prop (usually sword) and then a couple of pop songs.

Sometimes I use Turkish. At the other restaurant I dance at the Greek owner loves Turkish music (we have live music but for a few parties I had to use cd) and so far I have never heard anyone objecting to Turkish. So I think it's up to the person, but of course you want to be careful and ask if you have the chance. Turkish goes well with Americans.

And then other times I use Arabic - the owner at this restaurant is Chaldean, and there's a large Chaldean population here, so it's best to use Arabic music for them.

In my opinion, any type of music will go (Arabic or Greek) for a mixed audience, or mainly American, but Arabs don't really favor Greek (Unless they lived in Greece, and we have a lot of Chaldeans here that did that, in which case it brings back nice memories).

Zills are nice of course, as they are in any restaurant. If you wear blue, or blue with white it is very Greek, but you just want yo make sure either way you wear a very nice costume.

On this page I use a song from Katia's cd, this is what I usually enter with - I love it, it's so upbeat and fun! And very Greek! :)
http://www.mariannabellydancer.com/Zorbas.html

Paula, let me know when you're performing -- if I'm free that night, I'll try to bring a little group & support your show.

There's actually a Greek-owned restaurant here in DC that PREFERS Arabic music (both instrumental and vocal). They admit their music isn't always optimal for dancing.