Thread: What did it use to be like?

I know a lot of the dancers who are well established say that things used to be different. Clubs had "big spenders" and house dancers. 2-3 belly dance shows a night and the like.

That sounds so much more exciting and glamorous than the "moving wallpaper" designation that a lot of dancers now a days face.

So can we have some stories? What was it like for you? What experiences did you have? Was it easier to get a long with everybody when there were several dancer slots to fill at a restaurant, instead of 3 or 4 dancers competing to get one spot? How was the dance community different? Who did you look up to at the time?

And also, whats different now? In your opinion what would it take to get it back to the way it was before?

oohh, good topic! I was not around back in the "good ol' days" (only been performing professionally for 6 years), so I'd be interested to hear some of the stories!

Gilded Serpent has some nice articles from old-school dancers in the San Francisco area.

I know there is a documentary in the process of being made about Boston's heyday. I am not sure when it will be out. I am anxiously waiting for it. I forget who is doing it but once I find out, I can post it.

Originally Posted by KDizzle

I know there is a documentary in the process of being made about Boston's heyday. I am not sure when it will be out. I am anxiously waiting for it. I forget who is doing it but once I find out, I can post it.

I think it's Amy Smith of Middle Eastern Dance in New England.

Don't forget the very limited music. In my first class I think we had one tape (the master was kept secure) and hissy copies were made from it for the first couple of years. After 6 years I think my music collection had expanded to about 6 tapes - all very precious.

Video of performers was also scarce (no DVDs). I was lucky to have a friend who mixed with the Lebanese ex-pats and she passed on a number of tapes copied off satellite TV - with ads and logos and shocking ghosting. Again these were precious.

we have a vast library of "records", it is a shame that not all the masters were kept for CD'S.some music will never be repeated.i liked the music better then .it was recorded for those of the blood who had imigrated here.it was not ..be nice cory....bent for western/student ear.
at my first visit to THE FEZ i saw marta shill, ms aram , and my future molder, ms rathor.
there was a "circut" of sorts, so the dancers rotated between, the fez, cascades, greek villiage, 7th viel etc.
i did a long stint in rosemead THE TOPPER CLUB doing businessmens lunch.
it was differant all right !
all the places were owned by immigrants, they told/showed us what they wanted.the band filled in the education.

Anne Rasmussen's article "An Evening in the Orient" has some great background into how the Arabic/Greek club scene developed, with particular emphasis on the development of the "pan-Arabic" sound. It's a good introduction to the scene that created the first real US bders.

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

I think it's Amy Smith of Middle Eastern Dance in New England.

Yes that's who is doing it! Thanks!

zamora - I hoped you would appear here. I love your posts and your humor. Bet you have many wonderful stories.

Performances tended to be to "live" audience rather than from a stage. There was less choreography and more improv and interaction. (Which I love and still do lots better than staging).

Zills-put on and kept on for all but the most folk of folklore!

i bought a "ion" turntable that rips LPs into computer files so I'm trying to copy my old albums so that I can use them now. I've got some cool old music that's not available on CD

There were some great articles on thehipcircle.com by Morocco and Gamilla. The site was down for a while but it looks like they've started archiving the old articles. Yay!

there were scary times to, like finding yourself working for a big guy with the armenian mafia.or working with sirhan sirhan's brother, abdel, an oud player who worked the same circut.

Originally Posted by kahaz

Performances tended to be to "live" audience rather than from a stage. There was less choreography and more improv and interaction. (Which I love and still do lots better than staging).

Zills-put on and kept on for all but the most folk of folklore!

i bought a "ion" turntable that rips LPs into computer files so I'm trying to copy my old albums so that I can use them now. I've got some cool old music that's not available on CD

When I was doing my thesis research, one of the participants showed me her records. As Kashmir says, there were precious few resources here and lots of people talked about muffled, mysterious tapes and videos that had been copied so many times there was no colour left in them. But this lady learned in the US, where she lived for many years, and she had practically every topless/harem fantasy album cover represented in that collection - and nothing to play them on any more. I wish I'd had a decent amount of money in the bank because I'd have made her a handsome offer. I'd never seen those albums in real life before!

Some you can get on CD but it would be so awesome to have the vinyl.

I recommend the book Have Belly Will Travel by Tanya Lemani, a dancer in the 1960's who worked extensively in Las Vegas and southern California. She was the belly dancer on several 1960's movies and television shows such as the Star Trek "Wolf in the Fold" episode, the Elvis Combeback Special, and a lot more.

The book consists of her memoirs. Definitely recommended for those of you who would like to hear about "back in the day".

Amaya is about to put out a DVD about the American dancers of that era.

how far "back in the day" do you want to go?
i can tell you about working in the l.a. clubs in the '90s.
i was the house dancer for many clubs including al andalous, the hollywood park casino and middle east connection.

"it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"..hehe just kidding. i loved it. wish they were still in business.

we had live bands, singers, 40 min shows, costume changes, money showers on stage. an audience who "gets it", guys who would send roses to the dressing room. oh yeah, a real dressing room with a proper vanity and lighting. pictures outside the club on the marquee. valet parking. bus boys who would fight to carry your gig bag up the stairs. the whole 9 yards.

my shows were improv but we always planned "acts".
we signed 3 month contracts with the clubs. usually the paychecks were good. if not, you moved on to the next club :p
there was always another dancer waiting to try to steal your job or undercut. that's what the contracts are for. if we needed to go on vacation or out of town, we had to send in a pre-approved substitute, who was a close friend that you know would not steal your job. politics for sure.

there is nothing like a real band with talented musicians that work together and work with you. there is magic in the synergy.

i really miss those days, can you tell?

Originally Posted by zamora

there were scary times to, like finding yourself working for a big guy with the armenian mafia.or working with sirhan sirhan's brother, abdel, an oud player who worked the same circut.

oh yeah, there were the sketchy characters for sure. but i won't even mention them here. best not to invoke the names .w.:

Yasmin (DC) has some AMAZING stories from her work overseas "back in the day".

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

we had live bands, singers, 40 min shows, costume changes, money showers on stage. an audience who "gets it", guys who would send roses to the dressing room. oh yeah, a real dressing room with a proper vanity and lighting. pictures outside the club on the marquee. valet parking. bus boys who would fight to carry your gig bag up the stairs. the whole 9 yards.

Um, are you talking about the 90's or are you talking about heaven????

And then there are these videos by Amina Goodyear:

Aswan Dancers' Videos

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

Um, are you talking about the 90's or are you talking about heaven????

no i swear! i've got pics and video to prove it. (well, unauthenticated ..g.:) it was the real deal. no pics of the dressing room of course but i promise you al andalous had a real dressing room with a vanity, a chair, proper makeup lights, a full length mirror , hanging racks for costumes, space for gig bags and a door that locked. luxor had a huge dressing room too. but when things started to go bad in the business, luxor gave up half their lease and that included the dressing room so i had to change in the office.

these are tv commercials for the luxor and the hollywood park casino. that's me on the left and jindra on the right
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvYxsFqn_U]YouTube - Sabrina - Professional Belly Dance Artist[/ame]

this was the middle east connection with issam houshan every thurs, fri and sat. (what a luxury!) it was a very crowded night so the tables were right up to the stage.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twSrG1cI4PE]YouTube - Sabrina Belly Dancer[/ame]

I started dancing in the early 80's and clubs were fun until about the late 90's when business started to go down and many of the great supper clubs closed their doors.

In Detroit we had the Greektown clubs and we had the Arabic clubs, most of which were located in the Dearborn area.
The Greektown clubs were very touristy and paid the best. The best dancers worked in both the Greek clubs and the Arabic clubs. You were only allowed to work in one of each kind. So you could work in 1 Greek club and one Arabic club but not 2 Greek clubs at the same time and not on the same night. The dancers were house dancers and stayed long term. We had no contracts. Clubs were open 6-7 nights a week, 2-3 shows a night, 2-3 dancers a night. I thought there was a lot less competition then because there was so much work available and at the most you could only work at 2 clubs. On our nights off, we would often go to visit other clubs. The club owners and the patrons knew who the singers and dancers were in all the clubs so if you appeared in a club that was not "yours" you were treated like visiting royalty.

I still have friends to this day from dancers I used to work with. We used to enjoy going to see each other's show and club hop on the nights we weren't working.

The music was always live. Show length varied from 30-45 minutes. Yes we had dressing rooms with mirrors. Some even had sinks and toilets. The clubs had a dress code and we wore evening gowns to work.

Back then they would have a cigarrette girl who sold gum, cigarrettes and flowers. A patron wouldn't dream of inviting you to the table without buying you a bouquet of roses.

Probably one of the most dramatic things that occurred was the champagne tower. It didn't happen very often but that was the highest accolade. During your show, a patron would buy champagne and the waiter would come on stage with champagne glasses stacked in a tower. The higher the tower the higher the compliment.

Originally Posted by norma

I started dancing in the early 80's and clubs were fun until about the late 90's when business started to go down and many of the great supper clubs closed their doors....

The clubs had a dress code and we wore evening gowns to work.

Probably one of the most dramatic things that occurred was the champagne tower.

do you have pics or video you can post? would love to see

Yes, that's what happened here too with the businesses closing :(

I forgot to mention going to work in evening gowns. We used to stalk the outlet stores on monday afternoons for last season's prom dresses, etc.

People would send us a glass of champagne on stage, but we didn't have the tower. That sounds awesome! Did you really drink it?
I always pretended to take a sip or two and then set it down on stage.

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

no i swear! i've got pics and video to prove it. (well, unauthenticated ..g.:) it was the real deal. no pics of the dressing room of course but i promise you al andalous had a real dressing room with a vanity, a chair, proper makeup lights, a full length mirror , hanging racks for costumes, space for gig bags and a door that locked. luxor had a huge dressing room too. but when things started to go bad in the business, luxor gave up half their lease and that included the dressing room so i had to change in the office.

these are tv commercials for the luxor and the hollywood park casino. that's me on the left and jindra on the right
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Okay that guy showering you with money in the second clip. How fabulous!!

So, when you say you went to work in evening gowns...you mean you arrived wearing an evening gown, then went to your fabulous dressing room to change into costume?

Those truly were the good ol' days!! I'm envious! :)

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

do you have pics or video you can post? would love to see

Yes, that's what happened here too with the businesses closing :(

I forgot to mention going to work in evening gowns. We used to stalk the outlet stores on monday afternoons for last season's prom dresses, etc.

People would send us a glass of champagne on stage, but we didn't have the tower. That sounds awesome! Did you really drink it?
I always pretended to take a sip or two and then set it down on stage.

Unfortunately, I have none from the heyday. Video cameras were very expensive so footage from live shows is very rare. I have one from 1989 when I danced in California, that I will never ever show as I look like I was going through puberty! The only other video clips I have are from AFTER the heyday, when I worked in an Arabic club right before I retired earlyist date 1999. Most videos of me are AFTER I retired so I don't feel reflect my best shows. Maybe Amber_Moon, who lives in my area, can help me convert and post one or two clips.

As far as pics, I have a few posted here on bhuz. But there requirements are pretty tight so I've been unable to post many pics.

Try looking me up on tribe.net

Norma's Photo Album - tribe.net
Explanation:
Oh, and most of these photos were impromtu photos to capture costume designs. Not professional by any standard.

Originally Posted by norma

Unfortunately, I have none from the heyday. Video cameras were very expensive so footage from live shows is very rare. I have one from 1989 when I danced in California, that I will never ever show as I look like I was going through puberty! The only other video clips I have are from AFTER the heyday, when I worked in an Arabic club right before I retired earlyist date 1999. Most videos of me are AFTER I retired so I don't feel reflect my best shows. Maybe Amber_Moon, who lives in my area, can help me convert and post one or two clips.

As far as pics, I have a few posted here on bhuz. But there requirements are pretty tight so I've been unable to post many pics.

Try looking me up on tribe.net

Norma's Photo Album - tribe.net

Well usually I drank it but sometimes I pretended. It depended on how my night was going. But I always offered some to the band. The whole point was to make a big show and acknowledge the sender. It was all about politics and appreciating your fan base. Something that I think today dancers ignore. They are more into showing up, getting paid a fee, leaving and moving on to the next gig. They aren't into building up a customer base and loyalty.

And I think that effects quality. If you are planning on being in the same place year after year you damn well better produce. But if your mission is to just show up and leave does it really matter what you do????

this sounds amazing! like something out of a movie!

In the DC area in the late 70's early 80's, the two main clubs were the the Astor Restaurant and Salaam Supper Club. At the Astor, the supper club was upstairs. The live Greek music was wonderful, and they normally had two dancers per night doing a five part routine.

The Salaam Supper Club also had two dancers doing a five part routine, and the band consisted of an oud, violin, kanun and dumbek.

Both of them were in the downtown DC area. The Astor was at 18th & M, the Salaam at 14th & K.

There was also the Greek Village, and a few others in Virginia who's names I don't remember.

Artie sent me a cassette of her first performances there, and she claimd she couldn't play her zills, but it isn't true.