Thread: History of body tipping?

I have an office party tonight at a local Turkish restaurant. As the office belly dancer I'm anticipating the questions I'll get tonight and looking forward to a chance to help educate some friends about what we do.

The dancers at this restaurant accept body tips, and I know people have some misconceptions about that. But it got me wondering...where does the body tipping tradition come from? In the Middle East tipping usually involves a money shower, a money crown or necklace, simply handing the dancer a tip or, in some instances, sticking bills to the dancer's forehead. How did that evolve into the costume tipping we see today? I'd like to be able to disarm the *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* stuff by providing some real history. But I have to admit I don't know exactly where the Middle Eastern tipping models and the costume tipping model intersect.

Any thoughts, Bhuz?? ..g.:

Good question!

I'm interested to find out

Yasmina Ramzy had an interesting reply to this on gilded serpent this month on her column.

I just wrote up a bunch of B.S. about how in earlier American Middle Eastern restaurants, tips that fell on the stage went to the band, but tips given to the dancer were hers to keep, and that body tipping became popular because dancers had no pockets and had finger cymbals on their hands. Like I said, it's B.S., but it's plausible B.S..

I just found that article and found it very interesting.Milaya, Tipping, Gossip | Belly Dance News & Events

In the clubs in North Beach in '70's and '80's with live music, the tips were placed on the dancer's costume and the "expected" split was 70% dancer; 30% musicians. In fact, it was unacceptable for a dancer NOT to go out for tips just before the finale of her show - especially since this guaranteed tips for the musicians who after all contributed the music. It was a lousy system, but with the pay scale so low in Bay Area ($25 total for 3 45-minute shows) dancers couldn't even begin to cover costs let alone make a living dancing. I routinely made anywhere from $50 to $75 a night in tips; sometimes more depending on how full the club or restaurant was.

And, it was not considered okay for the dancer to EVER pick up any tips that either fell to the stage or were tossed onto the stage - those belonged to the musicians.

As far as the "history" of body tipping, it is a fact that strippers accept body tipping and this is a very uneasy connection with belly dancers routinely having to "go out for tips" every show; no matter how classy or elegant the belly dancer is.

Perhaps the American movie/TV industry depictions of belly dancers contributed to this image of the belly dancer teasing audiences just to have a dollar bill stuck in the belt. All I know is that this was the system in place in the clubs and restaurants - and it took hold so firmly that even when I used taped music, "going out for tips" was an expected part of every dancer's routine and the audience expected it.

Let's face it, even now few gp audiences know that in the Middle East it is considered an insult to offer money to a dancer, let alone place a tip on the costume. ,r:;

At the same time in New York when I took a trip there, one club owned by a woman, "Ibis" handled tipping by forbiding patrons to place tips on a dancer's costume during show - they could only be tossed onto the stage and were collected after each show and divided between all the dancers of the night at the end of the night. When the patrons occasionally tried, the dancer would smile and shimmy out of range. The dancer would still dance around in the audience as part of the show, but not for tips.

Tipping by placing small coins on the dancer's body was very common in the Middle East from Turkey through North Africa in the 17th through 19th centuries and was reported by many travelers.

My guess is that things went through substantial change both with the influx of tourists and with the increasing reliance on paper money. Tourists may or may not have wanted to tip and dancers may have had mixed feelings about tourists participation or non-participation in this important part of the local dance economy. There's a very painful tipping scene in Robert Hichens' 1904 The Garden of Allah where a dancer becomes quite hostile to a Western audience member who refuses to tip her -- the author is on the audience member's "side" in all of this, but if the Westerner was violating an unspoken rule of how dancers made their livings, the hostility would have been quite natural and may have marred other dancer/tourist relations, assuming Hichens observed something like this and didn't just make it all up.

In any case, clearly tipping by audience members has remained an important element of dance performance in some parts of the Middle East, not always as a relationship purely between dancer and audience, but as an outward sign of community ties and identities as well.

Its transition into Arab clubs in the US might have been natural in urban centers with large Arab populations, but it has remained badly understood in areas and venues with less prominent Arab populations, where stripper clubs are the nearest model for dancer tipping the average American can think of. Oh well for us.

Artemis demonstrated in workshop a Turkish Rom dancer asking for a tip by tapping her forehead while in standing part-backbend. She said they could get quite insistent. She also suggested that one not try it while wearing zills.....

BS ?
no, that is what we were taught.nadia at armens resturant, costa mesa taught me to pus body tips into costume when off stage and away from the band.that way they could not count them and expect a higher cut. tips on the floor went to the band.i always look at the customer, and say "i dont give change", they will pick it up and re tuck.

Originally Posted by Nisima

Let's face it, even now few gp audiences know that in the Middle East it is considered an insult to offer money to a dancer, let alone place a tip on the costume. ,r:;

?? This is very different from what I've heard from dancers friends who used to work over there and also very different from what I've seen in Egypt with my own eyes.

Originally Posted by Nisima

Let's face it, even now few gp audiences know that in the Middle East it is considered an insult to offer money to a dancer, let alone place a tip on the costume. ,r:;

I have seen photos of dancers at venues such as the Nile Hilton where the floor was littered with money. To the point where the dancer couldn't move from where she was standing because it was impolite to step on a photo of someone and the bills usually have photos of the current president. Touching the dancer is illegal, but tipping? Not so much.

At the same time in New York when I took a trip there, one club owned by a woman, "Ibis" handled tipping by forbiding patrons to place tips on a dancer's costume during show - they could only be tossed onto the stage and were collected after each show and divided between all the dancers of the night at the end of the night. When the patrons occasionally tried, the dancer would smile and shimmy out of range. The dancer would still dance around in the audience as part of the show, but not for tips.

A lot of times this has nothing to do with modesty, or decency, but has to do with the wording of the liquor license. Even many gentleman's clubs are hands off because there is alcohol involved. I have danced at one club here which is bound by this rule.

{{{HUGS}}}

I was informed by a middle eastern man than is a professor here in the states that one of the reasons for body tips is that it is actually considered rude for a dancer to accept money with her hands because it is seen as begging (same thing with picking up a fallen tip from the floor) however a tip tucked in the costume is given freely and makes it absolutely clear who the tip/gift of appreciation is for.

Most body tips I get are from Middle Easterners / Maghrebians. Anything from Morocco to Turkey. Swiss people usually don't tip unless they have seen it done before.
But I also once danced at a big event of people from ex-Yugoslavia (don't remember which part) where the audience members asked me respectfully during my break if it was OK to tip me. And when I said yes, they were actually really happy to give me money during my second show. It was a family style event, nothing indecent about it.

We are lucky here - our smallest bills start at 10 Francs. That's about 10 US$. So it's actually worth it to accept tips in the costume.
And I would think it to be rude to refuse a tip that is obviously given as a sign of appreciation.

MEISSOUN

I have noticed if you don't have a "prep" dollar already tucked and visible- i don't get ANY tips- either people need to see it done or have the idea of being okay otherwise people often won't volunteer.