Thread: Performances opportunities to aspire to

a spinoff from DaVid's thread: http://www.bhuz.com/forum/business-b...r-request.html

we see the phenomenon where lots of dancers aspire to be a restaurant star, some undercut for the $35 gigs, etc. What is it about the restaurant jobs that allure dancers, and what are the options beyond, that a dancer should aspire to?

I'm not knocking restaurant gigs, I've enjoyed the experiences I've had and will continue to have immensely. But I still don't fully understand why we as dancers sometimes see a restaurant job as a sign of accomplishment, because we all know good and well one doesn't have to be "accomplished" to get the job, and they certainly don't pay that well. So what is the allure, exactly?

And then, what can we aspire to beyond the restaurants and private parties? I'm approaching the age where restaurant work & parties will become less & less of an option, but yet I want to dance more and more. And I want to dance regularly, predictably. Yet I don't teach, and don't imagine I'll become someone who is invited to do workshops and performances ever in my life. So what are the other types of performance opportunities for those that are in my same boat? I want a performance opportunity that challenges and inspires. Somewhere beautiful and full of good audience members. Somewhere I can plan on and work toward.

What should we be looking for, what is out there?

Okay, I just posted a long ramble in the originial thread from David.
1. workshop & lecture opportunities at colleges & universities. Connect with the theater/dance departments & their international student union, student activity commitee...Many many options there. These departments & committees have money that they have to spend or they won't be granted it in the next budget year. Tap into it. There are always bd basic workshops you can offer but also offer costuming workshops to theater departments--even if you don't sew you present on the styles of costume in ME dance, ditto w/dance department--only focus on folk dances: a ppt slide show & lecture on 3 styles of BD--raqs sharqi, arabic folk dances, and dances of the romany. Good dance & theater departments DON'T want the Simplicty "Genie" costume & shakira dance in their productions. They want your expertise. Spend 20 minutes giving an introduction to each & you've got 1hr. Add a costumed demo of each after a brief intemission--1.5-2hrs easy.

2. Art festivals. Find local towns that really promote the arts. Begin networking. Try to sell a 20 minute slot on their world stage at the annual art festival. By doing this, I have secured an annual 2hr concert in a major arts community in a theater with 200+ seats & full technical set up.

3. Profit sharing! The best way to create your own gigs without going broke. Approach a local theater & instead of renting the space agree to split the profits. Make sure your agreement includes full promotion of your event by the theater--they'll agree--they want to sell just as many tickets as you do. Bring together 3-5 guest artists & a band, give them a cut of your profit sharing or a flat fee & viola! You've hosted a concert. Oh...get the theater during the day & host a workshop w/one of your guests on top of it all.

4. Cultural Organizations--see thoughts above.

5. Ballet or other large dance companies: these companies often host an annual invitational or collaborative concert. Join your local/state art commission and tap into these companies. They will solicit a proposal--submit a well drafted narrative w/ photos or video (links to web video are okay). These often inlcude paid studio time, full promotional billing, free copies of photo & video media obtained during the show & a decent honorarium.

Depending on your region & market all of these can earn you $300-600+. The added bonus to university workshops I mentionend above is that these audiences, because they aren't belly dancers, will probably never come to see you present again, so you can develop a few well constructed presentations & use them many times. I'm happy to share some templates & proposals with you.

There are grants out there for performing arts projects. You could look into getting a grant and then having money to put on the kind of performance that you want. My troupe applied for a grant to do a piece with a tap ensemble for some big production. We didn't get it, but it's just an example.

wow, cool ideas totally outside of my thinking and experience!

just wanted to make sure this doesn't turn into an "all about me" thread, though. I'm really curious to see how other dancers have dealt/are dealing with this topic and where our collaborative thoughts take us...

yes to the above.
but lets not forget the happiness we can bring at a regular back yard party gig.

certainly not the fanciest or most artsy, but some of my best, most appreciative audiences have been in living rooms and back yards. and its really fun to watch people's faces when you know some of them are expecting "stripper - light' and they get art. you can see the turn around in their eyes and demeanor. its cool.

so i guess for me its aspiring to audiences that get it or want to learn about it as art and not just being moving decoration behind the hummus buffet. does that make sense?

Totally agreed. In fact, I'm looking forward to go dancing in somebody's back yard (or living room if the weather doesn't clear up soon) this very evening!

I would like to add that as a dancer, I aspire to perform on many different settings. It's nice to have a goal in mind like lecturing at university, but to me a performance is about enjoying dance and sharing my joy with the audience.

If th opportunity arises I wouldn't say no to opportunities to give in depth view on MED or do something ocmpletely different. But the basis of oriental dance is the dance itself. Even when you aspire to become a dancer specialised in theatre shows, I think it would be good for your own development to keep doing restaurant/birthday/coorporate/etc. gigs.

A group of schools and individuals, we are putting on a theatre production charting different stages in belly dance and the connection with the West. We are hiring a univeristy theatre and may apply for later funding if our "collecive" wants to continue. this isn't a money making venture but we hope a community and cultural one. It's certainly not a performance platform for individuals like haflas but a group effort but obviously it is something for a dancer to put on a CVand to put herself on a stage.

Thank ya'll for all these wonderful ideas-I am in the same boat as Joanneraks and wondering where do the opportunities come from and came to the conclusion that sometimes we have to make our own venues.

I started a World Dance Festival in our little town-a university town granted, but in Texas, bellydancing is still not very understood and accepted. I figured instead of trying to do a full two hour show of just bellydancing, I pulled in as many talented world dancers as possible-my sister is a tango and flamenco dancer, so that helped obviously. So the show is heavy on bellydancing (Egyptian, Turkish gypsy, Persian and Tribal all being represented) with Tango, Flamenco, Indian, Tahitian (me and my sister doing that one), Irish, Ballet and Modern dance being done by other members of the community. It allows me to have my show, dance a lot, but also highlight other talent in the area and appeal to a wide GP. I do it as a benefit show where proceeds go to three different charities that the audience members get to chose which charity their money goes to. Of course, the ticket sales and program advertisements have to cover all my costs, first, but we made enough last year to give a nice donation to each of the three charities.

So getting to dance at my own show, donating to three charities and bringin together a group of talented dancers is very rewarding!

Jamielynn
I love the idea about 'choice charity'. Our troupe does fundraisers at all our haflis but it would be cool to give patrons a choice on where their contribution goes: food bank, women's shelter, or arts education program (or whatever)...

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

but lets not forget the happiness we can bring at a regular back yard party gig.

Yes, my favorite memory of a gig is from the time I danced at a nudist's birthday party, in front of a swimming pool with naked people in the water and lounging on the sides. (I, by the way, was fully clothed in a nice costume.)

Originally Posted by jamielynn

I started a World Dance Festival in our little town!

This is something I've wanted to do for YEARS!! Glad to hear it's happening successfully somewhere.

Originally Posted by jamielynn

Thank ya'll for all these wonderful ideas-I am in the same boat as Joanneraks and wondering where do the opportunities come from and came to the conclusion that sometimes we have to make our own venues.

I started a World Dance Festival in our little town-a university town granted, but in Texas, bellydancing is still not very understood and accepted. I figured instead of trying to do a full two hour show of just bellydancing, I pulled in as many talented world dancers as possible-my sister is a tango and flamenco dancer, so that helped obviously. So the show is heavy on bellydancing (Egyptian, Turkish gypsy, Persian and Tribal all being represented) with Tango, Flamenco, Indian, Tahitian (me and my sister doing that one), Irish, Ballet and Modern dance being done by other members of the community. It allows me to have my show, dance a lot, but also highlight other talent in the area and appeal to a wide GP. I do it as a benefit show where proceeds go to three different charities that the audience members get to chose which charity their money goes to. Of course, the ticket sales and program advertisements have to cover all my costs, first, but we made enough last year to give a nice donation to each of the three charities.

So getting to dance at my own show, donating to three charities and bringin together a group of talented dancers is very rewarding!

This is awesome. I think it is important to continue to bring belly dance into traditional dance venues. If we continue to make room for ourselves in these large stage productions, I think it will bring up our presence as a well-accepted high-art form...

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Yes, my favorite memory of a gig is from the time I danced at a nudist's birthday party, in front of a swimming pool with naked people in the water and lounging on the sides. (I, by the way, was fully clothed in a nice costume.)

Hehe...I hope you knew they were nudist before you got there, lol. I bet that was something interesting.

I think perhaps a lot of dancers aspire to perform in restaurants because they simply don't know of other opportunities. Many bellydance performances are done in the private domain - parties, weddings - so if you get a student who doesn't tap into community events or other pro-dancers' knowledge, restaurants may be the only performance opportunities she knows of.

I think, too, in this modern age of reality-tv fame, the idea of displaying yourself to umpteen people at a restaurant week after week, can seem very tempting.

Originally Posted by jewelbellydance

I think . . . in this modern age of reality-tv fame, the idea of displaying yourself to umpteen people at a restaurant week after week, can seem very tempting.

Yes, displaying oneself seems to be quite the attraction these days . . . :Asad:

It's always been that way, of course, in every part of the "entertainment" field, but there are simply just more people than ever taking some lessons and deciding to go out and show themselves off.

Deborah

I aspire to dance at venues where I am enabled to provide the following;
- entertainment
- sharing the joy of the dance
- exposure to Middle Eastern Dance
- a change in people's opinion of the dance for the better
- representation of the dance
- representation of male dancers
- representation of what our academy offers
- an artistic vision

I guess I was more prone to get entertainment gigs when I first started out - these days it is mostly festivals, special events, etc.

Originally Posted by RatedTotalPackage

Hehe...I hope you knew they were nudist before you got there, lol.

I had previously danced with my troupe at the local clothing-optional resort, and a fellow named "Buck" (I am not making this up) was the entertainment director there. So when I go the call about the birthday party gig and the caller said he got my name from Buck, I made the correct assumptions, which were confirmed later in the conversation.

The caller, whose name was Peter (I am not making this up) told me the reason he called me in particular was because he knew I had danced at the resort in the past, and he wanted a dancer who had experience performing for nudists so as to avoid having me freak out or something.

It actually was lots of fun. Naturists are a great audience. Unlike the general public, they don't get weirded out by the sight of a woman in a midriff-baring costume, showing a bit of cleavage, or wearing a slit skirt that shows some leg. They also tend to have a culture that encourages acceptance of a variety of body types, so they tend to be less judgemental about how thin (or not) a dancer is.

A few years back when I was living in another city the Civic Council (much to everyone's shock - they were notoriously useless) helped to promote what was billed as 'A Summer of Indian Dance Culture'. It was a sort of very spread out festival with lots of well-publicized and open workshops for the GP. People could drop in and out as they wished but there was also an opportunity to sign up for an intensive set of workshops from the beginning which were also designed for those with no experience but then the idea was to work on some set pieces for a show to be performed at the end of the summer (it was a bit like some of these fame shows where celebs are only given a week to learn a routine or something).

I was recovering from a serious injury at the time so didn't feel ready to go to the workshops but I did go to the final show which was at the local opera house and it was wonderful. There were so many different aspects of Indian Dance culture in there and they alternated the stuff that had been worked on in the workshops with fabulous performances from the professionals but it was done very well so although there was a massive discrepancy in standard it was still all very well presented and fun.

I think that the best thing was that the final show audience was packed out with loads of people who would never normally have touched something like that with a barge pole but who went to see their granny/sister/friend/dad on stage and who then really got into the whole show. It was very special.

I have no idea how a normally hopeless civic authority managed to pull something like this off, whose initiative it was or where the funding came from. All I know is that they were professional dancers teaching and the end result was a great and a fun showcase.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

I had previously danced with my troupe at the local clothing-optional resort, and a fellow named "Buck" (I am not making this up) was the entertainment director there. So when I go the call about the birthday party gig and the caller said he got my name from Buck, I made the correct assumptions, which were confirmed later in the conversation.

The caller, whose name was Peter (I am not making this up) told me the reason he called me in particular was because he knew I had danced at the resort in the past, and he wanted a dancer who had experience performing for nudists so as to avoid having me freak out or something.

It actually was lots of fun. Naturists are a great audience. Unlike the general public, they don't get weirded out by the sight of a woman in a midriff-baring costume, showing a bit of cleavage, or wearing a slit skirt that shows some leg. They also tend to have a culture that encourages acceptance of a variety of body types, so they tend to be less judgemental about how thin (or not) a dancer is.

That is one heck of a funny story!! BWahahahahha. ..l;,..l;,..l;, Thanks for sharing!!!

Originally Posted by *Shira*

I had previously danced with my troupe at the local clothing-optional resort, and a fellow named "Buck" (I am not making this up) was the entertainment director there. So when I go the call about the birthday party gig and the caller said he got my name from Buck, I made the correct assumptions, which were confirmed later in the conversation.

The caller, whose name was Peter (I am not making this up) told me the reason he called me in particular was because he knew I had danced at the resort in the past, and he wanted a dancer who had experience performing for nudists so as to avoid having me freak out or something.

It actually was lots of fun. Naturists are a great audience. Unlike the general public, they don't get weirded out by the sight of a woman in a midriff-baring costume, showing a bit of cleavage, or wearing a slit skirt that shows some leg. They also tend to have a culture that encourages acceptance of a variety of body types, so they tend to be less judgemental about how thin (or not) a dancer is.

This is totally awesome, Shira!

I believe you are not making up "Buck" and "Peter." Someone I knew who had a vasectomy, his doctor's name was Peter Loveless.

To answer your query, the appeal for me of dancing in a restaurant was being paid to "rehearse" with a live band. I had no aspirations outside of that as I was doing other things at the time and dancing was a fun activity for which I got paid and the music rocked.

Later, I was asked to take part in other performances with other musicians and it just kind of took off from there. I did what I enjoyed and when something came along that seemed fun and exciting, I accepted it. I normally just have an intention or an awareness of a feeling that I want to experience and the opportunities manifest.

I've never really had a 1-, 3-, or 5-year dance plan.

I felt that the years I was dancing at the restaurant served its purpose and was there when I needed it. Outside of being hired for special occassions that happen to be taking place at the restaurant, I could not do a regular gig at one, unless it happened to be with live music again.

I'm not even gigging that much (sometimes with all the makeup things I'm doing I forget that I even dance!) but when I know I'm going to visit Philadelphia and other places, I start sending out mental feelers, ask former students if they want privates while I'm in town, or offer makeup services for this or that dancer/event, and other things just come up.

Do you have a notion of where you'd like to be or what you'd like to be doing, dance-wise?

Just speaking up here about the "allure" of dancing in a restaurant...I think for those of us who are newer on the performance scene, it just offers a regular way to practice performing for an audience. It's not the pinnacle of my aspirations as a dancer, by any means, and undercutting sucks no matter how you look at it. But, I do enjoy it immensely right now, and it offers me a guaranteed multiple-times-a-month way to hone my performance skills without having to go overboard in terms of preparation (e.g., finding a venue, booking bands & other performers, etc...). With the economy in such a slump, in "small town USA" it's hard to get the backyard gigs, so the restaurant is nearly it for paid numbers. And, since I work during the day, personally it's difficult to do daytime events. As an example, I was extended a great opportunity to perform at a community college in a few weeks with my instructor, but unfortunately it would've required a full day off work, and I'm all out of annual leave, so I had to decline. Oh well.... But, I love Nayastrance's suggestions!!! They are all so good!

Wow! Great ideas here!

As a newcomer Intermediate dancer looking to expand out of troupe work and into soloist activity, this offers me a lot of wonderful options and gets my creative juices flowing. Thanks, guys!