Thread: Dancing for an Indian crowd

I recall various dancers mentioning in the past that they've done a lot of work for the Indian community. (India, not Native American)

I just booked a nice party. They'd like me to dance for a full 30 minutes - I normally advise against that, but the Indian folks I've had in audiences before were always really enthusiastic, so I thought it might be OK if a lot of it is participatory. Your thoughts/experiences with attention span and expectations? (I realize I'm asking for some broad generalizations here, but there are cultural differences).

Any advice for me in terms of music choices? Still with fast pop music or are slow gooey numbers likely to be appreciated? Sword? Any other advice?

(Where's MichelleJoyce, she had that great experience with the angry mob in India.....g.:)

From my expirience Indian audiences prefer faster, more upbeat music. You can use a song with a slow intro, but I wouldn't make the slow part longer than 1.30-2 min. I was actually cut off once in the middle of mine. The DJ just forwarded to the next song.

Although I am not crazy about it, I always use a couple of songs with bollywood flavor like Habibi Dah.

30 min is a bit long and getting audience up to dance may also be a challenge depending on a situation. I noticed that younger crowds love to get up and dance, but if there if older people are present, they would be mor ehesitant. I've danced for very conservative crowds that wouldn't even look at me when I got close to them, or I was instructed only to only invite men to dance with me. I've got lucky a few times with really nice and warm crowds.

Definitely use props. I think sword is a good idea, cane not so much. Entrance with wings always seems to be a hit.

Dancing for a good, fun indian audience is a blast, but you are not always so lucky. I hope this helps.

I dance for Indian audiences all the time, and I almost always do a full 30 minutes. The reason is that I use a couple of Bollywood hits for my audience participation sections, and they tend to be longer (in the 6-8 minute range rather than 3-5). When you use songs they know and love, Indian audiences are usually VERY interactive! Sometimes I have the whole party up and dancing. The main thing I commuincate with the host beforehand is that I do only belly dancing to Indian music, not actual Indian dancing. I also find out what language they speak. If it's Hindi, there are plenty of great party songs that will go over great. People also get really into it if you know the song well and can maybe make a reference to the video during the dance (or at least know the general feel of the song).

Some of the songs I've used that have been very popular are Kajra Re, Mayya Mayya, Chaiya Chaiya, Chandsifarish, Touch Me, Deewangi, and Dedar De... Jai Ho is obviously big right now, too, and there are easy steps that go along with Twist Remix.

An entrance with wings is a great idea, and often works well with a sort of clubby song. Habibi Deh is a good Arabic/Indian fusion song, and using something like Issam Houssan's Mumbai Revisited might be nice for sword.

Hope this helps, and have fun!

Serafina

Helps so much, thank you both!

This group will be mostly middle-aged, the birthday boy is turning 60. If anyone can recommend specific song titles they would enjoy, I'd love it!

Basically, if they hired a bellydancer, that's what they want. So if you have no experience with Bollywood songs, go Middle Eastern all the way.

Bellydance is a foreign culture dance for them just as for Americans, so I'd basically take the music that you'd use for a bellygram which is also rather upbeat.

Be aware that in India "dancing girls" have the same bad reputation as everywhere else... So behave ladylike (which I am sure you do anyway )

Have fun!

MEISSOUN

I usually only use fast pop up-beat ME songs.

Indians tend to like fast, high enegery, happy performances. This is not the time to break out baladi or introspective gooey songs. The faster the songs the better.

Indian audiences have been among the nicest crowds I've danced for. Soooooo classy, polite and laid-back. My experience is that they show appreciation in a more subdued way than Arabs - but of course, that's strictly my experience and may not apply to everyone.

I've always had enormous success dancing with candles and fire at Indian restaurants. Of course, this isn't for every dancer or every venue! But if you can pull it off, it's great.

As others have suggested, I've also done well with pop - Elissa, Hakim, Nancy Ajram, Nawal Al-Zoghbi to name a few. And yes, I've used Habibi Dah.

As long as you keep your shows entertaining and avoid heavy folklore, I really don't think the rules are hard and fast. Have fun!

Alright, so exactly like dancing for Americans, basically. Thanks

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Alright, so exactly like dancing for Americans, basically. Thanks

Not exactly, Americans can deal with slow stuff as long as you have things like swords, veils, wings and other tools of the trade.

The indian parties I've danced at tend to like props but more then that they like energy. Look at bollywood movies and their song and dance numbers, birght colors, high energy, bouncy movements. I wouldn't break out your 5 part cab set so much as pick a range of high energy songs that you can dance to without being winded.

Indians tend to know to tip (unlike Americans) and they also like to participate. I would wear an American friendly costume and bring your wings (if you work with them) it's easier to kill an entire upbeat song by using wings then to try to keep you energy high for the full 20-30 minutes.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Alright, so exactly like dancing for Americans, basically. Thanks

It's a little bit different in the ways Tanya described, but try not to overthink it. Just as there's no such thing as a One-Size-Fits-All American Audience, the same applies to Indian audiences as well.

My Indian audiences have always enjoyed the spectacle and fun of sword and candles, but I shy away from taqsims and loooooooooong veil routines. Go upbeat and a little flashy and you can't go wrong.

I did dance for Indian audiences before I started using Indian music, and the shows went well. Then I had a request that I learn two Hindi pop songs for a show, and lip sync them a little while I danced. I felt totally ridiculous, but people went *crazy* and since then, I notice that Indian audiences who "appreciate from afar" while I'm dancing to Arabic music go nuts on the dance floor during the Bollywood songs. They sing, they dance, they throw money... I feel like the fusion of an American dancer doing a Middle Eastern style of dance to Indian music can be really exciting.

Then again, I am somewhat immersed in Indian culture. We have a huge Indian community (that loves belly dancers) in this area, and my husband is in a 20-or-so-piece band that does all Bollywood hits.

So maybe that's why I'm strongly in favor of incorporating Indian songs - it may not be that way everywhere!

Serafina, do you do Bollywood-type dancing to the Hindi songs or straight-up BD? Or BD with Bollywood moves thrown in?

I've always wanted to incorporate more Bollywood music into my Indian sets, but never did, because I have next to zero Bollywood dance in my repetoire

Thank you for the clarification, it's SO helpful.

I'm intrigued by the idea of including some Bollywood music, although I wouldn't attempt to do any kind of Bollywood moves since I have ZERO experience with that.

Are the songs Bellyfina mentioned appropriate for an older group?

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Helps so much, thank you both!

This group will be mostly middle-aged, the birthday boy is turning 60. If anyone can recommend specific song titles they would enjoy, I'd love it!

I was at an Indian wedding in June (both as a dancer and as a guest) and *everybody* of *every* age went crazy for the theme song from Om Shanti Om. The dance floor was completely packed with everybody from the toddlers to the grannies. Even the teenagers liked it.

Various friends of the bride did little tribute performances at a gathering the night before the wedding, which is when I performed (the bride is Gujurati, this was at the garba). So I didn't do a full set. I used Habibi Dah, not my most favorite song ever, with veil, and it went over really well. You'll see veils used in Bollywood routines, usually they are shorter veils but it's the same principle of waving around bright pieces of fabric and framing your movements. People had loads of questions for me later and wanted to talk about dance, so I would be prepared for that if you hang around afterwards. They were generally a better caliber of questions than the usual GP asks so it was really a pleasure to chat.

I think your best bet is to communicate with the host. Ask if they'd like you to include some Indian/Bollywood songs for the audience participation sections, and also how much of an active, dancing crowd they expect their guests to be. Then make sure to find out what language they speak. Hindi pop isn't likely to go over great for an older Tamil crowd! I do find, though, that Hindi music (and some Punjabi) is easiest to work with, as there tends to be more Middle Eastern/World music influence. Once you've got that figured out, either suggest some songs or have them name a few, and decide which you'd most enjoy dancing to.

I definitely do NOT do Bollywood dancing, and I make that clear on the phone. But when I'm doing an actual routine and not just freestyle dancing with guests, sometimes I'll BD-ify an Indian dance to suit my purposes. For example, I have two videos on my site where I'm dancing to Indian songs, Mayya Mayya and Mehbooba Mehbooba. For the first, which has a "belly dance"-themed video, I sort of recreated the sequence as much as possible, but with wings. It worked really well for the big stage show. For the second one, I referenced the movie by wearing a green and gold costume like Helen did in the video, and doing belly dance versions of the Indian steps. That one was mostly improvised, but I still had a feel for the video when I did it. If you watch my videos and the Indian ones, you'll (hopefully) see what I mean.

Older audiences should know the more modern hits, but I have gotten requests for older songs, too, which are harder to dance to. Mehbooba is one, and once I danced to Aaja Aaja (I'll butcher the rest of the name), which was rough - but people didn't care that I wasn't getting fancy with it. They just wanted to dance and have a good time.

Ending the set with a favorite like Kajra Re works out well for me. Sometimes I do my drum solo before it, and sometimes after. Recently, I did the solo at the end and everyone was dancing around me singing this drum-heavy Indian song Randakka Randakka over it at the top of their lungs!

Grrrrrrr....

Blackberry went alll crazy, sorry for the billion identical posts!!

I was recently wondering the same thing as Lauren, so this is all great stuff. I can pull off a show for an Indian audience using only ME music but I've always wondered about which songs are appropriate and popular in Bollywood music.

In the past I have noticed that most Indian audiences like things that are fast fast fast. I always get a good reaction to Hakim's Eda Baa. I do syncopated shoulder jerks (not sure what else to call them) that develop into full blown shoulder shimmies during the chorus and usually that's enough fusion for me.

Generally, Indian audiences tend to fall into two categories - they either want a two song set (which is what Bollywood dancers do) or they want you to stay on stage forever in which case it is best to include some Indian songs so that the audience can do some of the high energy dancing for you.

Originally Posted by Zobeida

Generally, Indian audiences tend to fall into two categories - they either want a two song set (which is what Bollywood dancers do) or they want you to stay on stage forever in which case it is best to include some Indian songs so that the audience can do some of the high energy dancing for you.

I agree, Zobeida! Oh, and at some point when Simarik was covered in 87 different languages, I believe it made its way to India. Indian audiences seem to know and love it, but I just CAN'T do it anymore. That song was in every show I did for, like, years.

Originally Posted by bellyfina

I agree, Zobeida! Oh, and at some point when Simarik was covered in 87 different languages, I believe it made its way to India. Indian audiences seem to know and love it, but I just CAN'T do it anymore. That song was in every show I did for, like, years.

Where can I get that?

I don't know! It must exist, though, unless it was just super-popular in India too. I just overheard some version of it in a Zumba class the other day...

Don't you mean Sikidim by Tarkan?
It's from the film Dhoom and called Shikdum.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B_haornRjM]YouTube - "Shikdum" - Song - DHOOM[/ame]

MEISSOUN

Wow, that's adorable! Thanks for posting, Meissoun...I wonder if it's on iTunes!

oh my. that scene makes *not* kissing really, really hot.

OK, folks, I need your help again.

Why can't I find Habibi Dah for download anywhere? I found the CD on Amazon, but I don't have time to wait for a CD. I thought *sure* it was on one of the BDSS CDs and I'd be able to download it -- but I can't find it anywhere!

Is it on one of their CDs? Or on a pop compilation somewhere? It just HAS to be, I don't own the song and yet I can sing along to the whole thing, it wouldn't get that much play if it wasn't on a popular compilation, right?

help me!

I have it on the CD "Belly Dance Fever":

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Belly-Dance-Fever-Various-Artists/dp/B00007FZHM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250563890&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Belly Dance Fever: Various Artists: Music[/ame]

You can get it at Borders or Barnes & Noble.

Oh, thank you!

Originally Posted by bellyfina

I think your best bet is to communicate with the host. Ask if they'd like you to include some Indian/Bollywood songs for the audience participation sections, and also how much of an active, dancing crowd they expect their guests to be. Then make sure to find out what language they speak. Hindi pop isn't likely to go over great for an older Tamil crowd! I do find, though, that Hindi music (and some Punjabi) is easiest to work with, as there tends to be more Middle Eastern/World music influence. Once you've got that figured out, either suggest some songs or have them name a few, and decide which you'd most enjoy dancing to.

I definitely do NOT do Bollywood dancing, and I make that clear on the phone. But when I'm doing an actual routine and not just freestyle dancing with guests, sometimes I'll BD-ify an Indian dance to suit my purposes. For example, I have two videos on my site where I'm dancing to Indian songs, Mayya Mayya and Mehbooba Mehbooba. For the first, which has a "belly dance"-themed video, I sort of recreated the sequence as much as possible, but with wings. It worked really well for the big stage show. For the second one, I referenced the movie by wearing a green and gold costume like Helen did in the video, and doing belly dance versions of the Indian steps. That one was mostly improvised, but I still had a feel for the video when I did it. If you watch my videos and the Indian ones, you'll (hopefully) see what I mean.

Older audiences should know the more modern hits, but I have gotten requests for older songs, too, which are harder to dance to. Mehbooba is one, and once I danced to Aaja Aaja (I'll butcher the rest of the name), which was rough - but people didn't care that I wasn't getting fancy with it. They just wanted to dance and have a good time.

Ending the set with a favorite like Kajra Re works out well for me. Sometimes I do my drum solo before it, and sometimes after. Recently, I did the solo at the end and everyone was dancing around me singing this drum-heavy Indian song Randakka Randakka over it at the top of their lungs!

Thank you so much for all of this. I watched your clip, and the original from the movie, and downloaded the song Mehbooba Mehbooba, I think that'll be perfect. I also found Kajra Re, but the version I found is very techno remix-y and probably not suitable for my audience.

I have asked the woman who hired me and she's going to check with the GOH's wife to see if she can suggest any special Bollywood songs he might enjoy. He's turning 60, so I'm shying away from electronic dance and the latest pop and songs from racy movies unless directed otherwise.

OMG.

I wrote to the party organizer, suggested Mehbooba Mehbooba and Kajra Re, she said great, I was enjoying rehearsing them.

Just heard back from her. They want me to do this one:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tfNTUudawE]YouTube - SANGAM - MAIN KYA KARU RAM MUJHE BUDDHA MIL GAYA[/ame]


..cr.:

p.s. They also want 'Choli Ke Peeche' from the film Khalnayak, but I'm having trouble finding that one. Any guidance for me? I'm much better at tracking down Arabic music!

ETA: Never mind, found it!