Thread: How big is belly dance?

Does anyone know where I can find statistics about how big a phemonenon belly dance is, in the US or outside, in financial terms? As in, how many millions are spent on belly dance annually, how many people identify themselves as professional dancers, how many people study dance and are a potential market for dance-related things? I'm not sure exactly where to look for this sort if thing. Obviously there are a lot of us out there, I'm just looking for a way to quantify that.

Thanks --
Andrea

Originally Posted by Andrea Deagon

Does anyone know where I can find statistics about how big a phemonenon belly dance is, in the US or outside, in financial terms? As in, how many millions are spent on belly dance annually, how many people identify themselves as professional dancers, how many people study dance and are a potential market for dance-related things? I'm not sure exactly where to look for this sort if thing. Obviously there are a lot of us out there, I'm just looking for a way to quantify that.

Thanks --
Andrea

I did a basic demographic survey of belly dancers in 2007 and will be updating it and releasing it again in 2010. You are welcome to any of the statistics I have. Just email me at mahsati@mahsati-janan.com if you are interested and I can send you a copy of the survey instrument so you can pick your variables. It obviously isn't everyone, but there were over 500 responses so you may find it helpful. :)

Originally Posted by Andrea Deagon

Does anyone know where I can find statistics about how big a phemonenon belly dance is, in the US or outside, in financial terms? As in, how many millions are spent on belly dance annually, how many people identify themselves as professional dancers, how many people study dance and are a potential market for dance-related things? I'm not sure exactly where to look for this sort if thing. Obviously there are a lot of us out there, I'm just looking for a way to quantify that.

Thanks --
Andrea

One way to quantify it is to count the number of entries in my teacher & performer directory. That would be a very tedious thing to do, but it would provide a data point. I believe that my directory represents about a quarter or a third of the working dancers in English-speaking countries, probably much less in other countries. I base that estimate of quarter/third on my knowledge of who is teaching in a given area and how many of those that I know about have listed themselves in the directory.

If you would like web site usage statistics of shira.net, send me a private email and I'll share.

Perhaps check the US census data. They might have info on how many people do this professionally as of 2000 and they'll be doing another census in 2010 this year. It's a long shot, but who knows... they gather data on all sorts of stuff.

If you find it, let me know!

There were figures of a million in the US bandied about some years back but who knows....

One of my dance sisters did a thesis on consumer habits of Australian oriental dancers... is that the sort of thing you're looking for?

Hmmmm.... I wonder if we could come up with a viable average number of dancers/students per teacher and use Shira's list X 3 (her estimate) X average # of students to get a rough ballpark notion?

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Hmmmm.... I wonder if we could come up with a viable average number of dancers/students per teacher and use Shira's list X 3 (her estimate) X average # of students to get a rough ballpark notion?

I think it will be really hard to figure students, but instructors/performers might be doable. It's definitely a lot - a few quick searches on google show that the number of websites mentioning belly dance is pretty staggering. I'd love to know for sure how many of those represent actual dancers/dance enthusiasts!

Originally Posted by NandaDncer

One of my dance sisters did a thesis on consumer habits of Australian oriental dancers... is that the sort of thing you're looking for?

It's the sort of thing *I'm* looking for - I'd love a link also!