Thread: Creating gigs where there aren't any

I know this has been discussed before, but thought I'd ask again in case anyone has new ideas!
People just don't hire belly dancers here. we have haflas & shows we can dance at for free. I am trying to put on a couple shows a year that actually pay dancers. The only restaurant hiring locally doesn't pay squat, and is now paying even less than it used to. The only gigs I have had in the past have been for former students. There are a very few community events willing to hire dancers on occasion, mostly because there is a dancer on the entertainment committee! Okay, so the community is fairly small (~85K) but I honestly think it just doesn't occur to people to hire dancers for an event. IS there any hope of convincing them otherwise & finding/creating gigs? Folks love our public performances, but how do you translate that into private gigs? (& I always have promotional material with me!)

This is a good topic. I'll be watching it. Why hire bellydancers when you can get them for free seems to be a theme I've noticed everywhere.

I'll be watching this thread, too. It's a good topic. Because yes, if they can see shows for free, they're probably not likely to pay for one. But, if you stop performing in the community, you'll be out of the public eye (and does "out of sight, out of mind" apply?)

I read somewhere on here that a dancer in a small town went to italian restaurants and asked if they would like to do a special greek themed night with belly dance, if the owner sees an increase in profit, they would likely pay for bellydancers. I don't know if u have italian restaurants, but they can be more common than middle eastern ones in small towns sometimes.....

Do you have event planners or banquet halls in the area? I'd recommend contacting them to see if they'd put you on a list of "preferred vendors" or something like that - it would get people who are already in party planning mode thinking about a dancer.

Another dancer I knew in Georgia worked with a local costume rental store for a while in a gigmasters-type arrangement and she got quite a few gigs that way.

Can you get quality local PR? If you could get a segment on the local news or an article in the paper where you have a forum to talk about how you do those gigs, that would help to plant the idea in more minds. Of course, the trick to this method is making it clear without sounding obnoxious that the interview is on your terms, and, no, you are not there to teach the reporter to dance for cheap laughs, and you'll be very disappointed in the reporter's professionalism if a bunch of hoochie-coochie cliches about seducing sultans show up in the finished piece. (Appeal to their intelligence/competence/attention to detail, because any halfway decent reporter does care about getting the story right.)

I am ok with giving restaurants an audition, i find that as i introduce myself they don't know what I am talking about. Yes, I too live in a somewhat small town 700,000, but the mentality is very small sometimes, and anything middle eastern must pertain to Al Qaida or something like that. So an audition gives people a clear idea of your professional presentation and image. Just a suggestion but maybe offer a short demo see how it goes. Keep us posted, this is an issue for so many of us here in the west.
Best of Luck my friend.

It's pretty common around here to have a hafla at a restaurant where the patrons pay a cover and have to spend a certain amount at the restaurant. The money can go to pay the dancers, or at least the featured dancer.
Ask about doing this on an off time, like Sunday afternoon.

Restaurants- I need to get out on the trail again, but I haven't really found interest, except at the greek restaurant and I am just not going that route with this particular venue. There is a coffeeshop which lets us charge a $5 cover for an occasional gig, but nothing regular. I need to get out to the other places which host other forms of live entertainment, I guess.

& I should have been clear- the fair and street fair performances we do *are* paid for (tho minimally!) by either the city or the arts assoc, they're just free to the public. There are about 5 a year of this type (tho, of course, opportunities to dance for free do abound!)

Media- I am flat out of ideas! When my friend opened the studio, we got something in the new business section, but that wasn't featuring gigs, per se, and they're really only interested in doing a press piece if there is something new or exciting (or otherwise pressworthy) going on. I am hosting a show with Brothers of the Baladi in a couple weeks here- since we have to pay so much to get the band all the way up here, we are really not able to pay the dancers much at all! But, I am hoping the extra press coverage there helps with other gigs.

Host your own event, and charge an entrance fee. Find a local venue-community stage you rent, or work out a deal with a bar/restaurant/coffeshop. Have a cover charge, even if its only $5, and maybe see if the venue wants to promote food/drink specials for the night. Get your local dancers together to perform, and put on a nice show. And don't forget to pass a tip jar around, or have one out. It may not be much $ to split up between dancers, but it gets people used to the idea of paying to see belly dancing, and its good exposure for the dancers. If you have them on at least a semi-regular basis, you may can move up to better venues and increase the admission. And I've also seen events like these turn into regular restaurant gigs.

I did a gig last summer opening for a reggae band. The organizer was prepared to pay me but since whole show was a fundraiser for Haiti's earthquake I had them donate toward it on my behalf. (And it was my first time dancing outside of a choreographed bellydance show and didn't know what to charge)

Not saying that you should dance free. My point is to perhaps look into being an opening act for a band if you know anyone in the music scene. I have been offered another one next summer, this time paid, through the exposure of the first event. I'm going to do more research on it myself as I live in a very remote, unpopulated area yet bands seem to thrive. And these gigs could be so fun!

Forgot to add, that anyone trying this has to make it very clear you use your own music unless you love the sound being played!

Have you thought about your Chamber of Commerce? These are great places to "educate" the business community on your services. This may lead to great referrals.

Other options are belly grams. I know of a well known instructor that used to do bellygrams for a discounted rate if it was a "lunch time bellygram". That really helped her business and it was a noon gig so it was not interrupting her classes or evening activities.

Anything you do will get your name out there. Make business cards with your website. Make "gig" cards! I have post cards that say "Hire a bellydancer for weddings, birthdays, ladies nights, etc". Spell it out for them and make sure everyone has one in their hand when you perform at other events.

Promote like crazy!!!

Good luck :-)

The next time you perform in public, include a dance that demonstrates the behavior you want to reinforce in your audience, like those Egyptian entertainers who demonstrate what a bride can expect on her wedding night :) The first example that comes to mind is the fabulous Laylia's fabulous 'Happy Birthday' dance that I saw in 2008. An 'older' guy sat on a chair on stage with guests and his 'wife' hovering behind him. Enter Laylia carrying a piece of birthday cake with candle. Surprise, a belly dancer for birthday entertainment! Laylia's talent for truly hilarious dance improv is unmatched, I wish I could find a YouTube of it. The point at which she decided to distract the guy so she could eat pieces of his cake is the point at which I started laughing so hard that the rest of the dance is a blur.

You could 'dance' a bachlorette party, or a little girl's b-day party, or even a serious dance concert in front of uptight professors or, heck, a coffee klatch. Anyway, you get the idea. SHOW them how much fun they'll have if they hire you, don't just talk about it :)