Thread: Bad news - wrong impression - its effect on our business

In the past few days I have been getting quite a few calls from much older men that want some sort of bachelor type party. I was a bit confused, I mean there always is someone looking for that, misunderstanding belly dancing to be erotic and not exotic dancing. I figured out why today when I saw this article: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/14/ru...silvio-berlus/

It seems another so called belly dancer has tarnished our image and that of our art. Are the rest of you starting to feel the effects of this negative publicity? Today I saw this story replayed on tonight's news and I have a feeling we'll start hearing more and more about it and start getting more calls from wanna-be playboys in their 70's and beyond looking for a "date" and not artful entertainment.

Greaaaaat...

I am curious... Is she actually a belly dancer or just a Moroccan woman who sometimes dances?

Well, if the "belly dancer" mentioned in the article does this type of dance on youtube then I don't think it's called belly dancing. Now, no wonder people think I'm indecent and dance this type of dance when they find out I'm a professional belly dancer. They probably picture me doing this type of dance. Otherwise, I'm told I'm cute and innocent-looking.

Ummmmmm, that's not how I belly dance.

Neah, I don't think that one news outlet spinning off the story that Berlusconi's bedmate is allegedly a bellydancer is going to have any impact on the ME dance community. This scandal has been going on for quite a while, and the vast majority of press coverage is about the fact that he got caught having relations with an underage prostitute.

There have been threads on this before. from what I understand, she has been dancing in what would be our equivalent of a Bikini bar. The press names her a belly dancer because she is Moroccan.

Do a forum search on Berlusconi and see what comes up.

Sorry, The company I worked for worked with him when he was a film distributor before he was elected. This doesn't surprise me.

{{{HUGS}}}

The press names her a belly dancer because she is Moroccan.

This.

I *did* notice on the BBC news when this first came out that she was a "bellydancer" on the 6pm and just a "dancer" on the 10pm. Maybe somebody, somewhere said something.... I can imagine somebody in the studio- somebody who's taking a class in her spare time maybe- pulling the newsreader aside just before they went on air and giving him a good ear-bashing! Nice thought anyway..
And then Paxman went and called her a bellydancer on Newsnight, Other Half turned and did his smug I-told-you-everybody-will-think-you're-a-painted-harlot look... thanks mate...

I saw some more coverage today and they actually have photos of her in belly dancing outfits. Now we all know that doesn't mean she is a belly dancer, but the public does not. It seems like it is dying down though.