Thread: Question about dancing in Indian restaurants

Good afternoon wonderful Bhuz ladies! For years I've danced at ME and Turkish restaurants (however, it's about a 3 hour drive since I live in the middle of nowhere). I finally picked up a bi-weekly gig that's in my hometown, however, it's at an Indian restaurant. What do you do differently at these venues than the traditional ME ones? I've been asked to use some Indian music as well, so any advice or song suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks everyone!

Hm. Have they booked you as a bellydancer? Like in Middle Eastern dance?
If so, that's what you should do.

Do you know what the average audience is like? Do they have more Western or Indian guests?
The problem with using Indian music when you don't have a clue what to pick or how to dance to it is that you could make a fool out of yourself in the eyes of the Indian guests.
Like dancing hip hop to Oum Kalthoum in front of Egyptians .

I would suggest sticking to what you know and can do. Then you can still adapt later.

MEISSOUN

Do a regular restaurant set, but switch out the pop tunes with Indian, Bollywood, or Indian/Middle Eastern fusion pop songs.

There are Bollywood songs that Indian audiences associate with their notion of 'bellydancing.' It's not unusual for Bollywood dancers to do their own take on bellydance in films, and you can bellydance to those songs pretty freely (although I find it difficult because the music is so diferent).

I find these songs extremely useful when doing audience participation with Indian audiences! That way I don't really need to dance to the music as much as facilitate.

For older audiences, I frequently use Mehbooba Mehbooba:


For a younger audience, something like Sheila Ki Jawani would work:


If you're not trained in Indian dance at all, it's probably best to just bop around and not try to do any Indian-inspired movement...

Yea I know some traditional Indian dances, but there's no way I would bust that out. I do plan on just doing traditional bellydance sets, but add in some Bollywood pop songs (thank you for those suggestions Lauren!). The crowd is mostly Western. Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by thussell

Yea I know some traditional Indian dances, but there's no way I would bust that out. I do plan on just doing traditional bellydance sets, but add in some Bollywood pop songs (thank you for those suggestions Lauren!). The crowd is mostly Western. Thanks guys!

Since the crowd is mostly Western, you should be safe sticking with what you know. However, I still recommend to look up translations for Bollywood songs you use, or at least watch the music videos and pick up a couple of moves from them. If you have any questions about any particular song or would like suggestions, feel free to PM me.

Just one thing to note, I was in a Bollywood class recently, and the teacher said that if you're dancing to a track from a film, the audience will expect to see some of the film's moves in there.

We learnt a choreo to Sheila as above, and the teacher had included some of the more iconic moves (chorus arm swinging, pretend face slap) as a nod to the film.

Originally Posted by LilithNoor

Just one thing to note, I was in a Bollywood class recently, and the teacher said that if you're dancing to a track from a film, the audience will expect to see some of the film's moves in there.

We learnt a choreo to Sheila as above, and the teacher had included some of the more iconic moves (chorus arm swinging, pretend face slap) as a nod to the film.

This is my experience, too.

Bollywood dance is EXTREMELY content-based, much moreso than bellydance. I've been in a Bollywood class for a couple of years, and the dances we've learned are essentially acting out the lyrics, one line at a time. And yes, usually echoing a LOT of the choreo from the film.

The moves also often incorporate the wide variety of regional ethnic dances from all over India. An Indian choreographer knows that this portion of the music is Bhangra, and will incorporate some classic Bhangra moves... and this section is Punjabi, so you should move to it this way.

After 2 years of instruction, I feel exactly 0% qualified to improvise or choreograph Bollywood dancing on my own.

That's why I advise using the Bollywood music only for the audience participation part of the show. If you have audience members who know about Indian dance, they'll do the moves from the film and/or the regional moves. All you have to do is get them up & encourage them. If your audience isn't informed, they'll just bop around, and that's fine too. But neither way do YOU look like an idiot!



And if no audience members will get up and dance with you (sometimes happens at any gig, right?) just bellydance or dance Western style to the music. Don't try to incorporate something you think is vaguely Indian unless you have a great deal of training.

When I work with Indian parties, I used to tell them I can incorporate some Bollywood *music* into the audience participation part of my set, but that I had (at that time) no Bollywood training, so I'd be bellydancing to the music, not dancing Bollywood style. They understood perfectly.

Here in Japan, my studio`s dancers dance at Indian restaurants (probably most restaurant gigs are at Indian ones...) and they all do Middle Eastern dance. As far as I know, my teachers aren`t learnt in bollywood dance.

I guess I would ask the owners?

Originally Posted by thussell

Yea I know some traditional Indian dances, but there's no way I would bust that out. I do plan on just doing traditional bellydance sets, but add in some Bollywood pop songs (thank you for those suggestions Lauren!). The crowd is mostly Western. Thanks guys!

If you have some background in traditional Indian dances, then Bollywood for audience participation should be a breeze & a lot of fun for both you and the audience!

I have been dancing regularly in an Indian restaurant for over a year. The audience is mostly Western with a fair bit of Indian clientele. I do plain old bellydance to Arab music and both the Western audiences and the Indian seem to enjoy it.

Originally Posted by Asra*

I have been dancing regularly in an Indian restaurant for over a year. The audience is mostly Western with a fair bit of Indian clientele. I do plain old bellydance to Arab music and both the Western audiences and the Indian seem to enjoy it.

I think this is what most people do. I'm glad you said this, we were getting so focused on whether/how to incorporate Indian music it probably started seeming like a requirement rather than an option!

My basic principal is always: If they had wanted a dancer who does XY dance style, they would have hired one.
If they hire a Middle Easter dancer, this is what they will get. Simple.
Indians do enjoy Arabic music and dancing! They have Indian dance all the time, so for them it's nice to see something else for a change. Or why do you think they have had all these "exotic" dances in Bollywood films for the last 70 years? Legendary item girl Helen got famous doing the twis to a song that said "Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo" (my name is Chin Chin Choo). And she did "flamenco" dances - well, mostly it was the dress ;-)

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by Lauren_

I think this is what most people do. I'm glad you said this, we were getting so focused on whether/how to incorporate Indian music it probably started seeming like a requirement rather than an option!

Thanks, as Meissoun said as well, I think that if they hired a bellydancer then that's what they are expecting. I have to say, though, this thread has inspired me to throw an occasional Indian song into the mix for my "audience participation" song. I think it would be a hit!

I'm really glad to see other dancers are being hired in Indian restaurants. Dancers from our studio have currently been hired in 3 different Indian restaurants, and we get hired for Indian parties and weddings all the time. The audience loves seeing a belly dancer as well as dancing to the Bollywood songs at the end of the set. A "rival" dancer in town who has been trying to take our restaurants posted a nasty Yelp review of one of our restaurants saying something to the effect of "Indian restaurants have NO BUSINESS hiring belly dancers, since belly dance is NOT Indian." Not sure how she thought that would get her hired there, ha ha, but it seems Indian restaurants hiring belly dancers isn't uncommon at all.