Thread: A week in the life of a full-time bellydancer

so, in feeling grumbly about my current life, I couldn't help but wonder, what must it be like?

Anyone care to imagine with me? Or anyone with first hand experience want to share?

I'm quinda shy to talk about it, I have never before. I do fell like I am privileged to live the life that I have but here goes.

Just to set the stage: I'm 22 years old, I live at home with the parents and still go to school (I've presently been on vacation for 1 month so it feel like dancing is all that I do). I started dancing, for fun, when I was 18, I've never stoped since and it is my only source of income. So to awnser your question, I week in a life of a full time belly dancer:

You wake-up really late (11am-12h) cuz you went to bed at 3am after your last gig at that nightclub. The days go by real fast. You spend most of you time alone since everyone is at work. You do get your all your stuff done : cooking, cleaning, grocerie shopping... you got lots of time! A lot of what you make goes in to keeping up a good beauty regiment (nails, hair, tan, make-up...) and of course classes/workshops/costumes....(that's the cool part!) Got to be as perfect as can be right?

When people get home from work you have a bit of time to spend with them until, you got to go dance! So really not that much time with familly and friends considering that when there are dinners, B-day parties, Christmas parties, weddings, familly gaderings... you're almost never there because you're out entertaining other famillies at there parties!
Having a relationship is so hard, you praticly never see each other unless the scheduals are the same. Oh yeah and hands up to moms that have kids at home!

And of course there is always that instability: how many contracts this week? How much money will I make? Will I still have that steady job at that restaurant or will I get replaced for no valid reason? (and keep in mind here that I have no responsabilities what so ever!!!)
Running around getting to all your gigs, dealing with people/clients and what they think of you and what you do, constantly looking for gigs, new clients... its stressful. Small market, lots of competition: you are on your own in this and you never know what's going to happen to you.

So, really not so glamorous when you stop and think about it. At first, when you start dancing you're always so excited but when its been a while, it ends up just beeing a job like any other!

But of course, when you are on that danse floor looking so beautiful, people so happy and smiling at you... the applause... all that 3-4, 5 nights a week, yes it is amazing!

So there! Bad and good in everything! Dancing really does have to be a passion, you have to give so much of yourself in order to make it work. All aspects of your life have to be edited towards belly dance! It becomes more of a bussiness then a pleasure but I can say that I loveee my job (most of the time!)
A piece of advice? Always have a back up plan! I dont see myself living this life forever!

Well my teacher was one for several years, admittedly in a market where there is not a lot of work. So far as I know, her week went something like this:

Daytimes: Get up, have coffee, prepare studio for classes/privates or work on own performance work/class choreographies. Go to bank, photocopy centre, accountant etc for various admin reasons. Organise meetings with other teachers, do promotional work, do occasional gigs, do lessons outside the school. Cook, see family. Keep body maintenance good (ie nails, tanning, hair colour, etc) for last-minute gigs, at all times.

Evenings: Teach classes most nights; do gigs as well.

Weekend evenings: Do several gigs one after the other, wistfully wishing you could go to your friend's party or event instead. Get changed in toilets a lot.

For a number of years I had regular restaurant/nightclub gigs on average 4-5 nights a week, and typically did 1 to 3 private parties/weddings/special events just about every weekend. This meant that some nights I might do three, even four shows in a night - some of the shows as long as 40 minutes. When I had that schedule going, I only taught one or two classes a week, because more would have pushed me into the point of chronic injury.

This dance schedule did keep me in really good shape, but I did get foot/ankle/back pain from time to time from the wear and tear. But I think a lot of that was from things like lugging a suitcase full of heavy costumes up sets of stairs, etc.

I made good money almost entirely through performing during this time, but if I was on my own financially (i.e. not married) it still wouldn't have been that great as an annual income. It was nice having most days free, but as Salomestar said, mostly you're by yourself because everyone else is at work, and then as soon as your family comes home you're getting ready to leave.

I had many, many fun times and "peak experiences", but I also missed out on a lot of personal social events, parties, etc. and spent most holidays entertaining other people. This year was the first year that I did not dance at all on New Year's Eve in about 12 years, with the exception of the year I was pregnant. As much as I've had many fun New Year's Eves dancing, it was really nice to be home with my family.

Lately (the past couple of years) I've cut way back on the kinds of gigs I will do because over the years, it does wear thin to be changing in restrooms, waiting around for people to be "ready" for the bellydancing, hanging around after gigs imploring the manager/whoever is in charge to go ahead and give you your pay so you can go home, etc. Another thing I have no tolerance for anymore is crappy sound systems and being told my CD is faulty when it is their CD player that is messed up. Over time certain things get really old. But I've had lots of great times too. I'm just ready at this point to be a lot pickier about who I entertain and when....

Ahhh...the glamour.
(not)
I work full time as a dancer. Part time as a Pilates instructor. My husband and I split the shared bills evenly, and take care of everything else independently so I don't have a "benefactor".
Typical week:
Monday- Teach Pilates 9am-11am. Go to bank, post office, grocery store or other sundry errands. Go home with grand plans to get lots of stuff done. Nope, too exausted. Take a nap. Teach Pilates 5-7pm. Go home, spend time with husband.
Tuesday- this is my day for learning. Morning Kathak class. Afternoon Arabic private tutor followed by 2 hour belly dance class.
Wednesday- often research in the morning. Looking up lyrics, practicing, seeing if there is anything I must "shop victoriously" for (dance vids, Akai veils etc). Glamorous things like cleaning the bathrooms (we take turns!), changing the kitty litter, laundry. Fun. 4-6 teach Pilates. Rush home, paint face, go do a show, occasionally 2.
Thursday and Friday- Gigs at night. Anywhere from 1-3 usually. Sometimes home at 3am
Saturday - 8am Pilates class. Let's just say Saturdays at 7:45am I am not a happy camper. But I love my students. Sat night- gigs. Average 3 or 4. As many as 6.
Sunday- I JUST started taking off on most Sundays, which means I sometimes get to have a social life and I even get a whole day with my husband.
...

What I didn't include:
listening to music, finding new music, editing music, costume adjustment and upkeep, practicing, checking tribes I moderate (daily), emails (daily individual, send out group less than once a month), online communities and being aware of current standards, stalking Bhuz Swap pages, dealing with owners, watching DVDs, making CDs- usually less then 10 minutes if I have one or two shows, but if it's a busy night and I have to make a wide variety- an hour. I teach private classes and workshops. Those take prep. I take workshops, supplemental classes, attend community events when i can. It's endless.
About once a month I get a facial- all the makeup, all the sweat, the smoky shisha clubs takes it's toll. About 4 times a year I get a massage. 7 Pilates classes/week and 7-10 shows a week- I earn it.
I can't keep finger nail polish on. My toes are painted ALL the time. Before "big" gigs Ill get a mani-pedi, but not too often. Really it's also not high on my list of priorities as far as expenses. But appearance upkeep is important. I color my hair (hide those silver highlights!) less than once a month. Try to deep condition once a week. Take vitamins, drink lots of water, eat right.
My husband works a very early shift. He gets home at 2/3. Even though our schedules are very different we still get to spend time together in the afternoon. But I miss out on most social things.
A large part of being able to do this is because there is a lot of work in the DC area and in the last few years the community has really stuck together and raised prices. Honestly though it's still difficult to make it work. When I want to take a workshop;I don't get paid. If I'm sick;I don't get paid. If I want to do something social; I don't get paid. Other enriching things (like performing with the amazing musicians in NYC)- I take a loss on. It's a business trip and I get paid for the gigs;but would make more $ at home with full nights of gigs. Continually learning and trying to get better is important, no imperative to me. This summer I'm going to Egypt. Again, I have chosen my path, so I have chosen "no paid vacation". But it's challenging. I certainly won't get to buy as many costumes as some of my friends will full time jobs. BUT I'll shop vicariously through them and encourage them to buy EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! (muah-ha-ha!)
Currently I'm reading books on Orientalism, choreography,dance and visualization, and Palestinian clothing. Practicing Arabic at home in addition to the classes. Sometimes I'm physically very tired. Sometimes I'm sleep deprived. But I love this dance and the cultures and the community and consider myself very lucky to have this option.

Oh yes - how could I not mention the hours and hours of costume maintenance! I still have to do it now, but not as much as when I was beating my costumes up every night of the week. I would always write down which costumes I wore each night, so I could make sure I was rotating and try to even out the wear and tear. And then every so often one needs to be retired for repairs, or just retired, and I was always in search of new "workhorse" costumes - my term for costumes that are professional but can stand up to a beating for a few years.

Also had to make sure shoes were in good repair and replaced when necessary, cymbal elastics needed to be replaced and cymbals polished, many hours spent listening to music, creating show lineups and burning CDs so that I had shows of every length and with a variety of music on them.

Right now dance is still a strong part-time job with teaching 4-5 classes a week and performing sporadically on weekends (sometimes two performances in a weekend, sometimes a couple weeks without a performance) but more of my time is spent with administrative tasks for my classes such as creating and emailing out schedules, enrollment, fielding calls and questions, solving student dillemas, creating lesson plans and choreographies, planning and carrying out recitals and other student performances, ordering scarves, accessories, music CDs, etc. for my students, and on and on.

The nice thing about a higher ratio of teaching to performing is that I don't have to be in "entertainer ready" mode every day of the week, but I still have to be "on" for classes and teach them even when I'm wiped out. I find that now that I teach more and perform less, I often enjoy those performances more than when it was a constant daily thing. But there were some pluses to the constant performances as well.