Bellydancer Mime
Lots to say...and no time to say it!
On Saturday, I had the GREATEST time. I don't know if I mentioned this, but Saturday was my 1st time doing real restaurant dancing. I've had shows in restaurants, but I got to do my first real dancing for patrons this weekend! I had an absolute blast with my studio director and one other dancer.
We got there early - an hour early - and the restaurant owner asked us to dance right away...we weren't supposed to start until almost 8:30, but we started at 7:30!! We decided to go ahead with it, and it was so much fun! Set: 1 dance (me + 1), 1 dance (director), 5-6 dances (all of us). We danced for pay, but we were also dancing for tips. Thankfully, I dance for a woman who splits everything evenly, so everything was divided 3 ways. We each made $30 for the night plus $43 in tips. Thats $73 each. :-) That's a pretty good night - for a couple hours of dancing in a pretty small restaurant. :-) So you know, most tips are showered over a dancer's head [traditionally middle-eastern], but some are either handed to the dancer or put into the dancer's belt [side, between costume layers - no SKIN touching! :-P And I didn't have to accept a tip if I didn't want to, or I could accept it in any way I wanted to. We're not strippers or sleazy!
Here's the explanation of earlier - I felt like a bellydance mime!! Okay, so here's how it goes. We do a few choreographed dances, then we free/improv dance for a while [the 5-6 mentioned] to get the patrons having fun and involved [and we get tips... :-D]. Then, we get a few minutes break...then we do it again!! We did 3 sets, since there were lots of people still there later in the night. Dancers don't talk - or at least, I've never seen it and I didn't feel like that's what I should have done - so when I wanted people to come up and dance with us, or wanted to thank them, or just pay them attention to get them involved, I made facial expressions or hand movements, etc. Everything was danced out. :-) I was like a bellydancer mime...just without the white face paint. :-D
Also, I had a great 1st day back at work. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was really nice to be back. :-) We'll see how the week goes.
On Saturday, I had the GREATEST time. I don't know if I mentioned this, but Saturday was my 1st time doing real restaurant dancing. I've had shows in restaurants, but I got to do my first real dancing for patrons this weekend! I had an absolute blast with my studio director and one other dancer.
We got there early - an hour early - and the restaurant owner asked us to dance right away...we weren't supposed to start until almost 8:30, but we started at 7:30!! We decided to go ahead with it, and it was so much fun! Set: 1 dance (me + 1), 1 dance (director), 5-6 dances (all of us). We danced for pay, but we were also dancing for tips. Thankfully, I dance for a woman who splits everything evenly, so everything was divided 3 ways. We each made $30 for the night plus $43 in tips. Thats $73 each. :-) That's a pretty good night - for a couple hours of dancing in a pretty small restaurant. :-) So you know, most tips are showered over a dancer's head [traditionally middle-eastern], but some are either handed to the dancer or put into the dancer's belt [side, between costume layers - no SKIN touching! :-P And I didn't have to accept a tip if I didn't want to, or I could accept it in any way I wanted to. We're not strippers or sleazy!
Here's the explanation of earlier - I felt like a bellydance mime!! Okay, so here's how it goes. We do a few choreographed dances, then we free/improv dance for a while [the 5-6 mentioned] to get the patrons having fun and involved [and we get tips... :-D]. Then, we get a few minutes break...then we do it again!! We did 3 sets, since there were lots of people still there later in the night. Dancers don't talk - or at least, I've never seen it and I didn't feel like that's what I should have done - so when I wanted people to come up and dance with us, or wanted to thank them, or just pay them attention to get them involved, I made facial expressions or hand movements, etc. Everything was danced out. :-) I was like a bellydancer mime...just without the white face paint. :-D
Also, I had a great 1st day back at work. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was really nice to be back. :-) We'll see how the week goes.