Professional Belly Dancer

For the belly dancers: Professional, amateur, or student. How to become a professional belly dancer. Tips, tricks and advice from belly dancers. Topics include costuming, music editing, gig preparation, at the gig advice, troubleshooting, business tips, and belly dancing.

How to Belly Dance With a Cold

Previously, I wrote about how to belly dance in the cold. Though, if you perform enough in the cold, your weakened immune system might catch a cold or even worse, a flu! Find a substitute Whether it is for a restaurant belly dance show or an Arabian Nights private party, everyone will be much happier [...]

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How to Belly Dance in the Cold

Professional Belly Dancer

Winter is coming and outdoor shows can provide interesting challenges for performing belly dancers. While it never gets too far below freezing here for Sacramento belly dancers, dancing during a northern California winter does require special consideration. Outdoor performances are popular for holiday parties and usually allow for the most space so everyone can see. [...]

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5 Ways to Improve your Zill (Finger Cymbal) Playing

Professional Belly Dancer

Playing zills/sagat (finger cymbals) during your belly dance performance is a great way to add excitement and more skill to your show. Playing zills during your belly dance performance is also a great way to drive your audience away and searching for an aspirin bottle. 1. Limit your zill playing The drummer is already keeping the song [...]

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How to Behave Like a Professional Belly Dancer: Part I – Plagiarism

Professional Belly Dancer

Becoming a professional belly dancer is an exciting time. All those years of practice and all the money you’ve invested in classes, workshops, troupe performances, and costumes are now finally going to start paying off. If you are fortunate to have a great mentor to hold your hand through the process, this transition period from [...]

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Sound Advice for the Professionally Performing Belly Dancer Part II

Professional Belly Dancer

Clifford Brown III I am very excited to interview my best friend and guru of sound, Clifford Brown III, to give us some sound advice for the professionally performing belly dancer. Clifford is an amazing jazz trumpeter, audio engineer, and grandson to Clifford Brown Sr., one of the inventors of bebop. With his father, Clifford [...]

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Belly Dance Improvisation: Dude, just dance!

Professional Belly Dancer

One night at a party, your big mouth friend announces that you are a belly dancer to everyone in the room. The host happens to have a random Middle Eastern pop song on her iPod and puts it on so everyone can see you dance. Even though you’ve taken months or years of belly dance [...]

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Interview with Brian the Drummer: All about the belly dance drum solo

Professional Belly Dancer

Belly dancers, have you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of drummers as they are playing a drum solo for you? Well, today you will get an in depth look into the mind of Brian, a doumbek drummer and great friend of mine. We started working together in January of 2009 for weekly [...]

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How to pick out a belly dance costume for Kanz al Sahara belly dance troupe members

Professional Belly Dancer

All right ladies of Kanz al Sahara, it’s costume time! After much discussion, we are graduating from choli tops and hip scarves to bra and belt (bedlah) sets! Many of you may begin (or are currently) performing solo. Belly dance costumes can be quite expensive or time consuming to make so I suggest making your [...]

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Belly Dance Workshop Etiquette

Professional Belly Dancer

Taking workshops is very important to your belly dance education. I take as many as I can to learn new perspectives, technique and styles I am not familiar with. When I attend workshops, I am sometimes appalled at the behavior of some of the attendees (grown women) that make the workshop less enjoyable for everyone. [...]

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Home for the Holidays: Undercover Belly Dance Practice

Professional Belly Dancer

Welcome back to the Home for the Holidays belly dance blog series. In Part I, I discussed how to practice belly dance moves in movement restricted places like on a plane. In Part II, I will cover essential belly dance technique to practice when you are away from the comfort and privacy of your own [...]

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