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As an entertainer you never really know what you are going to get untill you get there. While the majority of Gigs are amazing and make you grateful being able to do this job the minority of Gigs are a little freaky. Here are some of my gig experiences -
Intro -
Some of you may not know whilst many of you who follow my website and blog will know I am beauty girl by day and a belly dance entertainer by night. Over the last Christmas period I had a great time socialising with family and friends over mulled wine and cake when my little sister asked me what my funniest and worst belly dancing gigs where. After the story telling and laughs I was told in humour I could write a book. Well I wouldn't go that far just yet but my sister did inspire me to write a blog about some of the fun shenanigans Belly dancers and other entertainers get upto and some of the strangest experiences we put up with.
Grab yourself a coffee sit back and enjoy the strangest and funniests episodes I have experienced on my belly dancing journeys.
*All names have been changed to protect the identities of all the people involved.
*Out in the sticks means far away in the countryside.
The Mysterious Private Halloween Event
I had an enquiry through by contact form on my website one particular Autumn morning. I called the potential client back straight away. The man on the end of the phone was very friendly, He went on to tell me he was the activities organiser for a religious group out in the sticks. The discussion soon led to him complementing me and assuring me he thought I was the best dancer for the job. Apparantly he thought A Belly dancer would fit right in with the Halloween festivities on 31st October. It all sounded fun but a bit mysterious to me but as with all gigs you never quite know what you are going to get. A few days later he called back to organise paying the deposit fee and to confirm the booking so my mind was at ease when I was given the address and postcode for the venue. I check everything out and every thing seemed legit. So the evening of Halloween came and I packed my Dance bag into the car and travelled to the creepy town where my gig was set for. The little country roads where windy and very dark but I imaging the town to be quite welcoming by day. Finally we pulled up and me and my partner Darren where greeted by a middle aged tall slim man dressed in black wearing a top hat, He invited us in offered my partner a drink and ushered me into a small changing room that was beautifully decorated with vases of navy blue fresh Lillie's. I changed into my black sparkle costume and placed my headress on, Checked over and powdered my make-up, Spritzed myself with perfume and got my props ready. I left the lovely changing room and met back up with my partner who told me the organiser politly asked him not to take photographs or videos. Of course my partner explained we don't take any kind of cameras to private parties without permission first. The organiser reappeared from out of a central room where I could hear voices and chatter. He approached me and asked if I minded Performing to a song of his choice and then he would put my CD on for me to perform my set. I explained it is not what I usually do as I am used to my own music and plan so I know what I am doing. He said he wanted me to walk to the room amongst the guests and pick out four Women in red I had to guide into the centre of the guests and have them participate witg belly dance moves and I would be paid extra. Feeling pressured I agreed. Eventually it was time for me to go on and as I entered the room I noticed there was around fifty people stood in a large circle. Most of them where dress in black costumes and all where wearing beautiful vanician Masks which made an impact and where great seen as though it was Halloween. The music was a little eerie but I floated in with my wings and did what I was asked to do. The room was decorated beautifully and I noticed mysterious symbals and signs of occult parafenalia. I would ussually have put it down to hlloween decoration but given the ritualised Dance I was asked to take part in kind of told me it was a little more than that. After about three minutes my own music kicked in and I was a bit more at ease Dancing with my veil, sword and drum solo. At the end everyone was up Dancing, Applauding, Thanking and complementing me from behind their masks. It was was a strange experience seeing everyone wearing Masks and it kind of reminded me of a downscaled less ritualised version of the film eyes wide shut minus the naughty stuff, The film starred Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. My Dance set came to an end and I bowed and left the room. The organiser followed and thanked me. I was paid three times the amount we agreed on and we where sent on our way. Even though it was strange it fitted in with the Halloween theme, Was a great experience and is always a great story to tell. A couple of weeks later the organiser contacted me to say Thankyou and he assured me my presence at the ritualistic event was appreciated. I never quite got to learn what the ritual was all about and I will never know if Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman where behind them beautiful vanitian Masks The Dreaded House Party
I was booked for a 70th birthday party out in the sticks and I hadn't been giging for very long and decided to do a half hour set. As we drove upto the address that was given I noticed the house didn't seem in party mode but I thought maybe the party was at the back of the house. Upon walking upto the front door an elderly Women ushered me into the house whilst demanding the CD. Previously over the phone she assured me her CD player was a modern loud one and as you can imagine I was surprised to see it was an old fashioned boombox that looked as though it wasn't very loud...every dancers nightmare. As the music started I struggled to hear the rhythm or the melody so I whirled into the kitchen area to find the Guest of honour (70 year old male) and his family and friends. The Birthday boy wasn't interested in the Dancing. He was more interested in pervertly making funny noises telling his friends and the rest of the party guests what he would like to do to me. Of course his friends sniggered and added there own spice to the pot while the females looked on at me in disgust. The whole half hour was filled with awkward silence with muffled background music and sniggering sexual comments for a whole twenty minutes which seemed to have lasted forever. Finally the lady who booked me wanted to dance so I placed a coin hip belt on her hips whilst tieing my veil around the birthday boys head like it was a turban after about two minutes of participation the Women decided to try to what I can only describe as twerking whilst her husband stood behind her grinding his hips. Then the hip belt fell off the women's hips and where stook around her ankles whilst the husband spanked her and shouted "oh Mary's knickers have fell down". I tried hard to act professional, Not start rolling around in a fit of laughter or cry at the rude comments and dirty looks. I helped release the hip belt from Mary's ankles and unwrapped my veil from the birthday boys head and gave both participants a round of applause. After the music ended an elderly lady came over and asked if my mother and father where proud of me. I laughed it off and went about my buisness. Finally I got paid and left. From that day on I vowed never to spend longer that fifteen minutes at a house party and to bring a back up music player. Even though it was a strange gig for me at least the birthday boy and his wife had a good time. Heaven only knows what they got upto later that evening after all of the twerking bumping and grinding.
Dancing At The Festival Of Mud I was a student dancer in a dance group. Being asked to perform at a public community event I was a little nervous but happy to have been asked. So on the day I packed my costume and cane then met my Dance friend and her Mum near the ferry terminal close to where I lived. My friends Mum drove us to the festival which was held at a local park. What started out as a sunny morning soon turned into a real grey day. We prayed it wouldn't rain but then where thankful to have been told by one of the organisers we could perform on the stage instead of on the grass. There where three or four of us. Finally our belly dance teacher was called to perform. She quickly came over and outright warned us not to go onto the stage to stay on the grass as only She had permission and the right to perform alone on the stage as she was more importantthan us "apparently. We all looked at each other shocked and confused but listened to her as she was the boss amd the professional after all. As the teacher started her set the rain started to pour heavily but she was fine sheltered from the elements us on the other hand where not. We hoped she danced longer so the rain could go off but she didn't and it never. After her dance our music kicked in and we wherr instructed to run onto the grass. As soon as I stepped foot onto the grass I felt my feet begin to sink into the mud. I managed to get to the space where I was supposed to be. looking over at my dance friends I could tell by the look on their faces they where thinking the same as me...."we are done for". With around one hundred people watching it was nerve wracking as it was never mind being drenched, Sinking in mud trying to Belly dance with a prop. We struggled through the dance but everything seemed fine until we had to do a part of the choreography that included doing a stepping move traveling around whilst moving the cane as if we where rowing aboat. That was it, slips, Falls, Standing on our lovely Skirts, Mud everywhere and makeup all over our faces from the rain. At one point we tried to help each other up which must have looked hilarious very much like mud wrestleing. We looked at around and decided to laugh it off and make it a fun spectacular comedy dance instead of an horrendous awkward jig, soon we had the audience chuckleing along with us and thankfully they cheered us on. We left that field with a round of applause whilst he teacher barged over to us beside the stage angrily muttering somthing about us purposely changing the choreography. Gutted I spoke up and said "look at my skirt, it's ruined and the choreography wasn't changed on purpose its the rain and we had to adapt" angrily she glared at me and said that she was the teacher she says what goes amd how lucky I was to be there and that she has had more experience in choreography" eventually calming down with reassurance that the mud should wash out of the skirt if we washed them in the bath.
Once the rain had went off funily enough teacher had another set to do before we could all leave. We where pretty much peeved off because we where uncomfortable, Soaked through in mud and water with smudged makeup and there wasn't any facilities where we had permission to clean up the mud. Then the teachers music started again and she decided to jump onto one of the large speakers on the stage to perform her last dance. As we shook with the cold she anazingly shimmied away when all of a sudden her sparkly trousers slided down a little and all you could see was a bright blue G-string and bum cheeks hanging out. That had us students and some of the crowd who had noticed chuckleing. We never knew if the teacher knew about her cheeky performance that rainy day and non of us dared not asked her just incase we got the chop and kicked out of the class like many before us. I'd like to think she would have felt the cold though.
Years later I have had much experience in professional performance I can assure you costume mishaps can and do happen alot especially to belly dancers, I have had a few of my own mostly no one else would know as I learned how to get around it gracfully with exception to one where id stepped on my skirt at a restaurant gig and my skirt rode down a little to expose my cheeks to. That'll teach me for laughing at my first teachers costume mishap. It is easily done and can happen to any performer so I'll never discredit anyone for that. Aside from the drama and shenanigans the day of mud dancing it was filled with fun memories of uplifting dancing and laughs to be had by all and that is what matters the connection of love for dance between everyone on that day.
Dancing With The Stars
I was hired to perform at an opening event for a posh restaurant. I was trained for stage dancing and events and private parties so I had never really been comfortable dancing in a restaurant setting.
A group of rude Male and Female customers thought I was foreign and seemed to think I couldn't speak or understand English. As I danced by them one women pushed the sword from off my head while another made racial abusive comments and their friends thought it was funny. I felt a mix of emotions from anger imagining I could hit someone with my sword sending heads rolling or leaning over tge table to strangle the racist bitch. Instead I acted professional pulled myself together and smiled dancing over to the other side of the restaurant where I was met by Hollyoaks cast members and lots of friendly customers. They where lovely up Dancing happy and enthusiastic. It made me feel alot better. As my set came to a close, I had to go into the back of the restaurant to get my bag but it meant I had to walk past the racists table. I decided to make a point of going straight to the racists table with a big smile on my face and wished them an enjoyable night. Their faces soon changed when they realised I was as Scouse as they where. They couldn't leave the restaurant quick enough. That night made me realise what I already knew... I was selling my self short Dancing at restaurants because I always found the most negative experiences happen and Im rarely respected, Some people have no common manners and ussually go home feeling angry. On a positive note it was really great Dancing with the Holkyoaks cast members and lively customers. It made my night!
BBC Radio Invitation
I received an email from BBC Radio Merseyside admin team inviting me to speak about my classes on the radio. I was happy to have been asked and said yes right away. Although I had been present and included in a radio interview in my teens whilst doing work experience with a drama company and youth theate I was quite nervous and excited. On the day I had my Saturday class to teach then traveled straight from class to BBC Radio HQ in Liverpool City centre. When I arrived I was greeted by another radio host who put me in touch with Helen Jones the radio host who was lovely and very relaxed. Her energy put me at ease. I didn't wait long and then we where on. The feature interviews was about five minutes long and when I listened back it sounded great fun. After the show in the interview Helen suggested we have a video of me teaching her some moves. I realised I wasn't looking my best but went ahead anyway. We said our thankyous and goodbyes. I was buzzing on the way home on the train and was inundated with texts saying well done from family friends students and people I had met on my belly dancing journey. When I got home I check BBC Radio Merseysides Facebook page and watched the video which was great even though I wasn't in my Dance gear or makeup. I went on BBC iPlayer where my interview was on for 30 days, it sounded great. I thought it was uncanny that Helen mentioned me again after the interview and said I reminded her of Tina Turner and she played Proud Mary.... One of my Favourite singers and someone I admire and I love the song.... So that was a lovely compliment. After the interview new students came to my class and several said on separate occasions that one of the reasons why they choose my class was having heard me on the radio and watching the video.Dance OffThis isn't the first dance off and I'm sure it won't be the last however it is by far the weirdest.Saturday night and I was booked for a surprise birthday party in the sticks. It was only 7.30pm and everyone already seemed rowdy. The organiser introduced herself and I shook hands and gave over my CD. I wanted to be in and out as soon as possible to avoid any drunken misbehaviour. The guest of honour had gone missing so I had to wait alittle linger. Forty five minutes later I went on. I surprised the birthday boy and it was great to see that he was genuinely happy his wife had organised a lively party. As I was Dancing a group of young women came onto the Dance floor so happily I danced around them and got the birthday boy upto Dance. After the Dancing It was time for participation. I approached the girls who where already in the Dancing mood and started showing them some of the basic moves. What started as shared Dancing turned into a full on competitive Dance off. One of the girls was staggering a slurring her words shouting "Let's show her how it's done" All kinds of moves where busted out that night I found it funny and learned a few moves....the drunken shimmy scowling line dance which was really quite creative not to mention how to fall over and lie on the floor.
I got paid and legged it out of there before I got punched for doing my job. hope you enjoyed reading about some of the great Gigs and strange experiences on my Belly Dance journey. I would have loved to tell you about the little Britain Parade, The back stage cat fight I witnessed, The case of mistaken gender pretender with the fallen wig (someone pretending to be female to join my class). An evening natter with David Guest (R.I.P) and the gangsters party but I will save them stories for next time.
This Article was originally published on my beauty blog.
