How to structure a 20-min non-stop belly dance show
Is summer just about beach vacations? π€ Obviously not! πI remember when I was living in Toronto, summer was a very busy season for wedding and restaurant gigs.
20+ minutes NONSTOP for a SOLO dancer, especially when performing for a non-Arabic audience, can be very trickyβ¦ π¬ Do you know how to structure such program, and keep it both engaging for the audience AND doable for you as a performer?
This was my typical βformulaβ for success πππβ£
1οΈβ£Opening song: You can stick to a classical mejance entrance, or if you are performing for a non-Arabic audience, you can choose some fusion "belly dance fantasy" song, and enter with an extravagant prop.ππ
2οΈβ£Second song: Usually I try to still keep it as my "performance" song unless the audience is super impatient, and someone just jumps on the dance floor. πππ This is something we can't fully control, but there is one trick. πββοΈI almost always preferred to keep the second song not too crazy upbeat... Of course, nothing super slow, or dramatic, but something that would encourage people to still βοΈkeep watching rather than rushing into dance.
3οΈβ£Audience participation: Now it's time to engage people on the dance floor. π₯³π₯³π₯³ Any upbeat pop song works. It needs to be easy to dance to for any kind of audience. βοΈβοΈβοΈ I usually put two songs for dancing with guests, and also blend them together, so that there was NO stop βin between songs.
4οΈβ£Closing part: Here comes a drum solo and finale for exit. I like to finish with a drum solo. It guarantees that the overall impression of the show ends on the most upbeat note.π₯π₯π₯If the crowd is very much into dancing, I might still interact with people during the drum solo, or often they naturally formed a circle around me, and watched with enthusiasm. π€ππ€πβ£β£
The one exception in this order is when a client asked me in advance to transform my show into an open dance floor, so that their DJ could take over right after me. πIn that situation I put a drum solo before I start engaging people into dancing, and I cut out the finale (exit) part of the show. πΆ
πββοΈThis is a BRIEF overview on how my typical program looked like. If you want a complete guide to your professional career as a belly dance performer, you might enjoy my course Business Course For Belly Dancers: Everything About Gigs, available at the Iana Dance Club.
Would you like me to share more about my gigs experience here? I remember many more tips and tricks like this, although in the last few years I've mostly been teaching online and traveling. π Let me know in comments below πβ€οΈ
I constantly receive questions about what kind of portfolio a belly dancer needs in order to start working at local gigs.. Here is a checklist of essential portfolio components that are MUST-HAVEs in order to start.β£β£