What is your favorite Audience and Venue?

[Marya]

What kind of audience is your favorite? Other Dancers? General Public? Friends and Family? Large or Small? Do you prefer to know the audience or have them be strangers?

What kind of Place to you prefer to dance in? Concert Hall?, Small Intimate Space like a club or restaurant? School Gym? Small theater?

I have performed for a lot of different audiences, one of the hardest was a leadership group I had been with through several days of training and we were wrapping up the sessions with a talent show. No one smiled or clapped along and some of them had very stony looks on their faces. later when I asked about this they said they were just overwhelmed and really loved the show.

Right now my favorite audience and place to perform is up in Spokane, WA USA where Aisha Azar has her shows in a restaurant. The audience is a mix of General Public and other dancers and is very receptive and appreciative. The space is intimate but not too informal. There is a definite space that is for the performers.

I don't like dancing in someone's living room, I volunteered for a baby shower once and that was pretty hard, audience in the round and on the floor, cramped space, etc.

I also don't like big stages where I can't see the audience at all.

Curious what other people like.

Marya

 

[Aisha Azar]

Favorite audience/venue

Dear Marya,
My favorite audiences are Middle Eastern audiences and other dancers. I also like the general public.
My favorite venues are club venues that have mood lighting, intimate but not too small, with a defined space for performance, very much like Sri Prasert where we have our shows, though I might make that it little bigger. I also am not crazy about the concert stage. It's too far away for that intimate connection.
Regards,
A'isha

 

[Rassi]

My favorite place was the city art museum. It's a gorgeous building and it was during a wine tasting evening. There were two other dancers with me and we danced from room to room and then out into the garden. It made it an extra special experience for me because my parents took me frequently to the museum as a child. I like general public crowds because I live in an area with little cultural differences so I feel like I'm entertaining and educating when we dance.

 

[Shanazel]

I like to dance with my students, friends and family. I gave up most public performances many years ago and dance has become a social activity for me. When I was still dancing for pay, I particularly liked dancing in isolated lodges and inns where most of my audience consisted of ranchers, road construction workers, and lumberjacks. They were so happy with any entertainment at all that they made me feel like the queen of the world. I wasn't the world's most accomplished dancer, and my audiences knew less about middle eastern dance than they did about nuclear physics, but it was the stuff great memories were made of.

 

[alosha]

i've only performed in public three times, but my favorite so far has to have been at the Culture night in hood river. the music was live, it was a small and intimate croud of strangers and my fellow dancers, and after the performance everyone got up and danced together. it was great fun, and a wonderful way to get my first spontaneous solo out of the way!

 

[Marya]

My favorite place was the city art museum. It's a gorgeous building and it was during a wine tasting evening. There were two other dancers with me and we danced from room to room and then out into the garden. It made it an extra special experience for me because my parents took me frequently to the museum as a child. I like general public crowds because I live in an area with little cultural differences so I feel like I'm entertaining and educating when we dance.

What a wonderful experience, how did the music work? was there a PA system or did you have a quartet following you?

Marya

 

[Marya]

I like to dance with my students, friends and family. I gave up most public performances many years ago and dance has become a social activity for me. When I was still dancing for pay, I particularly liked dancing in isolated lodges and inns where most of my audience consisted of ranchers, road construction workers, and lumberjacks. They were so happy with any entertainment at all that they made me feel like the queen of the world. I wasn't the world's most accomplished dancer, and my audiences knew less about middle eastern dance than they did about nuclear physics, but it was the stuff great memories were made of.

Did the Inns and Lodges Hire you? How did you pull that off? I have a similar situation here, although maybe more tourist in the summer, but the only performances I have are the ones I organize myself and I can only gather the energy to do that every few years.

Marya

 

[Shanazel]

Yes, they hired me. I danced on a regular basis at a couple of places. How'd I pull it off? Basically, I turned up at these places and said, hi, I'm a belly dancer, I charge x-amount of dollars for x-amount of time, are ya interested? If so, we arranged a time and shook hands on it. Advertising was pretty informal. The venue might stick a sign in the window, but mostly word got around via boondock grapevine. Usually I was the only dancer, but sometimes I split a job with a friend.

Mind you, I'm not talking Old Faithful Inn or The Cabot Lodge here- these were isolated places that served food and alcohol and usually had gas pumps out front and a few groceries in another room. I loved it. I drove forty miles in a blizzard one time, fully expecting three people including the two owners and me. We had a full house, probably because everyone in the area was cabin crazy and I was the only show for miles around. What's driving through a little snow compared to cabin crazy?

 

[Marya]

Yes, they hired me. I danced on a regular basis at a couple of places. How'd I pull it off? Basically, I turned up at these places and said, hi, I'm a belly dancer, I charge x-amount of dollars for x-amount of time, are ya interested? If so, we arranged a time and shook hands on it. Advertising was pretty informal. The venue might stick a sign in the window, but mostly word got around via boondock grapevine. Usually I was the only dancer, but sometimes I split a job with a friend.

Mind you, I'm not talking Old Faithful Inn or The Cabot Lodge here- these were isolated places that served food and alcohol and usually had gas pumps out front and a few groceries in another room. I loved it. I drove forty miles in a blizzard one time, fully expecting three people including the two owners and me. We had a full house, probably because everyone in the area was cabin crazy and I was the only show for miles around. What's driving through a little snow compared to cabin crazy?

Shanazel,

No TV reception I take it?:think: You must have had a wonderful time. I don't think I would drive through a blizzard for anything again, having done it a time or two already.

Marya

 

[Shanazel]

:lol: Very likely not, at least way up in the southern mountains of Wyoming. This was in the days before satelite television. I was about 23 at the time I drove through the blizzard- ten feet tall and winter proof, if you know what I mean.

 

[Marya]

:lol: Very likely not, at least way up in the southern mountains of Wyoming. This was in the days before satelite television. I was about 23 at the time I drove through the blizzard- ten feet tall and winter proof, if you know what I mean.

I have never been blizzard proof, didn't mind skiing out to the road when the driveway was drifted closed but driving in a blizzard always brought out the devout Catholic in me.

Marya

 

[kayshier]

although i've not had much performance experience, i can tell you that i'd be downright scared to dance in front of a trinidad audience. they can be some of the worst critics...
you'd have to deal with the misconception that belly dance is 'wining' (which is a move similar to the omi)... and therefore the automatic assumption that the dance is easy and its just wining and anybody can do it..

i remember going to see Mya peform one time and overhearing women in the audience saying those very things...they were saying that they could dance better than her, i mean some really uncharitable things.

i suppose as a performer yuh have to ignore the comments and just do your thing, but for me, i'm way too intimidated to dance infront of a group of strangers right now.

 

[Aisha Azar]

Dance

although i've not had much performance experience, i can tell you that i'd be downright scared to dance in front of a trinidad audience. they can be some of the worst critics...
you'd have to deal with the misconception that belly dance is 'wining' (which is a move similar to the omi)... and therefore the automatic assumption that the dance is easy and its just wining and anybody can do it..

i remember going to see Mya peform one time and overhearing women in the audience saying those very things...they were saying that they could dance better than her, i mean some really uncharitable things.

i suppose as a performer yuh have to ignore the comments and just do your thing, but for me, i'm way too intimidated to dance infront of a group of strangers right now.

Dear Kayshier,
The same thing happens here in the States!! People who do not know how to look at the dance assume it is easy. And the thing is that the best dancers make it LOOK easy to the untrained eye. The people who annoy me the most are people who took 6 lessons and after your performance come up and say stuff like, "Oh, I did belly dancing.", in a very casual way as if they were the top dancer in the state or something. The worst part is, we have to be nice and smile and act interested when we really want to grab them by their ignorant little throats and calmly explain the finer points of the dance to them while strangling the life out of them and.........Oh..... did I just say that out loud????
Regards,
A'isha

 

[kayshier]

Dear Kayshier,
The same thing happens here in the States!! People who do not know how to look at the dance assume it is easy. And the thing is that the best dancers make it LOOK easy to the untrained eye. The people who annoy me the most are people who took 6 lessons and after your performance come up and say stuff like, "Oh, I did belly dancing.", in a very casual way as if they were the top dancer in the state or something. The worst part is, we have to be nice and smile and act interested when we really want to grab them by their ignorant little throats and calmly explain the finer points of the dance to them while strangling the life out of them and.........Oh..... did I just say that out loud????
Regards,
A'isha

:lol::lol::lol::lol:
i laugh at that statement especially because i've conversations with people who've only done belly dance for 3 months and said that they learnt 'ALL' the moves...

 

[Mya]

Oh lordy Kayshier, I had a lady call me about classes today and wanted to do my saturday class with my students who've been dancing for a year because she before did "a couple classes and knew most of it already". I resisted the urge to tell her that people who've been dancing for longer than i have come to my Saturday class and can't quite function.

Also you're right about learning to ignore people - there's a picture on my facebook of me in the white bedleh with a sword - from a Halloween party year before last and there's this lady in the picture in white as well, no more than 2 metres from me who consistently for the 10 minutes i was performing criticised me loudly and ensured me that i was "not special because she could do everything" that i was doing. At that point in time i totally wanted to planasse her with my sword, but it bothers me far less now unless i go into a performance with a bad vibe to begin with. Also, i'm perfectly aware that i'm not the world's best dancer and who knows, maybe she could have danced better than me and her manners were just lacking. :lol:

Getting past intimidating Trinidadian ignorance is one of the harder parts as far as i'm concerned. These days after my performances more ladies are coming to tell me that the way i do it is so "different" than the way they're used to seeing it done here and that there's something "more" about it. Hopefully that means that my skill/style/personality is improving, but to me it also makes audiences seem friendlier than i imagine and it helps me to relax a bit.

As for where i like to perform, i prefer fairly small but not tiny audiences. I prefer if my audienced is mixed between joe publics and jenny shimmies and enjoy it most when it is an intimate setting where i can be close to the audience - that's the only time i get comfortable enough for my personality to come out. I don't know why but the larger and more distant the audience the less personality i have in performing and if i recognise it; the audience must as well.

 

[kayshier]

Oh lordy Kayshier, I had a lady call me about classes today and wanted to do my saturday class with my students who've been dancing for a year because she before did "a couple classes and knew most of it already". I resisted the urge to tell her that people who've been dancing for longer than i have come to my Saturday class and can't quite function.

Also you're right about learning to ignore people - there's a picture on my facebook of me in the white bedleh with a sword - from a Halloween party year before last and there's this lady in the picture in white as well, no more than 2 metres from me who consistently for the 10 minutes i was performing criticised me loudly and ensured me that i was "not special because she could do everything" that i was doing. At that point in time i totally wanted to planasse her with my sword, but it bothers me far less now unless i go into a performance with a bad vibe to begin with. Also, i'm perfectly aware that i'm not the world's best dancer and who knows, maybe she could have danced better than me and her manners were just lacking. :lol:

Getting past intimidating Trinidadian ignorance is one of the harder parts as far as i'm concerned. These days after my performances more ladies are coming to tell me that the way i do it is so "different" than the way they're used to seeing it done here and that there's something "more" about it. Hopefully that means that my skill/style/personality is improving, but to me it also makes audiences seem friendlier than i imagine and it helps me to relax a bit.

As for where i like to perform, i prefer fairly small but not tiny audiences. I prefer if my audienced is mixed between joe publics and jenny shimmies and enjoy it most when it is an intimate setting where i can be close to the audience - that's the only time i get comfortable enough for my personality to come out. I don't know why but the larger and more distant the audience the less personality i have in performing and if i recognise it; the audience must as well.

gyul, if dat was me, i woulda WELL PLANASSE dat!!!! ah sorry eh, but that real annoying...seriously!
better yet i mighta invite her to come and dance, so she coulda show what she made up...STEUPS!!!!!

ok people excuse my previous broken english but it was my first thought and best expressed using trinidad vernacular. :lol: