Help please: where to put audience participation

[red head miriam]

Hi. I've been hired to perform at a party this weekend (2 sets) and I've decided that I want to include a song where I try to get the audience up to dance. I've performed for (some of) these people before, and I think they would like it - especially the kids.

So, what I think I will do is have a more "pop" type song after my traditional egyptian set. Something by Hakim or Amr Diab. What do you all think? Should the "get the audience up to dance" bit always be at the end? or would it work to try to get people to dance to a traditional song, somewhere in the middle of the set, and then finish up my performance? Should I do this for both sets?

sooo indecisivie! please help.

 

[goddessyasaman]

Hi. I've been hired to perform at a party this weekend (2 sets) and I've decided that I want to include a song where I try to get the audience up to dance. I've performed for (some of) these people before, and I think they would like it - especially the kids.

So, what I think I will do is have a more "pop" type song after my traditional egyptian set. Something by Hakim or Amr Diab. What do you all think? Should the "get the audience up to dance" bit always be at the end? or would it work to try to get people to dance to a traditional song, somewhere in the middle of the set, and then finish up my performance? Should I do this for both sets?

sooo indecisivie! please help.

Oh I have done this, I used belly dance music but it was face pace and up beat, I'm a turkish belly dance so I used the song turkish delight which very drum and modern, they loved it, did it in the middle of the performan sets but I had 6 set to do so i did after my third set, even got two guys to get up and dance as well, it was great I think something more pop could work only because they may have more fun with something fast like pop and they can relate to it, it's up to you to do it for both set's I would so that way you can give more people time to get over the shyness.

 

[Yame]

Audience participation songs are usually somewhere in the middle of the set... even if it's more towards the end, you still need to finish your set and exit elegantly.

 

[red head miriam]

Thanks for the advice. Do you think it would sound wierd to have a Hakim song in the middle of the set? or should I just use a traditional song that goes with the rest? I intend to use something with a moderately fast tempo, nothing too complex.

 

[goddessyasaman]

Thanks for the advice. Do you think it would sound wierd to have a Hakim song in the middle of the set? or should I just use a traditional song that goes with the rest? I intend to use something with a moderately fast tempo, nothing too complex.

I think either would be fine, a hakim song would be good, the song you would be using at this point will be for the people joining you to dance so keep this in mind when you pick.

Good luck and have fun

 

[AndreaSTL]

Audience participation songs are usually somewhere in the middle of the set... even if it's more towards the end, you still need to finish your set and exit elegantly.

Agreed. You don't want the audience to not even realize you've finished performing. If they can't see you exit it feels like you've just disappeared.

 

[Amulya]

I have a different opinion: I do mine at the end. If the party includes dancing in general (I mean that there will be a DJ and the guests are going to dance), a belly dance performance with participation is a good to get people up and dancing, so they aren't all waiting for the first person to go up to the dance floor as would happen if there wasn't a performance. You can still make an exit, best is too let someone announce your exit. Hopefully that won't make people all go back to their chairs and sit down again. But in some cases that is not an issue of course.

I am curious why other dancers do it in the middle*. I have never seen a dancer do that before. Is this maybe a difference because of which country a dancer lives in?

*Wouldn't most people expect that the dancer won't come back? Or would the people go back to their chairs? That seems a bit confusing for the audience to me. But I have mostly done events were people were supposed to stay on the dance floor after my performance.

 

[Salome]

I would put an audience participation song at the end of a set. A pop song is a great choice - something fun, upbeat and easy for folks to follow.

 

[red head miriam]

Well I can see advantages to either middle of set or the end. I would definitely put it at the end when the event is a more "dancy" party. This was more of a family party/reception. Unfortunately, due to some last minute shuffling I had to cut my planned songs for participation at the last minute.

But it all worked out OK. I got some people to dance for a bit anyway. I even managed to remember to pose with people for pics when it was obvious that was what they wanted.

And I learned a valuable lesson: from now on, a written contract!

 

[Amulya]

Congrats but what happened? Sounds that something went a bt wrong when you mentioned contract.

 

[red head miriam]

Oh, they kept wanting to push back my start time. I was fine with just 15 minutes, but when they wanted to wait longer, I had to say no. Which led to needing a shorter set, etc.

I don't get a lot of gigs like this (I don't live in a big city), and I haven't had problems before. But now I think I want a brief contract, stating exactly what they expect and what I expect. I've seen some on-line, I suppose it's ok to use them for ideas, as long as I don't copy exactly???

 

[Yame]

Oh, they kept wanting to push back my start time. I was fine with just 15 minutes, but when they wanted to wait longer, I had to say no. Which led to needing a shorter set, etc.

I don't get a lot of gigs like this (I don't live in a big city), and I haven't had problems before. But now I think I want a brief contract, stating exactly what they expect and what I expect. I've seen some on-line, I suppose it's ok to use them for ideas, as long as I don't copy exactly???

A lot of dancers who have their contracts available online wouldn't mind at all if other dancers used them... just, obviously, change the names and edit anything that isn't applicable to your gig.
Here's one dancer who posts hers Carrara Nour | Belly Dancer for Weddings and Events in Orlando

 

[red head miriam]

Thanks, Yame!

 

[Amulya]

I like how she did the download buttons linking to the PDF files, easy to print off for clients