Carrara charms the crowd at Marisa's in Trumbull, Connecticut

a) Toilet paper stuck to your shoe on a big date. b) A run in your stockings right before an important job interview. c) You’re around the water cooler with colleagues, quietly quipping about your boss’s bow tie – then Orville Redinbacher himself walks in. d) You’re at your own birthday party and a beautiful woman in an exotic couture costume comes out and performs an engaging and authentic Middle Eastern dance show, getting the guests up to dance.  

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong…

My PSA of the day? Life is full of embarrassing situations.…

This post came to me by way of a somewhat funny lead I received on a lead-generating service called Gigmasters: “Dress very sexy, and wear pretty makeup.”

This customer request made me chuckle. Telling a belly dancer to be glam is sort of like telling a lawyer to use complex legal jargon. For me, proper stage makeup is par for the course and part of the uniform. My clients don’t want a secretary; they want a glamorous entertainer who evokes opulent fantasies. If I am getting paid good money to show up and sparkle, I had better pull out all the stops.

But then, I had to wonder, had this client seen a show where the belly dancer was wearing…

This is one of those beautiful blog posts that requires little introduction. For all you wise people who don’t watch television: Belly dancers Kaya and Sadie were on America’s Got Talent. They got booted. Everybody’s talking about it.

Without further ado, the belly dance blogger opines.

Perhaps, the most amazing part of Kaya and Sadie’s performance was not their performance itself, but the buzz around it, and the strong feelings the duo has stirred up within the dance community. The AGT thread on Bhuz is 13 pages long and growing. There have been countless threads on Facebook and Twitter. And there appears to be an exact 50-50 split between “If you didn’t love everything about Kaya and Sadie’s performance, and if…

Tipping is a universal gesture of gratitude. When you put together a big event, you will want to thank everybody who helped make the event go so smoothly, from the caterers to the DJ to the photographer. Naturally, many party planners will also tip the entertainers. By now, you should probably know what I’m getting at!

While most belly dancers don’t demand tips, we certainly appreciate them. After putting so much hard work into helping you execute the party of your dreams, it feels great to be rewarded for our efforts. Plus, tipping can add fun and authenticity to any show. In many Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures, tipping the dancer is said to bring good luck!

There are many…

Because it never, ever ends….

1. Get off my duff and start training in NY again.

2. Learn the Arabic alphabet

3. Retire all my dumbed-down Bellydance Superstars CD’s. Immerse myself in classical Egyptian music.

4. Use props less frequently and more creatively.

5. Go to Manhattan and listen to some good live Arabic music.

6. Watch A Voice Like Egypt, the documentary on Oum Kalthoum. Understand her music and influence.

7. Cultivate a deeper, more intelligent understanding of my music. Dive head first into Arabic music theory.

8. Drill, drill, drill.

9. Go to Aziza’s Birthday Bash, Miami Belly Dance Convention, Rakstar and maybe Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive. (And try not to spend all of my money on costumes.)

10.…