Yesterday afternoon, I got to do this for a software company at their office in Melbourne. It was the boss’s 50th birthday and a quick 5-minute show featuring finger cymbals and sword was just the right way to break the ice and surprise the Birthday Boy before the team cut the cake. The beginning of my sword dance also proved to be the perfect time for one wise guy to pipe up and ask about his raise!

Whether you prefer to call it “dance and dash” or “hip and run,” a bellygram (or Mini Show, as I like to call it) makes a fun and unexpected birthday surprise for your boss or co-worker – especially if they’re Middle Eastern or Indian, or if they love other cultures. It’s also a great idea if your boss is the Smart-Alec-y type and you’re dying for the opportunity to put him in the hot seat!

Interested in hiring an Orlando belly dancer to shake up your next office birthday party? A few quick pointers:

• Keep it a Surprise: A bellygram always goes over best if you plan discretely and keep the entrance a surprise. Make calls in the car during your lunch break, or when your boss is out of the office. Scope out the most discrete entrances and changing rooms before the dancer arrives. There’s an art to being sneaky, and I wrote a blog about the subject: Covert Ops: Notes from a Surprise Birthday Party.
  
• Keep it Short and Sweet: A  simple show, up to 6-7 minutes long, is the perfect solution in an office environment, where people generally 1. are too preoccupied to be a captive audience for a full show, and 2. might not know what to make of live entertainment outside of its expected setting (parties, weddings, clubs, etc.)
• Keep it Classy – Worried about what your boss and co-workers might think? You shouldn’t, as long as you do some homework and Hire an Orlando belly dancer who knows how to liven up the party tastefully. Read reviews/testimonials, review their photos and video, and talk to the dancer on the phone. A quality Orlando belly dancer will make YOU look good when you surprise your boss or co-worker with top-notch entertainment that makes them smile. Trust me – you DON’T want to be remembered as the one who got the VP of Marketing in trouble when the cheesy belly dancer you hired sat in his lap! (Take a look at my blog and FAQ’s and I think you’ll know where I stand on the Turn The Boss Into a Sultan Act).
• Don’t Expect the Birthday Boy/Girl to Dance – At weddings and parties, where the crowd is totally relaxed and in the mood to party, my track record of audience participation is literally 100%. At work, where the Birthday Boy or Girl may feel a bit more reserved, the likelihood of getting them up to dance in front of their boss or their staff is realistically closer to 50%. (Side note: In a not-so-distant past life, I worked as an account manager for a big media company that had an extremely “buttoned-up” corporate culture. If somebody forced me to dance in front of my boss, I would have died of embarrassment on the spot!) As I tell each of my clients, the main attraction of an office bellygram is the element of surprise, the great Kodak moments and a crazy-fun diversion from the daily grind. If the Birthday Boy or Girl gets up to dance, that’s the icing on the cake!
• Have Fun! Don’t just sit there. Create a party atmosphere! Clap, cheer the dancer on, yell “Opa!” Get up and join us if you’re feeling brave. If you show that you’re having fun, everyone else will too, and the show will be that much more fun for the Birthday Boy or Girl.

These ideas are just a starting point, and don’t forget! You can also book a Mini Show to celebrate your boss or co-worker’s promotion, retirement, or Bon Voyage party. Looking for inspiration? Head over to my Booking page for all the details.

Orlando Belly Dancer Carrara Nour, Photo: Jennifer Soltren of Portrait Divas

About Carrara Nour: Carrara is a professional Orlando belly dancer specializing in custom performances for corporate functions, weddings and high-end social events. Let Carrara bring some culture to your corporate culture! To hire Carrara for your Orlando wedding or event, check out her Booking Page or follow her updates on Facebook.

Orlando Belly Dancer Carrara Nour, Photo: Jennifer Soltren of Portrait Divas

It’s May 12th and perhaps, the best holiday Hallmark never made a card for: World Belly Dance Day. While every day is World Belly Dance Day for most Orlando belly dancers, I think you could use a good reason to put a little extra shimmy in your  step today. Here are a few cool ways my readers in Orlando can celebrate this dance and the vibrant culture it comes from:

1. 1. Take an Orlando Belly Dance Class - This one’s totally self-explanatory! The best way to appreciate belly dance is to actually become a belly dancer for a day. There are plenty of belly dance studios in Orlando, with one of my favorites being Orlando Bellydance, Suspira’s welcoming studio that offers classes of all levels, and pretty costumes from SharifWear and Joharah.
2. 2. Visit “Morocco” for a Day – For those who can’t catch a standby flight to Marakkesh, Epcot’s Moroccan pavillion is the next coolest thing. This is a great place to listen to the band Mo’Rockin, watch the belly dance show, or grab some good eats at the restaurant Marakkesh. (Tell the musicians Bashir and Mustafa I said hi! I did a private gig with them once and they rock.)  One of my first exposures to belly dance was at the Moroccan pavillion when I was a kid, and this made me fall in love with belly dance long before I took my first class – you and your family will fall in love with the dance at Epcot, too!
3. 3. Experience Middle Eastern Cuisine - The Middle East is known for its healthy and amazingly delicious cuisine. There are too many delicious Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants in Orlando for me to even name in this post, many of which have Orlando belly dancers perform on Friday and Saturday nights. I’m still exploring all my choices! I come from the NY area where there were the best Turkish kebab houses, so naturally, I’m very partial to the Turkish restaurant Anatolia in Dr. Phillips.
4. 4. Do Some Shopping - Belly dancers love to add their own signature flair to their homes and wardrobes, and you should too! Check out Beachcombers Bazaar for inexpensive Indian-style bangles and jewelry, or go say hi to my buddy Ali and pick up some incredible Moroccan lamps, pottery and furniture at LivingMorocco, a gorgeous Moroccan home furnishing store in the Ivanhoe Antique District of Orlando.
5. 5. Master the Smoky Eye – Nothing says “belly dance” quite like smoky, mysterious eye makeup to enhance the windows to your soul. I love this Kim Kardashian-inspired smoky eye tutorial from Orlando hair and makeup artists Beaute Speciale. PS – They do weddings, they’ve done my hair and makeup, and they rock!
6. 6. Hire an Orlando Belly Dancer for Your Next Party – OK, I lied, there are 6. Come on, you knew that was coming. But after a day in the life of a belly dance aficionado, you could get used to this! Looking for a custom performance for your wedding or social event? You’re in the right place – please stick around and take a look!

About Carrara Nour: Carrara is a professional Orlando belly dancer specializing in custom performances for weddings and high-end social events. She is known for her unique blend of substance and style; elegance and fun, and loves nothing more than bringing beauty, culture and joy to the world around her, one event at a time. To hire Carrara for your Orlando wedding or event, check out her Booking Page or follow her updates on Facebook.

“We care about our customers. We care about customer service. We care about excellence.”

Many belly dancers have gotten into “caring” lately, too. Especially the belly dancers who wish to book more weddings. All belly dancers SHOULD care, because most are borrowing from a culture outside of our own, and if we don’t care, there’s way too much potential for things to go wrong, especially at a wedding. But does your belly dancer REALLY care? Or is it all “hip” service? A quick checklist:

Does she care enough to get to know you personally and fully understand your likes, dislikes and preferences? Does she care enough to build a custom show tailored to YOUR event, rather than the same rehearsed schtick she performs for every audience?

Does she care enough to understand the varying social dynamics of a birthday party vs. a Muslim wedding vs. a corporate conference with a Fortune 100 company? Does she “read the room” and adjust her level of interactivity to match the crowd’s? Or does she force people up to dance with her, even if the situation doesn’t lend itself to tons of audience participation?

Does she care enough to respect the very fine line between dazzling the crowd and upstaging the bride and groom?

Does she care enough to honor requests for a more conservative costume, or even a more “toned-down” show? If she’s not a native speaker of Arabic, Turkish, Greek or Hindi, does she research translations of her music to avoid offending your guests with inappropriate musical choices?

Does she care enough to make responsible professional choices? Does she continue her education, charge the going rate, represent her credentials honestly, compete fairly and ethically, and respect other dancers’ intellectual property?

Does she care enough to work with a contract for your protection?

Does she care enough to treat each performance and each client with the dignity and respect they deserve?

Does she care enough to graciously decline and refer the job to a specialist if you ask her to do something totally outside her area of expertise? Or does she BS you and try to take your money?

Fact: good looks and great dancing are only a fraction of the Big Picture. A true upper echelon entertainer is also a person who truly, genuinely cares. Anybody can be outwardly nice, but a dancer can’t convincingly fake honest-to-goodness “caring,” even if she were to go down this list and memorize every bullet point. Dancers who genuinely care, exude great energy on every level, and instantly put others at ease.

How do YOU feel when you get off the phone with your belly dancer? If you feel like you’re in good hands….then you probably are.

About Carrara: Carrara is an Orlando-based belly dancer who has been caring since, well, long before it became fashionable to care. Specializing in multicultural wedding entertainment for fun and sophisticated couples. To learn more, check out her Booking or Weddings page, or follow her on Facebook.

Carrara Nour, Belly Dancer in Orlando

So we’re definitely going to go ahead and book a belly dancer for our wedding in Orlando. The wedding is not until October and we’re still finalizing the venue, the DJ and the photographer. My fiance hired a belly dancer to perform at his office birthday party last month, and he was able to call a couple of entertainment agencies and get one the day before. I, on the other hand, am really nervous about the idea of waiting until the last minute. What do you recommend?

Yours Truly,

Overwhelmed in Orlando

~

Dear Overwhelmed,

I’m biting my nails right there with you! For the record, I booked a wedding on just shy of 24 hours notice once, and the show was a hit! But just because I can, doesn’t mean I recommend it.

Every couple has different priorities. You’re right on the mark booking the major vendors first. Once you’ve locked in a venue, DJ, photographer and caterer, then it’s usually a good time to narrow down the “fun extras,” like entertainment. But that doesn’t mean wait until the last minute.

So now for the Big Question: when’s the best time to book a belly dancer for your wedding? The safest window of time to book entertainment for a wedding is anywhere from 3-6 months out – closer to 6 if your wedding is on a Saturday or during the peak wedding season in Orlando. If you’re ready to book even sooner than that, then I’ll be the last person to stop you from it! I’m neurotic about planning ahead and appreciate being able to pencil you in as soon as possible.  If, on the other hand, you discovered some extra money in your wedding budget and just decided to hire an Orlando belly dancer 3 weeks out, I will do my best to accommodate you – but cannot make any guarantees that I’ll be free. If you are also interested in booking musicians to collaborate on my show, they will need to know as soon as possible, too, since many of them perform multiple gigs in one night.

From my perspective, creative freelance work is insanely tough to predict because it comes in waves. One minute, the entire month of October may be free. By the end of the week, I may find myself booked solid. The sooner you book, the more likely you’ll stay ahead of the curve. If I get booked, then you’re back at Square One to shop for entertainment, and you may not be happy with the available choices.

But more importantly, you’ll get the best results when I have enough time to custom-design your show, specifically with your wedding vision in mind. Unlike many variety entertainment acts, I don’t perform the same rehearsed schtick at every event. And unlike many entertainment agencies, I am all about the personalized touch. No two shows are exactly alike, and I pride myself on having the inventory, the connections and the passion to create a piece of custom living art for you and your family to cherish forever when you look back on your wedding album and remember how much fun you had. And all this is too nice a job to rush!

No pressure to sign any contracts right now. Take your time. But as soon as you get the big vendors locked in and are ready to pull the trigger, just let me know! I’m ready to help you plan an unforgettable show.

Best Wishes,

Carrara

Orlando belly dancer Carrara Nour

About Carrara: Carrara is a professional belly dancer offering elegant, authentic entertainment for weddings and social events in Orlando and beyond. Multi-cultural weddings and events are her specialty! To learn more, check out her Booking or Weddings page, or follow her on Facebook.

Are you wearing some new jewelry today? Did you just say “yes?” Do you want to rock your engagement party with glamorous entertainment? This blog post is for you!

Even though your wedding day is the Main Attraction, a unique engagement party with live entertainment will set the tone for a gorgeous and unforgettable celebration. San Diego belly dancer Sabrina says, “In many cultures, the engagement party is just as important and lavish as the the wedding reception. Inviting guests to a warm evening of music and dance is a memorable way to celebrate you exciting announcement.”

With its upbeat music and lively, tasteful interactivity, a belly dance show can be a great way to break the ice between two families. Central Coast belly dancer Mary says, “Whether formal or informal, engagement parties are meant to be fun! Be sure to include activities that encourage mingling, especially between you and your fiance’s families. This may be the first opportunity some of them have to meet.”

If you or your fiance/e are Middle Eastern or Indian, a belly dance show can be a heartwarming way to welcome your new family with a vibrant tradition from your culture – especially if you combine the belly dance show with live Middle Eastern music, Middle Eastern or Indian food, and colorful, exotic decor! A belly dancer might also be a great choice for your engagement party if you met or vacationed together in the Middle East, if your wedding has a Moroccan theme, if you are die-hard Egyptophiles, or if you simply love the arts and other cultures.

Looking for more inspiration? Here are a few resources to guide you:

A Middle East Meets Midwest Engagement Party from the “Inspired By This” Blog

Creative Moroccan-Themed Engagement Party Ideas from The Wedding Bistro at Bellenza

Moroccan Engagement Party Themes from Stylish Eve

Looking for an Orlando belly dancer for your engagement party? Check out my Booking and Weddings pages for more information!

Carrara Nour, Belly Dancer in Orlando

About Carrara: Carrara is a professional belly dancer offering elegant, authentic entertainment for weddings and social events in Orlando and beyond. Multi-cultural weddings and events are her specialty! To learn more, check out her Booking or Weddings page, or follow her on Facebook.

Real Belly Dancers DON'T Look Like This

I’m sure this blog post will land me on the National Registry of Belly Dance Haters. I’m sure I’ll anger the Correctness Police. Perhaps, I should send my boyfriend out to the Army/Navy Store to buy me a flak jacket to wear to my gigs.

But I think it’s time for the Cheesy Belly Dance Show to die.

We’ve all seen the James Bond movies and the Monkees music videos, with the dancers (in bad-ass vintage bedlah!) playing the femmes fatales. We’ve all been to bad Middle Eastern restaurants and touristy dinner-and-a-show attractions, seen some sort of circus-inspired spectacle with fire and snakes and acrobatics and wondered what on earth we just saw. Some of us have even been to birthday parties where the belly dancer had the brilliant idea to jump out of a birthday cake.

Don’t get me wrong. A little “ham and cheese” can be fun from a historian’s perspective. As for cheesy shenanigans that go on in today’s belly dance world? The 1970′s called. They want their Harem Scarum’ schtick back.

I know what you’re thinking: a little harmless kitsch won’t hurt anyone. Oh, wait – it does hurt people. Other dancers’ corny antics hurt the more traditional Middle Eastern artists like myself, who fight an uphill battle to explain that we DON’T wear face veils, or feed grapes to the Birthday Boy, or force audience members to get up and shake a tail feather to The Electric Slide. Sleaze and schtick also hurt Middle Eastern people, who face bellydance burnout after seeing a few too many bad, inauthentic performances – or a few too many random go-go dancers in pseudo-bellydance attire performing at “Arabian Nights” parties in nightclubs. And when your local Arab community gets burned out, you know this is the last straw: young Arabs will often decide against hiring a belly dancer for their wedding because they think it’s corny, old-fashioned and passe.

Dancers, do yourselves and your future audiences a favor. Say NO to cheesy, sleazy gigs.

While it’s true that some of us make a living as full-time entertainers, and while it’s also true that some of us may have to take reliable but unglamorous regular gigs to supplement our income, it pays to remember this: every gig is a PR opportunity, for yourself, for the dance, and for Middle Eastern culture. Sometimes, when one door opens, 100 others close. Seize the wrong opportunities and you may find yourself at a loss for the right opportunities further down the line.

I’m not trying to be the Fun Police. I’m just being real.

As for my “civilian” readers? I apologize on behalf of ALL belly dancers for everything sketchy and scandalous that’s come out of our arts community since Little Egypt brought belly dance to American soil at the Chicago World Fair in 1893. I apologize for every time a belly dancer has forced you to get up and dance on a table at a Greek restaurant in front of your boss (this happened to my dad – sorry, Dad). I apologize for every time you’ve seen a belly dancer at a wedding and felt like you were at a bachelor party. Most of us aren’t here to titillate and you won’t have to worry about us stealing your husband or draining your bar. Most of us just want to put on a good show.

As for those over-the-top Turn Uncle Bob Into a Sultan requests? I don’t do ‘em. Many bad things from the 70′s have died, like the leisure suit, the Pet Rock, and disco. Let’s let the cheesy belly dance show die, too.

Carrara Nour, Belly Dancer in Orlando

About Carrara: Carrara is a professional belly dancer based in Orlando, FL. Carrara proudly specializes in “cheese-free” wedding and party entertainment, and her “lactose” intolerance knows no limits. To hire an Orlando belly dancer for your show, please check out her Booking page. For party-planning tips and to stay on top of her adventures, “like” her Fan Page!

A Pre-Show Snapshot: Waiting Patiently to Surprise the Birthday Boy (Sanford, FL)

Without a doubt, the one type of gig I do the most are birthday parties. The most popular request?

“Help me keep this all a surprise!”

We’ll talk about that later. But first, a recap of last night’s adventures:

Last night’s Top Secret mission sent me to the gorgeous Heathrow neighborhood of Sanford last night, where I helped Maria pull off a perfectly timed surprise for her husband Greg. This wasn’t a typical “sneak in through the side door and hide in the powder room” surprise, but a rather crafty one , timed and executed with military precision. I was absolutely wowed by the amount of thought and care she put into surprising her husband on his special day.

It was 9:30. I had just arrived at Maria’s house while she was out to dinner with Greg and their friends. That was the plan. Nobody was there except the bartender Chelsea and the housekeeper, and while I initially felt a little bit intrusive about just letting myself in (even with Maria’s permission!), I had ample time to get set up in a spare bedroom, get situated in the rest of my costume, make some chitchat with the bartender, and get ready to go.

At 10:00, after the group had arrived, Maria sent everyone out to get their favorite cocktail from the bartender, quickly gave me the heads-up that my show was about to start, and at record speed, had everyone seated and ready. The bartender gave me the “OK” and my music started. At Maria’s request, my costume was blue (Greg’s favorite color) and the show was simple, elegant and interactive with no props, because she felt that all the swords and fire detract from the dance. The crowd was small and intimate, but not afraid to join in on the dancing, from my veil dance (the ladies grabbed their scarves and copied my veil moves), through my drum solo, through BOTH of my audience participation tracks.

The Birthday Boy was thrilled, and best of all – nobody saw this coming! SUCCESS. Greg told me he was amazed that Maria fooled him twice: once into thinking that they were going out for a quiet dinner for two, and then into thinking that the group was just heading back to their place for a little bit of wine and dessert.

So what can we learn from last night’s success story? A few quick things:

• It’s all about teamwork. Shoot me your ideas, and I’ll let you know if it works or how we can tweak and improve upon it. Maria had initially wanted my music to start as soon as they opened the door, but I suggested that she try to quickly sit everyone down in the same spot, and THEN give me the signal. By working together, we “choreographed” the perfect surprise.
• Be Prepared. Like the Boy Scouts motto: in Bellydance Scouts, we make as many arrangements as we can, well ahead of time, so there’s less of a hassle at the last minute. Maria left the gate guard my info so there would be no problems getting in. We also agreed to use her sound system since it would be totally familiar to her and easy to use – I got her my music the day before, and she later told me that she sat in the bathroom transferring my playlist to her iPod so Greg wouldn’t know what was going on! No last-minute fiddling with someone else’s boom box = “I’m just about to play some tunes. Nothing to see here. Move along.”
• Keep it on the DL: Communicate discretely so nobody will find you out. Make phone calls when the Birthday Boy (or Girl!) is out of town. Make calls at work during your lunch break. Or make arrangements via e-mail if the Guest of Honor is within earshot. And whatever you do, don’t say ANYTHING on Facebook! ;)
• Keep it Discrete: I tell all my clients to set aside an area for me to get changed and store my belongings, and I also recommend that you designate a discrete entrance, be it a side door or back door, somewhere off the beaten path from where people will be hanging out. I can also arrive in “civilian” attire and get changed at your location, if you request.
• Sit Back and Enjoy the Show! If you made it through all these steps, congratulations! You’re well on your way to a surprise belly dance show that your “special somebody” will never forget!

I’d like to give a big thank you to Maria for making me part of Greg’s top secret birthday surprise, and a high five for a job well done!

Thinking of surprising somebody special with a belly dance show in Orlando or Brevard County? What are you waiting for? Let’s get down to business :) For even more tips on surprising somebody special, check out my friend Central Coast (CA) belly dancer Mary’s blog post on the same subject.

Carrara Nour, Belly Dancer in Orlando

About Carrara: Carrara is a professional belly dancer based in Orlando, FL. Her classic style of belly dance and lively, interactive shows make for a fun and classy surprise for your special somebody! When Carrara retires from belly dance, she plans to become a secret agent or a Bond Girl. To hire an Orlando belly dancer for your show, please check out her Booking page. For party-planning tips and to stay on top of her adventures, “like” her Fan Page!

But as a multi-cultural entertainer, I find that a lot of my most memorable and meaningful work takes place when I pair up with a client who has a vision above and beyond just a beautiful show. After all, a good belly dance show can offer so much more than just an opportunity to put the Guest of Honor in the hot seat and dazzle the crowd with tricks. If done right, a belly dance performance can also be an enlightening experience that brings people of different cultural groups together!

On December 30th, I brought some Florida sunshine to a Brazilian and Persian family gathering at the Hotel Delamar in Greenwich, CT. Belly dance, samba dancers, and a Persian DJ spinning non-stop Iranian music, all at one of Fairfield County’s most elegant little boutique hotels….does it get any cooler than that? Oh, yes, and did I mention this was for a lucky little 2-year-old girl’s birthday party?

Cris C. from Stamford, CT is one of the coolest, most creative clients I worked with in 2011. We met by accident (I still rank very high on Google searches for Connecticut), and as luck would have it, I was planning on staying with my family in CT for the Holidays during that time, anyway. With a bit of tweaking to my travel plans, I was able to stick around an extra day and help Cris make her adorable daughter Zary’s birthday party sparkle.

What I loved about working with Cris was her enthusiasm and her creative input. We bounced a lot of ideas back and forth and had a great time planning the creative details of my show. Every time I got off the phone with her, I had a silly grin on my face! She really gave her all to honor her little girl’s diverse cultural background in a way that the children and adults in the crowd would love. Let’s be real: we all know what it’s like to awkwardly sit through Dora the Explorer parties for family and friends with small kids. Entertaining the adults is just as nice as keeping the kiddos happy! And judging by the number of people cutting loose on the dance floor, I know she achieved this goal and much, much more.

The Details:

• My Show: Think: pretty Lebanese-flavored cabaret belly dance with a tropical twist and (TSA-approved) belly dance props for added excitement. We went with a lively entrance with zills, a veil dance with rainbow-colored silk, a candle dance, a samba-flavored drum solo, and some Persian pop music for fun. I wore a rainbow-colored sequin costume previously owned by Lebanese movie star Nadia Gamal, with hair flowers and tons of multi-colored rhinestone jewelry. Gorgeous samba dancers even joined me for my final song!
• Samba! The sequins! The feathers! The high heels! Those hot Brazilian dance moves! What can I say? I love watching samba dancers, and the ladies at Tropicalia Entertainment of NYC brought the Rio heat in such a fun, classy way. Adults and kids loved their show! I had a blast bonding with them before and after my show!
• The Music: DJ Farshid (Mikhake Noghrehei) of NYC spun a perfect mix of American Top 40 and Iranian classic and pop party standards, and kept the party going all night. I loved his smooth, classy emceeing style.
• The Venue: The Hotel Delamar on the picturesque Greenwich Harbor was the perfect venue for an elegant birthday party. It’s no surprise that so many celebrities stay there: the service is top-notch and the ambiance is relaxed, Old-World European elegance, all the way. The banquet hall was lovely, and bonus! The property is dog-friendly. One of the prettiest Connecticut wedding venues I’ve danced at.
• The Catering: This party, like many events at Delamar, was catered by L’Escale, an independently owned restaurant on the hotel property. While I couldn’t stick around long enough to have a bite to eat this time, L’Escale has been one of my favorite restaurants in lower Fairfield County for years. Their risotto is the stuff dreams are made of, and you could sit on their patio in the summer and daydream while gorgeous yachts sail by. I have many fond memories associated with that place! Chan is the catering manager of L’Escale and he was totally accommodating, helpful and wonderful to work with. (He even helped me track down my MIA finger cymbals, with a smile!)

It was an honor to end my 2011 dance year in my home state, and with a “bang.” Cris and her family know how to celebrate life, and let’s just say, if little Zary grows up with an incurable addiction to sparkle and dance, then this was the defining moment that started it all!

Orlando belly dancer Carrara Nour

About Carrara: Carrara is a professional belly dancer offering elegant, authentic entertainment for weddings and social events in Orlando and beyond. Multi-cultural weddings and events are her specialty! To learn more, check out her Booking or Weddings page, or follow her on Facebook.

Learning is Fun-damental! At Joumana's in Palm Bay

A change in latitude brings a change in attitude. What happens when you leave the diverse, multi-cultural belly dance scene  of the New York metro area and find yourself in a smaller, younger, more fusion-based market without a teacher and without many opportunities to take workshops in the more classic and folkloric styles?

You save your money, honey. (So you can travel for workshops). And in the mean time, you get creative, set goals, and use your time wisely.

For better or worse, I’ve accepted that from this point forward, I will have to find ways to thrive and grow between workshops as a “self-taught” dancer. No, scratch that. A self-starting dancer. I hate the term “self-taught,” because it implies that I wasn’t really educated in the first place. That is far from the truth. My first dance-moms taught me very well!

Self-study sometimes gets a bad rap in the belly dance community, because we’re too intimately familiar with its Worst Case Scenario: the dancer who watches a couple of YouTube clips, says “I can do that!” and starts marketing herself for weddings. Truth is, many respectable dancers have had to turn to self-study, to varying degrees, and for various reasons. Money is tight for a lot of us. (See: Bhuz discussions on low attendance to Mahmoud Reda’s US tour). Some dancers have spouses in the military and frequently relocate, sometimes to desolate places. And in many markets, there aren’t enough instructors equipped to teach advanced concepts to pro-level students, which leads dancers to create their own path – for better and for worse.

When you go your own way, you can either stagnate, innovate or go deeper within the culture of the dance. I choose to go deeper. At the end of the day, I think it’s easier to say, “I’ve learned everything I can, so now I’m going to mix in a bunch of different things and create something new” than it is to say, “Something tells me I’ve barely scratched the surface. Let’s see what we can find.” I started with a pretty solid pan-Arabic repertoire of Egyptian, Lebanese, Turkish, Greek and American Cabaret styles. Now, I’m getting more folkloric and learning more about the music and social context of these dances.

The world is your classroom if you see it that way. Some of the best learning experiences are the ones that don’t cost a thing. This requires childlike curiosity, an open mind and a great deal of humility. Recently, I’ve opened my mind to observing how non-professional Arabs dance in social situations, both on YouTube and, better yet, at my own gigs. I devote hours of time each day to listening to classic Arabic music and learning about different genres and composers. I’ve started asking lots of questions. (Honest to God, this doesn’t make you look dumb. It shows that you’re sincere). This past Friday at one of my restaurant gigs, I befriended a cool Saudi dude named Faisal, who borrowed my sword and did some traditional Saudi stuff with it between my sets. I asked him to explain what I just saw and walked away with some fresh new insight, straight from the source. I learned more from talking to my new buddy in 5 minutes than I did in some workshops on the subject.

There’s nothing wrong with going straight to the source and keeping it real. Before belly dance became the competitive sport that many see it as today, it was a fun-loving, down-home folk dance passed along through generations. Movements were created, shared, refined, embellished and treasured in the home and in celebrations long before they were dissected in a classroom and choreographed for the stage. While paths have diverged, you can never get too earthy or too funky if you perform at social events and fancy yourself to be an authentic dancer.

Now, before I get a letter from the Belly Dance Police (which tends to happen when I blog about things other than my new costumes or what I ate for breakfast), the purpose of this post was not to trivialize the role of teachers or encourage anarchy in the belly dance community. If you have access to a great teacher, keep up your studies! If you have lots of great teachers and workshops in your backyard, treasure it! But if you don’t, then this is not the kiss of death. Even if you have a regular teacher and lots of workshop opportunities in your town, there’s always something you can learn outside the classroom.

Learning experiences are yours for the taking. You just have to ask.

About Carrara: Carrara is a professional belly dancer offering elegant, authentic entertainment for weddings and social events in Orlando and beyond. Multi-cultural weddings and events are her specialty! To learn more, check out her Booking or Weddings page, or follow her on Facebook.

This past Saturday was no exception! I did not one, but two fabulous 40th birthday parties, and each was totally fun and unique in its own right. A quick recap of the weekend’s events, to hopefully inspire your next milestone birthday celebration:

Rolanda’s Surprise 40th Birthday at City Tropics Bistro in Indialantic:

This crew had such a bad case of Booty Shake Fever, it’s a good thing they were “quarantined” in the wine cellar room! All joking aside, these guys were my dream audience – fun, crazy, classy and totally interactive throughout every minute of my show. A belly dance show can be the perfect gift for someone who loves to dance, and you’ve gotta hand it to a great guy like Jeff G. for being a thoughtful hubby and arranging a lovely surprise for his beautiful wife Rolanda! Her eyes lit up like a pinball machine from the moment I entered the room, and she barely sat still throughout the show. I didn’t have to twist her arm to join me in a shimmy at the end of the show, and when I gave her a hip scarf as a gift, she rocked it proudly! Her girlfriends, mother, and even some of the guys weren’t shy either!

This gig posed a few unique logistical challenges, as the venue’s restrictions prohibited me from dancing with swords and candles (two all-American crowd pleasers), and space was too tight to use Isis wings elegantly. But I really didn’t sweat it, because 1. you’ve gotta play by the rules, and 2. you don’t have to be a circus to be entertaining. Plus, I quite enjoy the occasional test of showmanship. With finger cymbals a-blazin’, a short veil dance to an upbeat version of Misirlou (a Greek classic every American crowd knows, from Pulp Fiction and Black-Eyed Peas!), a samba-flavored drum solo, a healthy dose of humor, and a whole lot of audience participation, we kicked it old school and hit the ball out of the park!

Devinder’s Punjabi Party at Tabla Bar & Grill in Orlando

It’s a good thing I had two hours to rest up and conserve energy while I got from Indialantic to Orlando, because if I’ve learned anything from my huge Indian following, I’ve learned that they LOVE to dance. In fact, I tend to structure my shows around this, and allow for lots of open social dancing whenever I perform for an Indian group! What can I say? I can always count on an Indian party to be lots and lots of fun.

Devinder’s family came in from Boston, Chicago and Fort Lauderdale to celebrate his 40th birthday party at Tabla Bar & Grill, a gorgeous Indian restaurant in Orlando with its own on-site banquet facilities. Even late at night, this place was bustling with activity – a Sweet 16 was going on at the same time as the birthday party! Guests came and went in glamorous designer sarees. I never would have expected this from a restaurant tucked inside a strip mall in a back road off Universal.

My performance immediately followed a bhangra routine performed by some of the boys (I’m bummed that I had to miss it!) I wore shimmery blues to match the blue decor and uplighting. My belly dance show featured a lively entrance with finger cymbals, a sword dance per the family’s request, a drum solo, and LOTS of audience participation to Bollywood classics to engage the entire crowd. By the end of the show, everyone was elbow-to-elbow on the dance floor, the guys were showing off their flashy moves (watch out, Sharukh Khan!), and the girls even taught me a few new Punjabi moves!

This party was made possible by a dream team of vendors, including DJ Mohit and Tabla Bar & Grill, who were a true pleasure to work with!

Carrara Nour, Belly Dancer in Orlando

About Carrara: Carrara is a professional belly dancer offering elegant, authentic entertainment for weddings and social events in Orlando and beyond. Multi-cultural weddings and events are her specialty! To learn more, check out her Booking or Weddings page, or follow her on Facebook.