Last time we had Raqs Britannia was 2010 in Sheffield. And since then I haven’t really heard about Bellydance Superstars in the UK. I sometimes accessed their website to see if there would be a show here. I’ve heard about the Club Bellydance but I had no idea what it was really about and to be honest it never occurred to me to be their sponsor.

It was early March, 20 days to my first theatre show ever, whilst I was finalising the preparations for it when I received an email from a Bellydance Superstars fan mentioning that they had been having difficulties to find a local sponsor for the Club Bellydance London on 21st May and if I would be interested in doing the job which basically consisted of finding a suitable venue, organising the first half of the show and promoting the event.

I must confess I was very excited when I received this email and was a bit shocked with the fact that they couldn’t find a sponsor in London. How come? I was intrigued. I requested more information about the Club Bellydance:

“Hi Beautiful people, we have just finished our first Club Bellydance Tour which was very successful (if you go onto Facebook and check out Club Bellydance you can read some of the comments) we want to expand this and do a UK tour starting May 19th 2012.

We are looking to do a tour and have a small show with just 5 dancers, Sabah, Moria, Stefanya, Lauren and Sabrina. For Act 1 we would have local Bellydance Troupes and the 5 dancers above would be Act 2. It would be great if you could be involved, so we could put on a show together in London. We want to involve as many teachers (Cabaret and Tribal) as possible if you can recommend other people in the area that could make this a successful event that would be great. Another idea would be to invite a teacher/dancer from outlining area that you might think would be an asset to the show and help sell more tickets.

The basic deal is you will help me find a suitable venue, I was thinking around 200 seats. We would pay the sponsors £1 pounds per ticket sold so if you sell 200 tickets we would pay you £200 pounds for you to produce/promote a 45 min show. We could extend this to a hour if you think having more dancers would help with tickets sales or if we have more than one sponsor we could also split the time.

We would supply flyers, postcards and posters for the event, we will pay for the venue and any costs associated and you have no financial responsibilities. We will put the info on our website and help promote in any way we can. You in turn would promote in the local community letting all of your contacts, fellow dancers, friends, family, etc about the show. We would do a 70/30 split on the workshops if we do them.

We would want you to promote in your market place, the goal being to get 200 people to the show, you would, as the local promoter send out emails, flyers, postcards posters etc etc generally help promote the event.

Is this something you would like to do with us?”

After reading the info above the first thing I thought was: how will I fill 200-seat-theatre on a Monday evening? Most of the belly dancers have a daytime job and I thought if I would be able to find belly dancers to perform. How would I pay for the belly dancers? If I sold 200 tickets and had 10 performers I would be able to pay £20 each, which would be very little but it would help with transport expenses. I thought the whole idea was a recipe for disaster. However I decided to go for the challenge.

My first task was to find a suitable venue within the budget which was around £600 max 200 seats in central London. Most of the theatres were already taken or too big or too small or too expensive. After 6 days of intense search when I about to give up because it was taking too much of my time and sanity, I found the Cockpit Theatre. It looked the perfect theatre for the show with 180 seats. After about 10 days of email exchanges between Bellydance Superstars and the theatre management, they agreed to hire the venue for the event. I was thrilled! Later on it was announced that Petite Jamilla would join the Club Bellydance London.

After completing successfully my first task I started thinking about the belly dancers for the show. I wanted varied styles, I wanted good belly dancers. I was told to find tribal and cabaret belly dancers and to offer them a 5 min slot each. I was pleasantly surprised and so delighted that the great majority of the belly dancers I invited were able to perform and support the show even though I couldn’t afford to pay for their performances as I was already working on my own theatre show. I thought if the ticket sales were good then I would share my part with them.

Most of the belly dancers were able to send all the music, information and pictures on time, which took a lot of pressure out of me. By Easter I had almost everything ready for the show.

I was thinking about asking my husband to come with me but I thought that it was a bit too much after helping me at the Vitality show and after my own belly dance theatre show so I didn’t say anything. But my husband offered to take half day off his job and come with me to help and support in case something unexpected aroused. That, my friends, is called love and friendship.

When the date was close, I was told to bring the CD to the venue and hand it to the sound/light technician, bring water and fruits for the dancers and 2 volunteers to help with merchandise.

The day arrived. I woke up in the morning and rehearsed my piece at home. I was confident and happy with it. I got ready and went to the theatre.

I arrived on time and a few minutes before the Bellydance Superstars crew. So I went to the changing rooms and arranged the fruits and water. I placed the running order for the 1st half on the wall so the dancers could know their time. I was very excited.

The Bellydance Superstars arrived. The crew fitted their stage floor and soon started their rehearsal. They were really focused and concentrated on their work so we had time just to exchange a few words. Meanwhile, London belly dancers were at the changing room getting ready for the rehearsal.

At 5:30pm we went for our final bow rehearsal. We were told to seat in the audience instead to wait for it on the changing rooms, which I thought it was quite nice of them so we could see Bellydance Superstars show.

It was time for London belly dancers rehearsal. I brought the CD to the sound technician but then people started to pass the buck one to another. I quickly asked Marco (my husband) to take charge of the sound/light system as no one seemed to take responsibility for it. Marco didn’t know the system at all but I knew he was able to cope with the pressure as we studied electronics at high school together, he had done the job at my theatre show and Deb (the theatre’s technician) kindly offered to help him.

Once Marco got into light and sound control room, we started our rehearsal. All went well smoothly. However, few of the belly dancers couldn’t make it because of their daytime job.

I rehearsed my piece at home many, many times and I had the opportunity to rehearse once at the theatre. I was glad to rehearse there as the stage floor had a more polished surface and therefore was a bit more slippery so I decided to perform bare feet as my ballet shoes was not quite the best option for me. Also there were seats in the front and on the sides, which could be a bit confusing if you are doing turns during the performance.

There were some last minute changes to individual performances which made me incredibly anxious but we managed to sort them out technically.

The show started and I asked all the performers to be aware of their turn and be ready and near the stage. I made sure I was last so I could keep monitoring the flow of the show. After the second performance, we would have Farah’s but Marco made a mistake and forwarded to the next music, which was Hannah’s. She was already there so I quickly asked her to perform as her music was playing. Called Marco to fix the running order and put Farah as next performance. All went well and we managed to keep it unnoticed by the audience.

All the other performances went well and very smoothly. Sound and lights were perfect. It was my turn. I never thought I would share the same stage with Bellydance Superstars one day. I have been on this road for 4 years and 8 months precisely and if that was going to happen I was sure it wouldn’t be so soon. Despite all the criticisms and difficulties I am starting to believe that I am on the right path. When I finished my performance I believed I did it well as I could hear the applause and a very loud cheer coming from one side of the theatre. It was an overwhelming and memorable experience and moment in my life.

During the break I saw many familiar faces in the audience, my students, friends of performers, other belly dancers from London. I was so thankful to see them and grateful for them to support the London belly dance community and the show.

The break ends and the stage gets dark. It was time for the Bellydance Superstars. I enjoyed the introduction performance with the veils. I loved Petite Jamilla’s performance with angel wings and veils and Moria’s solos. All dancers very skilled and have impeccable technique. Even though fusion and other types of dance were hugely more predominant than belly dance, it was a great show.

After the show we could take pictures with the Bellydance Superstars and talk a little bit more with them as all the pressure had gone and the mission was accomplished.

Once all finished, I made sure all the dancers had left, and tided up all the changing rooms.
The theatre was full, we had 155 tickets sold; an almost sold out show on a Monday evening, this was incredible. Next day I received an email from the Cockpit Theatre manager congratulating for the show and thanking for the professionalism.

It is my intention to share the revenue with the 12 dancers. But at the moment I’m being asked to deduct £6 per performer who watched the Bellydance Superstars show which I think is really unfair as we didn’t expect to be able to watch the show in the first place, rather we were invited to do so during rehearsal, and this was not part of the original agreement. I’m still challenging this with the Bellydance Superstars management as I think the London belly dance community deserves to be recognised and have a fair share for their effort in this amazing belly dance event. I will let you know how this pans out.

A very special thank you to all the belly dancers who performed in the show.  I couldn’t make it without you!