How Should I look?
(Do I have to be beautiful, fat, thin, curvy, waif like, young, old.......?)
This first section generally relates to those of us dancing professionally and in particular cabaret style. It has always been assumed that beauty often takes us one step closer to our goals, furthers our careers and makes us much happier and ultimately more successful people.
If you asked the average Egyptian male which would he rather see: a beautiful belly dancer with a gorgeous body or, a not so gorgeous belly dancer with a not so great body, the answer is fairly obvious. However, Egyptian men are not so easily pleased. When it comes to dancing they may think she has to be beautiful, but what they all would insist upon first and foremost is that she be a good dancer.
A beautiful woman with an incredible body will capture a great deal of attention and excitement when she appears on the stage but if she cannot dance well she will not be able to hold the audience's attention for more than five minutes. (She still has 55 minutes to go!).
However, our profession has glamour at its core so if you do not like having to do hair, makeup, nails, leg waxing and all the other bits then you may be in the wrong business.
If you are dancing regularly and correctly and eating a sensible ish diet then your body should be just fine. Correct isolation and posture should give you all the curves and all the toning you need in all the right places. If you are showing off your body to an audience every night then I do not see any reason why that same body should not be taken care of and I believe this is part of our job criteria. We're in show business and it's very naive to think it's any thing else.
It may sound corny and cliche, but beauty does come from within and there is no greater example of this then when we are dancing.
When we are dancing and are totally in love with the music and the dance which we are creating, when we give first and do not just think of what we are receiving, when we are totally in it for the love of it, the audience will see it in your face and in your eyes and you WILL look beautiful. I have seen it so many times.
Marilyn Monroe still the greatest ever sex symbol we have all ever known. Apart from her beauty, Marilyn is more famed for her gorgeous body. Marilyn Monroe was a size 16! Our greatest sex symbol of all time was a size 16. Marilyn danced and danced a lot. There were no gyms back then and young actresses had to know how to act, sing and dance. I believe that dancing is the greatest and most natural form of exercise for women and most kinds of dancing will give great curves. Belly dancing obviously gives the best though!
I've heard nonsense that Belly dancers need to be very large. I've been told they need to be large in order to show off the moves, which is the biggest load of nonsense I've ever heard. I have seen great waif like dancers and I've seen great larger than life dancers.
In conclusion, we cannot change our height but if we are unhappy, and only if we are unhappy about our hair colour, size, shape etc then there really is nothing to stop us from doing something about it. Waif like models have to be waif like. They are not allowed to eat. They endure that hardship in order to stay in that business otherwise they'd be out on their ear, no matter how beautiful.
Page 3 girls have to be large breasted and .....blah blah blah. If they are not they will not do very well. Models for the larger fuller figure have to be larger and fuller figure.
We are quite lucky in our profession as there are no strict rules. We only need observe the rules of life generally and in particular that of show business, make the most of what we have, love what we do and our beauty will be revealed.
Age - I truly believe that a good dancer will always want to be seen and appreciated whatever her age. However agents are not always of the same opinion. Although it can be a very difficult pill to swallow, if the time comes when we must step aside for the new generation of dancers, then so be it. I see it as their turn and nothing more than that. Not everyone can teach as it is simply not in everyone's makeup, but teaching can be supremely rewarding and there are simply no age limits.
The non professional dancer can, if she chooses, ignore all of the above and just have a wonderful time enjoying the greatest dance God ever created.