Top 10 Ways to Market Your Belly Dance Event

After successfully organising and hosting the sell-out NADA/Baladi Blues event in Edinburgh last year, I had some nice comments about my positive approach to the marketing of the event.  I'd never done anything quite like this before – an afternoon of workshops, followed by evening concert and party with musicians – but I had the advantage of drawing on some related experience from the non-dancing part of my world. 


Daughters of Isis by James Campbell

At the time, NADA's convenor asked me to pass on some marketing advice to their members, so I wrote them an article for their magazine. 

Here are my 'Top 10 Tips' for marketing your dance event, first published by NADA:

1. Find the people that matter.  Word of mouth can mean a lot in our world and personal approaches count.  Your fellow teachers, friends and students can make a huge difference and an event that brings the dance community together is one which people will want to support.
2. Identify all the reasons why people might be interested in coming to your event, they are your unique selling points.  For example, what’s different about your event?  Is there something special about the teacher that students will learn from?  Is there something that isn’t on offer elsewhere? 
3. Use a range of tools that are at your disposal.  There are lots of ways to tell people about your event.  Take advantage of the internet, Facebook, classes, posters, flyers and anything else that captures your imagination.  These tools are usually cheap and often free – although you do need to invest your time to make them work for you. 
4. Create a timeline or countdown to the event.  Along with all the other stuff that needs to get done like organising the venue, programme and selling tickets, think about when you need to advertise your event.  Time your mail outs and other updates to fit with your plan.  Too few messages and people might miss the event entirely or just not get round to booking.  Too many and people get annoyed, unsubscribe or simply hit the delete button. 
5. Don’t sound like a stuck record.  If you are updating people about an event, do it in an interesting way so that your potential audience don’t lose interest.  Think about what you are saying and pick out different themes and messages to make it engaging.   
6. Put in a bit of personality into your campaign.  This one’s harder to convey, but what matters here is a friendly approach that makes others want to join you.  It’s about showing it’s real people that are behind the organisation of the event.   
7. Be honest about participation levels and ticket sales, and when it’s really time to book.  This helps people to plan when to book and pay for each part of the event.  And helps the organisers respond quickly if the numbers don’t pick up when they should. 
8. If there is one part of the event that isn’t selling so well, target some extra effort.  We had only had a few early registrations for our free beginners’ belly dance workshop.  In response, we targeted some Facebook activity at this part of the day, specifically to engage with non-dancers. 
9. Make it easy for people to participate.  A few extra touches can help someone decide to commit to the event.  The first question is often “where is the event, and how do I get there?”  Provide helpful information like maps and transport information and use a dedicated webpage if you can.   
10. Finally, create something that people want to be part of.  No matter how much muscle or self belief you put behind your campaign, it’s never going to work unless people are interested in what you are doing.  Our creation was an easy sell thanks to NADA – an amazing opportunity to learn with, listen to and dance to authentic live Egyptian music.  Or in the words of the Baladi Blues Ensemble band leader Guy Schalom, “spread the Baladi love!”

What do you think about this advice? 

I'd love to know, how do you spread the word about your belly dance events?

Oh, what a lovely cover up!

Caught backstage at the NADA/Baladi Blues event and AGM in Lancashire, I love these fabulous galabeyas by costumier and belly dancer Beverley Smith from Leeds.  

As owned and modeled by Sandra Thompson and Anne Kingston, these designs are simple, elegant and a great way to conceal the beautiful costume underneath, prior to the big reveal.

Rocking those triangular sleeves

Sandra and her black and red velvet galabeya

Anne in beautiful blue devoré

8 Belly Dance Gig Bag Essentials

I confess to being a secret fan of Gilded Serpent's online Gig Bag Check videos.  I so love nosing through the belongings of belly dance royalty and wannabes.  

Gig Bag Essentials

In the absence of a touring Lynette Serpent, I thought it might be interesting to share some of the things that I like to have with me when I'm performing.  So here is my pick of 8 gig bag essentials:

1. Nude ballet shoes.  Although I generally prefer dancing barefoot whenever possible I carry these with me everywhere I go as dodgy floors can appear in all sorts of venue, whether carpeted stages, nightclub dance floors, or uneven concrete...   
2. Mirror.  A small freestanding mirror is brilliant if there isn't a handy one at the venue or for occassions when there are other performers vying for the only one there.  Mine is an aluminium foldaway from Muji - it's big enough to see my whole face and with a bit of fidgeting, I can even check to see if all the bits of costume are where they should be. 
3. Leg warmers.  I'm very attached to mine as I like to keep heat in my muscles just before running on stage - essential when performing in a Scottish winter.  However this does mean I have a bad habit of leaving an unsightly heap of discarded belongings in the most convenient back stage area (next door bar, ladies loos, DJ booth...)
4. Cover up.  Essential for keeping your costume hidden, and generally keeping warm (do you see a theme emerging here..?) My favourite is a galabeya I bought in Egypt that my dressmaker Wendy converted to front fastening by sewing on a line of duvet poppers.  It's so simple and great for a quick change without risk of disturbing hair and makeup.  
5. Flip flops.  More footwear essentials, these are great for pottering round back stage and pretty silver sandals looks so much nicer poking out the bottom of your costume than clumpy boots or trainers.  And no chance of leaving any sock marks either... 
6. Eyelashes.  An artist from another performance style once commented how surprised she was when she saw a dancer performing at a party who just wore ordinary every day make up along with her professional costume.  Once you get the hang of them, I definitely think that falsies make a huge difference to your overall impression. 
7. Assorted pouches and bags.  I always use a variety of these to keep all the bits together.  There are ones that are see-through for jewellery and accessories and I love those canvas/jute reusable shopping bags are fantastic for keeping each entire outfit together - I avoid storing dance costumes in plastic and this also a good system to deploy for costume changes. 
8. Business cards.  I have these close to hand, especially if I have just come off stage, important for generating new leads and leaving a more lasting impression.  

Safely stowed shinies

What are your must have gig bag essentials?
 

Oh my eyes! - Stage make-up tips

Here is a review type post about a couple of my favourite products for getting that Arabic eyes look.

In my make up bag I've a few favourites from make up forever who do a great variety of professional make up, including waterproof, which I find works great for performaning.  To line my eyes, there are two products I really like, both from their Aqua range.

The first of these is the Aqua Eyes waterproof eyeliner pencil.  I've got this in shade 0L-Matte Black.  It's nice and smooth to apply, can be smudged easily for a nice effect, or built up to a harder line.  And once it's on, it stays exactly in place, all night, through performing, night driving, everything.  I find it a very versatile product, not only for stage, but also for teaching and everyday wear. If you find it hard to shape your eyeliner, a smudgeable one like this can be drawn on first for the outline shape, then for more drama draw over the top with liquid liner. 

The second product I rely on is Aqua Black Waterproof Creme Eyeshadow.  This is a pot of black boot polish looking colour.  It can be used as a base for smokey eyes stage look, but I like it as a matte eyeliner, applied to my upper lid with a small brush.

I make sure to brush it on really close to the top lashes, almost to the lash line, opening up the eyes so as not to leave any gaps.  This is the best way to disguise any mistakes or gaps from glueing on lashes - as long as the liner goes on first, then the lashes.  A nice angled eyeliner brush would make application pretty easy and help with winging out the liner, although I've been using a discarded lip brush which works okay.  I like this product better than other brand gel liners as it doesn't tend to gloop or clump, and once it's on it's not going to slide around or budge for anything.  It's also easy to wipe off the brush afterwards.  Lastly, the packaging is a compact plastic tub, good for squeezing into my make up bag, and there's no risk of dropping a heavy sphere of glass encased gel liner onto my foot...

Waterproof make up shouldn't be used in inside or waterline of my eyes.  The Aqua Black especially should also be applied extra carefully away from contact lenses, as it's got so much staying power, it'd stick to the lense too given half a chance.  

Finally, something that often comes up in dressing room chat is how stubborn it this kind of make up can be to take off at the end of the night.  My method is to always use a good quality waterproof eye make up remover.  There's quite a few brands that'll work, the trick is to look out for bottle that contains both water based and oil based solvent - you'll recognise this in a bottle which has two liquids inside, one floating on top of the other.  You need to shake to mix the two, put some on a cotton wool pad and then hold this to your eye a count of 10 - long enough for the liquid to soak into the make up.  Then a gentle wipe should take everything off with no rubbing.  I then finish the eye by turning the pad over and wiping clean with the reverse side.  It's quick, gentle and very easy.

Make up forever is a niche brand in the UK, although has a wider distribution in certain countries around the world.  In the UK there are currently two stockists that I know, the PAM store near Shepherds Bush in London (who also do mail order), and Guru in Fulham.

I'd love to know, what are your favourite make up products for stage?  

Keeping it all together

This is my new zills pouch.

It's sturdy, compact, and it's also my new bargain as it cost me just £1.50 from a textile/crafts store on Nicholson Street in Edinburgh.

How do you store your zills?

Zilling in the rain...

In response to my question about playing zills in the rain, I received this reply from "A fellow walking zill practiser who agrees that muffling interferes":

Living on the sixtieth parallel, rain, cold, walking, and zills have challenged me.  Foggy rain, I simply play as I walk.  Soaking rain, I wear a gortex hooded poncho over my warm-weather gear.  I do not know what brands of glove liners you have available, but should you run into the "numbing cold zill effect" then I recommend getting a second pair of zills and sizing the elastic to a pair of wind-breaker, water-proof glove liners to wear under your poncho.  Hope that this helps! 

Wow, I have to say it's really nice to know I'm not alone, and that there are even greater challenges for outdoor zillers than the Scottish weather.  When I started this practise regime about 6 weeks ago we were experiencing an unseasonal cold spell.  Indoors, I had my heating on.  Outdoors, after about 10 minutes my hands would start to feel bitter cold as the metal of the zills plunged with the outside temperature.

I love the idea of a second pair of zills sized to fit over glove liners. Although if I manage to achieve some sort of musical competency before the onset of this year's winter that would also eliminate this sort of hazard. 

Thank you, my fellow zills walker, I zaghareet you!  Enjoy the summery zills days while they last!