Many years ago when I was starting out in law and picking up criminal cases I'd get calls from people who didn't want to go the public defender route but couldn't or wouldn't pay my fee, which was in context quite low. "Wouldn't it be good experience for you?" they'd ask. The man who was sort of my mentor, someone I knew through my synagogue, suggested that the proper reply was, "The best experience a young lawyer can have is to be paid a fair fee for his time and effort."

I should think this is especially important in belly dance, which many people still see as on the same general level as those places which are called, for reasons I cannot fathom, "gentlemen's clubs." In order to promote this as an accepted and recognized form of legitimate dance its practitioners have to behave as if it is. This means acting as professionals, and remuneration is one of the differences between "professional" and "amateur."

I wonder if the owners of certain types of clubs have a stake in the lower standards. Some years back there was a club in Detroit's Greektown where Norma performed frequently. Its clientele was more people just out for an evening's entertainment and less ethnic types or people with a particular interest in that kind of music and dance. I would call to ask if Norma would be dancing that night and as often as not they'd have to go check or sometimes whoever answered the phone would say he didn't know. It struck me--I could well be wrong and if so I hope Norma will correct me--that because of the sort of customers this place had they were not entirely interested in promoting the dancer in particular rather than just having some dancer. If people start asking to see a particular dancer, her bargaining power and the rates she can command are increased.

Whether the overall business would be increased by promoting, "Come and see Norma (or Shadiah)" rather than, "Come have dinner and see a show of some sort," I cannot say. It seems to me, though, that to promote and advance this dance you need the dancers, the club owners, and the musicians working together and if you have a few dancers willing to work for whatever, or nothing, and a club owner or two who is more interested in how little he can pay than in attracting top-flight dancers, the effort will be frustrated.

I may mention, to no one's surprise who has seen Norma dance, that while with some dancers customers would eat, chat, watch the stage, chat some more, etc.,, when Norma was performing people usually turned full attention to the stage.