Musings on belly dance and money
Feb. 17th, 2014 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mekyriaI have been teaching and performing for almost eight years now and I believe that I am now finally made enough money to cover the cost of the seven years of classes and workshops that I took before I went pro. Belly dance is not a profitable career choice for me, though I love to teach and perform.
Looking back, the most money that I made was by teaching belly dance. I love performaing but it is not a steady income option for me and I never had more than 2 performances a month, if I was lucky. I think I did a total of forty paid performance in the past eight years, and roughly sixty unpaid performances (hafla's and such).
Yet all my marketing was geared towards performance pictures and video. I used to have a shot of my student group performing to promote my classes and before that, just a picture of me. Why? Because it worked and I had full classes. Looking at the threads on bhuz, this is how belly dancers promote themself. We are a brand product, thus placing a picture of ourselves on a class flyer makes perfect sense. Fitness formats use a generic picture (photoshopped and super fit and toned, of course) to sell their product.
I am wondering:
*is there a market for generic belly dance class promo pictures?
*why do we focus so much on performing when most of the money is made by teaching?
(because we are a a performance art, and performance is what most people strife for)
*what does a good promo picture for a class look like?
(could be happy students, could be how you correct someone, could be you looking hot while teaching, could be a totally unrelated picture of your students talking after class)
*should there be a difference between a 'class for fun' and a 'class aimed at performing'?
(I say no, BD can be both at the same time. Unless you want to specialize, then use different pictures)
*I never been a big fan of outdoor promotion pictures, exept for when you do outdoor performances or for headshots. But for yoga, outside and sunsets appear to be the most common locations. If we center BD classes on wellbeing and health, maybe we should not have a white studio in the background, but a dance circle outside in the sun.
Looking back, the most money that I made was by teaching belly dance. I love performaing but it is not a steady income option for me and I never had more than 2 performances a month, if I was lucky. I think I did a total of forty paid performance in the past eight years, and roughly sixty unpaid performances (hafla's and such).
Yet all my marketing was geared towards performance pictures and video. I used to have a shot of my student group performing to promote my classes and before that, just a picture of me. Why? Because it worked and I had full classes. Looking at the threads on bhuz, this is how belly dancers promote themself. We are a brand product, thus placing a picture of ourselves on a class flyer makes perfect sense. Fitness formats use a generic picture (photoshopped and super fit and toned, of course) to sell their product.
I am wondering:
*is there a market for generic belly dance class promo pictures?
*why do we focus so much on performing when most of the money is made by teaching?
(because we are a a performance art, and performance is what most people strife for)
*what does a good promo picture for a class look like?
(could be happy students, could be how you correct someone, could be you looking hot while teaching, could be a totally unrelated picture of your students talking after class)
*should there be a difference between a 'class for fun' and a 'class aimed at performing'?
(I say no, BD can be both at the same time. Unless you want to specialize, then use different pictures)
*I never been a big fan of outdoor promotion pictures, exept for when you do outdoor performances or for headshots. But for yoga, outside and sunsets appear to be the most common locations. If we center BD classes on wellbeing and health, maybe we should not have a white studio in the background, but a dance circle outside in the sun.
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no subject
Date: 2014-02-17 11:16 pm (UTC)*is there a market for generic belly dance class promo pictures?
I honestly don't know. I think that when we are teaching *we* are the product we're selling, so personally I feel generic imagery doesn't help to sell *me* as the product. I know I hate it when I'm teaching for an organisation and they use stock bellydance photos rather than photos of me. I think it's more honest advertising to show me rather than some ideal teacher figure.
*why do we focus so much on performing when most of the money is made by teaching?
(because we are a a performance art, and performance is what most people strife for)
For me, dance *is* a performance art, and I love being in front of an audience. I teach dance and I always aim to find suitable performance venues for my students to dance at, so that they can perform the routines they learn. It's not a compulsory part of my teaching, because I accept that some students will not be willing to put themselves on a stage, but it is part of my personal ethos of teaching that they should have that opportunity. For me, performing is a fundamental part of this dance, and if I don't perform, I'm not sure why I would still be dancing!
Another aspect of why I focus on performance is that it's kind of my "business card". It's part of promoting myself, marketing myself as a teacher. It's my way of keeping myself in the public eye, although that "public" mostly consists of bellydance audiences.
*what does a good promo picture for a class look like?
(could be happy students, could be how you correct someone, could be you looking hot while teaching, could be a totally unrelated picture of your students talking after class)
I like In-Action photos where the teacher is working with the students, either leading a class or doing some individual correction/feedback. It's nice to see all those "group shot" photos on FB, taken after the workshop/class, but to me that's a personal memories photo, rather than a promo photo.
*should there be a difference between a 'class for fun' and a 'class aimed at performing'?
(I say no, BD can be both at the same time. Unless you want to specialize, then use different pictures)
I understand why you're saying no, but there are different levels of performance. I have students in my class who, bless them, try hard, but are never going to be very good, because of their age/level of fitness/commitment to practice. The right sort of performance for them will always be student showcases & haflahs. I also have students who are very good, who work hard in class, practice a lot for performances, could develop into "commercial" performers or become teachers themselves if they were so minded. My classes are too small to separate those students out, and I don't think my students would particularly want to be separated on those grounds, but I can understand that where those two streams are starting to conflict, it may be reasonable to have both types of class and market them differently.
*I never been a big fan of outdoor promotion pictures, exept for when you do outdoor performances or for headshots. But for yoga, outside and sunsets appear to be the most common locations. If we center BD classes on wellbeing and health, maybe we should not have a white studio in the background, but a dance circle outside in the sun.
I think yoga is not a strong comparison, because it has a different history and background. Bellydance is not a naturally outdoor/nature pursuit- anyone who has tried to dance with a veil in their garden can tell you that! I can understand outdoor Desert shots, especially if the desert also has pyramids! But for me beach/snow/garden promo photos look weird. We can still promote health and wellbeing in a studio. That's a normal environment for exercise classes as well as dance classes, in our culture.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-18 07:58 am (UTC)*why do we focus so much on performing when most of the money is made by teaching? I know for me I flailed around trying to get work because students seemed to believe this meant I was Good. I suspect the reason people eventually cave & take free work is they rationalize it will pay off in students.
*what does a good promo picture for a class look like? i believe students love costume shot. never under estimate the internal fantasy life driving people into class. FYI one of the reasons I have not been able to get back on the bd hobby horse if fear of pictures.
*should there be a difference between a 'class for fun' and a 'class aimed at performing. i think I was at my most successful when I was doing fitness bd. most people told me they feared taking class because of performance/quit other teachers because of performance pressure.
*I never been a big fan of outdoor promotion pictures, except for when you do outdoor performances or for headshots. I love Melodia (pants) stark shots of fitness/fun gear. I think those type of photos would work. iiiifff I had continued teaching I was going to do something similar. agreed about beaches/snow but hey it is pretty.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-19 08:42 am (UTC)*generic promo pictures: Bea, I feel the same about how I am promoting myself , thus want to use my pictures. However, it seems that rec centers and such prefer a generic picture, from what abbie and you are saying. The center that I teach is finally changing their promo picture (with the teacher from 5 years ago) to a picture of my class. Much like fitness centers use generic zumba pictures.
*performance: this is interesting. Paid performances are far and inbetween, yet unpaid performances might pay off in students who are willing to take classes with you. I do the same when it comes to choosing to participate in a hafla, except that I don't teach workshops so I usually don't get any students out of it. I just love performing.
*perfect promo picture: just like promo headshots, I try to create an extra fancy situation for promo shots. For example, I have more students come in during a trial class (so in the shot, I teach more then ten people while in reality my classes are 6-7). I prefer to ask the intermediates because their lines and skills are better, and if possible I hand out hipscarfs/veils so things look extra colorful. I like group pictures, but I like to have all types of shots for future use.
*class for fun versus for performing: I don't have students that could go pro right now, though I have students who practice, learn and create choreography on their own. That is two out of the 130 that I taught. Bea, performing is an integral part so I teach it in my classes but I don't expect all of my students to perform.
*outdoor promo pictures: Abbie, I like the stark shots with fitness/fun gear too. Wish I could do that type of shoot as it would work well with working in a fitness environment.
Bea, yoga has a different background, but the outdoors is not a natural environment for yoga either. I agree with you that health and dance can be promoted in a studio and this makes it the logic place to have pictures taken.