When I was younger my hobbies cost next to nothing. A sticker collection, a coin collection, attempting to knit with whatever wool my mom had lying around, attempting to sew with whatever material my mother had lying around, teaching myself the recorder with several recorders and books that my parents had ... yes, my ballet and music classes cost my parents a pretty penny, but overall it wasn't too bad.
Fast forward to today where an average quality ball of yarn costs R30 - R40, material cost a fortune by the metre and then there's the gym fees, dance classes, maybe a language class ... you get the gist.
Melanie and I have had it particularly bad with money this year. At the end of last year we decided to enrol for the Purple Belly Bus happening in September. The price includes accommodation, food and 28hrs of dancing, mentoring and education. Totally a good deal! But we still had to magic the money from somewhere. Then there's TODF! That's accommodation, travel, food and workshops. Our quaint little studio doesn't make much, so we brainstormed ideas on how to fund raise.
We decided to do a event a month. Not all bellydance mind you. On our list was trivia, ladies' tea, casino night, singalong for kids, and others. First we had trivia night.
We had only 2 teams arrive. We made a whopping R200.
Then we had our ladies' tea. I did a demo on makeup, we had a lady from Tupperware and several ladies from Shzen there as well. We made R195.
Then came our money maker. Casino Night.
We tried to team up with a local hockey club to share the costs and bring in as many people as we could. We had less than a quarter of the people arrive and we made ... nothing. In fact I believe the spread sheet showed a -R7 value.
It was at this point I said, "I give up". Having taken no salary from the studio this year and slaving away for these poorly attended events, I had had enough. Neither Mel or myself made a cent this year and have luckily managed to pay off our PBB fees and our accommodation for TODF. But working our shimmy-makers off for so little return is just not worth it.
So why didn't our efforts pay off?
It's quite simple. We live in a little city where everyone complains about having nothing to do and when you give them something to do, they complain about how much it costs. Unless it's alcohol related, in which case they will spend their whole salary in one shot. We have the same problem with performing and classes. We get a lot of enquiries and send out quotes only to never hear from them again. I'm sure this happens all over the world but it's particularly bad in Port Elizabeth. I hear the same stories from people in various genre's of performance.
"Do it for exposure".
"I want a half hour show for R150" (yes, we actually got that once).
Basically, belly dance takes more money than it makes. There is no surviving on it alone (unless you are very famous and get to make dvds and travel the world giving workshops, but even then it's a pauper's life). I know many dancers branch out into yoga, pilates and zumba to make ends meet. I'm not so lucky. Being a stay at home mom during the day and a belly dancer at night (or whatever time of the day the gig or class is) means scraping the last few pennies out from the bottom of the couch pillows to pay for that sequins you need or the workshop you want to do. I don't have the money or time to qualify in another exercise form to pay for my belly dance needs (because you always NEED another costume). As it is, I write these posts at 9pm for the next day as that is the only time I have to do so.
How do you pay for your belly dancing?