How much money does a belly dancer make?

This answer depends on different factors like on location, venue, event, audience, etc.

Traditionally BellyDancers get tipped by the public because forms part of the Arabian culture and has it's origins in the pharaohnic times, when BellyDancers were living in temples such as Dandara Temple in Qena in Egypt, the public from the towns will come to the temple for healing rituals and will tip the dancers for their work, through history the tipping has become more as a competition between the Arabian families (the one who has more money tips more), for them a BellyDancer is the person that makes the whole family happy in their happiest day of their life when is a wedding, and in a restaurant is because they appreciate the nice performance of the respectful dancer if she is traditional (when the movements are respectful when near the tables), receiving tips shouldn't be something to feel ashamed of, at the contrary, is how the Arabian costumers appreciate your performance, it's part of their tradition.

Because of this, VIP Arabian stages pay the minimum fee in exchange of the dancer to keep the 100% of her tips, if she is performing with a CD.

Belly dancers when get tips & perform with live music traditionally share the tip 50% for dancer, 50% for orchestra .

Some restaurants owners get jealous and try to get a part of this commission, when this happens, the owner of the restaurant gets 30%, the dancer gets 40%, and the orchestra 30%, this is not traditional and if this happens to you, then be sure that the place where you are performing will not care how good quality BellyDancer you are, the place owner will only care how good tipper you are, then you will know as soon you don't get enough tips you are out of the job and he will replace you with a better tipper (it's sad but happens, so avoid working with restaurant owners like that kind), due to this aceptance from some belly dancers have collaborate with the destruction of the quality of the belly dance.

The customers that give more tips to belly dancers in the western world are Arabians but not all Arabians traditionally the ones that give the most in tips are from Arabia Saudi, Emirates, Turkish, Egyptians, Syrian, Iraqis, and Lebanese.

Belly dancers perform in many different Arabian restaurants from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Irak, Iran, Morocco, India, Argelia, Jordan, Tunisian,..in Europe, so a BellyDancer has wider places to perform than for example a classical ballet dancer.

Is also important to consider where to perform, a respectful owner to the dancer will not mind the age she has, what he will only mind is that she performs respectfully to costumers in the traditional way.

Describing what a belly dancer should charge depends on different factors:

• if she's performing in a high class Arabian nightclub where Arabian families come for dinner and with a wedding celebration easily a belly dancer can make that night $100 or more just in tips, depending on how many people are tipping logically.

• If performs in a wedding of a private Vila of an Arabian family normally gets between $1,000 to $10,000 USD per event done in Europe.

• If instead she performs in an Egyptian wedding in Egypt she only gets up to $1,000, and in a nightclub in Egypt up to $100 dollar.

• If she performs for Western public in a restaurant, for example in Spain, she gets between $25 to $100 per show, from the house plus tips, but not much.

• If she performs in a western event like for a town festival she gets between $300 to $1,000.

• Some restaurants where belly dancers will get $100 per show, now they will get $25, pulling down the price four times lower, creating the refuse of high quality belly dancers who know the tradition, in consequence these restaurants will only contract the low quality belly dancers, so public ends up watching shows where belly dancers look all of them as photocopies of each other, instead of dancing as the old times when BellyDancers were seen as super stars.

• A belly dancer who is professional when comes to teach, has to pay for the government taxes, to arrive at her level and experience had to pay a lot of money for her training, so when she teaches, she should get paid accordingly, normally gets between $50 to $100 per hour teaching either regular weekly group or a Private student.

• if she is a teacher in a festival, then from $150 to $250 per hour.

Written by Amora Shams which is in the photo below performing in the Turkish restaurant in London (Efes II)