Belly dancing is quite popular now in South Africa ... In Johannesburg alone (one of the biggest cities in South Africa) there are so many belly dancing schools.

Unfortunately, most of them aren't very good, although some teachers claim that they took classes in the middle east, it certainly doesn't look like it.

Many dancers who are serious about their dancing go freelance and try to improve their technique. There are a few middle eastern restaurants here but the politics among the dancers is terrible. I prefer to dance in the Greek restaurants - they treat you much better and many of the local Lebanese etc. rather go to the Greek places for a more relaxed atmosphere and they know the dancers there are better. The private Arabian/Lebanese parties are very exciting and they pay well. Some belly dancers throw our name away by dancing at bachelors parties and especially the way some South Africans think it's not such a good idea to be associated with such parties. I even know of one woman who danced at a brothel and she was so bad they fired her.

The South Africans have become very receptive on middle eastern dance and the one place I danced at used to booked so full to see the dance that one had to book at least 2 weeks before the time to get a table. And many restaurant owners are glad to get a good dancer for they know business will be very good then.

"I am a belly dancer from South Africa and I have read some of your Q/A on the net. I myself have a tatoo of a dragon circling around my belly button. Apart from my old teacher, who were a bit misinformed about most things, I really haven't had anybody making comments about my tatoo - in fact - most people (Greeks etc.) find it fascinating. Only for some TV appearances like ads I have to cover it up. Of course it also depends on what the tatoo looks like. I have seen some really ugly ones that had to be covered up.

I actually have read that the middle easten women do henna tatoos and real ones as a symbol for protection. But in the end it's a matter of taste and many people are still very conservative and misinformed about tatoos." Tatiana