Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
About This Web Site

Q: Which pages of this site get the greatest number of hits?

A: That is answered on my Behind The Screens page.

Q: There's a lot of information on this site. Where did you find the time to do all of this?

A: In summer, 1997, I left a job in the high-tech industry that I had been at for a very long time. I was badly burned out and desperately needed some time off before starting a new job, so I gave myself a 7-month sabbatical. I decided to use that time to update my technology skills by learning how to do a web site. I selected Oriental dance as the topic for my site because it's an activity I have enjoyed for many years.

Q: Can you help me find the lyrics to the song ____?

A: Have you looked at the book reviews for books that have translated lyrics for Middle Eastern songs? Have you looked at the other web sites I've linked to which offer song translations? Have you carefully looked at my lyrics menu, perhaps trying alternate song titles or spellings? If you've done all those things, and still not found the translation for the song you want, then I'm afraid I can't help you. You see, I don't speak Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, or Hebrew myself. I have to rely on other people who speak those languages to share translations that they have with me. Often, my translations are given to me by other dancers who have asked a friend of theirs to translate the song for them. So I don't have any control over which songs come my way.

Q: How can I find out when new things are added to this web site?

A: There are several ways. Pick the ones that work best for you:

• Use the Search page to search for pages that have been added or changed within the last "n" days. (You get to specify how many days "n" represents.)
• Use the Table Of Contents page, and look for which items have the or icon in front of them.
• At the bottom of each major menu, look for a section called "Recent Changes To This Menu." Read the list that itemizes which selections on that menu have been added or changed recently, along with the date each change occurred.
• Sign up for my mailing list. About once every 4-6 weeks, I send e-mail to everyone on my mailing list highlighting what has changed recently on my web site.

Q: Do you publish articles written by other people on this site?

A: Yes! I welcome contributions by other people in the following areas:

• Any advice, tips, how-to's under the "Advice" menu, including costuming information
• Artwork, poetry, opinion essays under the "Poetry & Art" menu
• Humor, puzzles, and cartoons under the "Fun & Frolic" menu
• Insights into Middle Eastern culture, including song translations

I do not accept reviews written by other people of videos, books, music, seminars, shows, or festivals. That's because I've made a policy decision that all reviews will be written only by me.

I do accept material that has previously been published elsewhere, such as belly dance magazines provided that you retained the right to resubmit your material to other places. If your contribution has appeared elsewhere, please tell me the name of the publication that printed it and the date of the issue when it appeared.

Q: What are the copyright terms regarding material that you accept for publication on your web site?

A: I request from you the right to present your work on The Art Of Middle Eastern Dance web site for an ongoing, open-ended period of time. I will assume that I have the right to keep your material on my site until such time as you explicitly ask me to remove it. If my web site should change its URL, I will continue to display your contribution as long as the fundamental focus of the site remains Oriental dance -- but I will attempt to notify you via e-mail of such changes so you can evaluate whether they impact your willingness to continue having your creation appear on my site. You retain all other rights to your work.

A practical application of these proposed copyright terms: If I receive inquiries from people who would like to publish your poem, artwork, fiction, cartoons, or other work in another medium, or read/display it at an event, or otherwise use it, of course I will tell them they need to contact you for such permission. Typically, this means they will be attempting to contact you via the electronic mail address that you provided me to include with your biographical information on the page with your material. So, if your e-mail address changes, please notify me of either your new e-mail address or an alternate way to contact you so that other people who would like to showcase your work have the means to reach you to request permission!

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Q: May I link to your web site?

A: Yes, you may. You don't need to ask me for my permission first. But if you'd like to send me an e-mail telling me you've linked to me, then I'll be happy to link to you in return.

Q: Do you offer graphical buttons to use for implementing the links?

A: Yes, I have a selection of about 15 buttons to choose from. First take a look at my Behind The Screens page to see a couple of the most popular buttons. If none of those seem right for your needs, you'll find a link there that will take you to an entire page of additional buttons to choose from.

Q: How do I get you to link to my web site?

A: First, put a link on your own web site that points to www.shira.net and then send me email suggesting that we exchange links. I will visit your site. Once I have an idea of what it's like, and once I've found the place where you link to mine, then I'll add you to the appropriate category of my Links page. If you need help figuring out how to link to my site, see my Behind The Screens page.

Please note that I rarely link another dancer's site unless they also link to me. After all, it seems only fair that if you're asking me to promote your site, then you should be willing to promote mine in return!

Q: Do you ever refuse to link to anybody?

A: Yes, it happens, but not very often. I might decline to link to your site if one of the following applies:

• You haven't linked to my site. (This is the most common reason I say no. But once you've put a link in place, just let me know it's there and then I'll link to you.)
• Your site is obviously not finished yet. I prefer not to link to sites that have lots of empty promises: i.e., choices that either don't go anywhere, or go to "Under Construction" screens. If I find when I visit your online home that you don't yet have the panes of glass in your windows or the electricity isn't working yet, I'll decline to link to you until it looks a little more finished. (I don't say no for this reason very often. If I say it to you, just drop me a line once you have everything operational and I'll be happy to link to you then.)
• Your site contains, in my own personal opinion, content that I prefer not to be associated with. I respect your right to say whatever you want to say, but I'd rather not link to sites that contain hate speech, hard-core pornography, or other content that I fiercely oppose. (I've never declined a site for this reason, but I reserve the right to do so.)
• You've been unbelievably nasty, rude, unethical, and/or obnoxious to me in my past dealings with you. (Since I first started my site in 1997, only twice have I refused to link to someone for this reason.)

Q: I'm moving my site to a new online home, and the address will change. How should I let you know?

A: Send me e-mail telling me what the old address was, and what the correct new address is. If you're also listed in my directory of Find Teachers and Performers, you'll also need to look for the "Update Your Entry" form and use that to ask me to update your site's address in the directory, too.

Q: Why do some listings have stars like this?

A: In the section of the Links page titled "Individual Dancers & Troupes", I've put stars in front of selected entries. An entry with a star means that when I visited the site I found at least one article on the web site that I found to be entertaining, educational, or inspirational, and sometimes even more than one! This article might have been historical information about the dance, tips on dancing, reviews of music and videos, a poem, humor, etc. Sometimes people surf the web looking for merchandise or local teachers/performers. There are hundreds of web sites providing information about the classes, performances, and merchandise that people are offering. But sometimes web users are looking for interesting articles about belly dancing. The purpose of the star is to help these users quickly identify which web sites may have such articles.

Q: What if my web site has one or more articles but it appears on the Links page without a star?

A: Maybe you added the article after I originally visited your web site. Or maybe I missed it when I visited. In any event, if you have a full-length article (not just a paragraph or two) that you feel can pass my test of "entertaining, educational, or inspirational", please drop me an e-mail with the following information: 1) Your name & e-mail address; 2) The address of your web site; 3) Where on your web site I can find your link to www.shira.net; and 4) Where on your web site I can find your article(s).

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Q: How do you decide which products to review?

A: It varies. Sometimes I review items that already exist in my own personal collection. Sometimes a friend loans me a product that she wants me to review. Sometimes the publisher of the item sends me a review copy.

Q: What if I have created a book, music, or video that I would like you to review?

A: You may send me a review copy if you wish. Here are the guidelines for sending me review copies:

• Send me a private e-mail indicating that you have a product you'd like me to review. Include a little information about the product. I'll respond with information on how to proceed.
• Please note that I usually don't return review copies. If you expect your item to be returned, please include appropriate packaging and postage for me to use in returning it.
• Please understand that sending me a copy of an item does not guarantee a favorable review. Even if I like the overall product, I still may point out specific areas where I may have felt it was weak or could have used improvement. I feel that in order for my reviews to be credible, I must identify both what I liked and what I didn't like.
• I usually review products in the order received. So, if I already have 3 other books, videos, or music collections sent to me by other people, I'll review theirs before I get to yours. The exception is that if you send me more than one item (for example, if you send me 3 videos), I'll review one when your turn comes up in the queue, then I'll look at items received from other people before I come back to look at another of yours. The reason for this is to prevent my site from becoming too weighted to a particular artist's products.

Q: How long can I expect to wait before your review of my product appears?

A: It depends partly on the product. I review music by listening to it over and over and over in my car over the course of several weeks, taking notes as I do. For reviewing books, of course, I need to read them, which may take a few weeks depending on how much time I have to curl up with a book and how long it is. As for videos, I try to watch each one 2 or 3 times before publishing the review, and I have to find time to do this when my husband is not around the house. That's because he doesn't particularly like belly dance videos and prefers that I spend my time with him doing something together we both enjoy when he's around. All of this is a long way of saying that you should allow a few months for me to complete a review after I've received the item.

Q: What criteria do you apply in your reviews?

A: I look at several things when I review an item. I've written entire articles to explain my instructional video review format and my music review format. For full details, you'll want to read those articles, but here is a summary:

• How polished and professional is it?
• Is it well organized or scattered?
• How valuable and accurate is the content?
• Which level of dancer is the content suitable for?
• For videos, does the lighting and camera work make it easy to see the instruction or performance? Is it too dark? Does the camera focus on the right things? Do the changes in camera angles keep it interesting to watch but without being distracting?
• For both videos and music, is the sound quality clear and easy to hear?
• Would a buyer get his/her money's worth?

Q: Do you publish reviews written by other people?

A: No. I've made a policy decision that I will publish on my web site only reviews that I myself have written. Here's why:

• In the belly dance magazines, I've seen many a glowing review or award conferred where I knew, due to my insider knowledge of the scene, that the reviewer/conferrer was a personal friend of the product creator merely writing a glowing review to do a friend a favor. Not all reviews or awards are truly objective evaluations of the product. This existing relationship is rarely disclosed in such reviews, so the people reading them have no idea that the review is probably not objective. If I write the review myself, then of course I know what my prior history is with the product creator, and I will fully disclose any relationship I may have with that person. You, as my reader, can look at the disclosure and draw your own conclusions about whether my relationship with the creator may have influenced what I wrote about the product.
• If you read enough reviews by the same person, and compare those to what you thought of a given video, music CD, or book, then you'll start to see a pattern. Maybe you'll find that you usually agree with me, or maybe you'll find that you almost always disagree with me. Either way, since the reviews on my site will consistently feature my own opinion, you'll soon be able to decide what role my reviews may or may not play in your buying decisions.
• Sometimes, even though a reviewer is not affiliated with a dancer, s/he may base an opinion on criteria that I disagree with. For example, I've seen some reviewers say nasty things about a video just because they thought the dancer featured on it was too thin and they resent Western culture's idiotic emphasis on thinness -- they don't even consider that maybe the dancer is thin due to medical problems. Or they might claim that an entire instructional video is bad just because they don't care for the dancer's performance skills in a brief 10-minute demonstration at the end -- in contrast, I might complain about the performance but still praise the instructional section if I think it was well-organized, appropriate content, and well-explained. Another example: I really disliked the frequent camera angle changes on the video "Deer Of Paradise", but someone else praised it because she found it added drama.

Q: Why don't your reviews mention the awards that certain products have won?

A: For the same reason I don't publish reviews written by other people. I made a decision that the reviews published on my web site will reflect only my own opinion. Awards reflect other people's opinions and therefore don't qualify for mention in my reviews.

Q: Why don't you review seminars, workshops, festivals, and shows?

A: Because I think it's a waste of time to review one-time events. Let's say you read a review in which I praised a show. What good does that do you? That show will never occur again, so you won't have an opportunity to go see it even if you want to. I prefer to focus my limited time on reviewing products because those will remain available in the marketplace for some period of time and you can use my review as a decision-making tool in deciding whether or not to buy it.

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Q: How do I find a teacher in my community?

A: Please see my article titled Learning To Belly Dance: Where To Find Instruction.

Q: What if I can't find a teacher in my community?

A: Please see my article titled What If You Can't Find A Local Teacher, Or The One You Found Is Barely More Than A Beginner? 

Q: What books, music, and videos do you recommend?

A: Please see my Reviews menu for my reviews of books, music, and videos. Please note that I do not recommend everything that appears on that menu! I review both things I like and things I don't like. So, read the review carefully and compare how that item scores against how I've scored similar items that appear on the same menu.

Q: I'm really overweight. Am I too fat to dance?

A: That question is answered in the Dear Shira section of my Advice/How-To menu.

Q: I'm ___ years old. Am I too old to dance?

A: That question is answered in the Dear Shira section of my Advice/How-To menu.

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This seems to generate a lot of questions! Perhaps yours appears here too!

• How many people are listed in the Find Teachers & Performers Directory?
• How do I get listed in the Teacher & Performer Directory?
• How do I update my directory entry?
• Why doesn't my web site appear in my entry?
• I submitted my entry, but it's not online yet. Why not?
• How do I get listed in more than one state or country?
• Why were my comments cut short?
• What is considered acceptable for comments?
• Why weren't the specialties I requested added?

Q: How many people are listed in the Find Teachers & Performers Directory?

A: More than 575, as of September 1, 2000. I get about 20 new requests per month, plus another 20 requests for changes to existing entries.

Q: How do I get listed in the Teacher & Performer Directory?

A: Complete the online form for that purpose. Then click on the "Submit Entry" button at the bottom of the page the form appears on.

Q: I'm already listed in the Teacher & Performer Directory, but the information is out of date. How do I get it changed?

A: Fill out the Update An Existing Entry form. Then click on the "Submit Changes" button below the form.

Q: I provided my web site information when I submitted my request to be added to the directory, but my entry doesn't include my web site. Why not?

A: Chances are, I looked at your site and didn't see anywhere on it that links to mine at www.shira.net. I include web sites in directory entries only when they already have a link pointing to mine. My rationale: if you want me to help promote you, surely you don't mind giving me a little promotion in return?

Now, let's say you're willing to link to my site, but just haven't found time to do it yet. In that case, I'll be happy to add your link to your directory entry in the future. Here's how: After you have added my link to your site, use the Update An Existing Entry form to ask me to add your web site to your entry and I'll take care of it.

Do you need help figuring out how to put a link on your site that points to mine? I have instructions at http://www.shira.net/behind.htm#Link. And if you like to use graphics for your links, I have several link buttons and banners for my site to choose from.

As a bonus, once you have linked to me, I'll also put a link to your site on my Links page, which averages 40 visitors per DAY. That means I'll list your link in two places on my site: once on the Links page, and once with your directory entry.

Q: I submitted my entry several weeks ago. Why doesn't it appear online yet?

A: Please allow up to 60 days for your entry to appear. Sometimes I get pretty far behind on my e-mail and it can take me a while to catch up, especially if I spend a week or so out of town on either personal or business travel. If you're certain it has been more than 60 days since you completed the "add" form and your entry still hasn't appeared, maybe there was a problem with your submission. Here are typical problems that could prevent your site from being listed:

• You Didn't Use The Form. Instead of filling out the form, you sent me a plain old e-mail with your information. I accept only entries that were submitted using the form, because the form organizes all the information into my format, enabling me to just copy and paste it into the directory. That saves me time. I get so many submissions for the directory, I'm afraid I don't have time to reformat ones that don't use my form.
• You Didn't Click The Button. At the time you filled out the form, you failed to click on the "Submit Entry" button at the bottom of the online form. If you don't click on the button, your information doesn't get sent to me.
• Bad Or Missing E-Mail Address. The e-mail address you gave me for you doesn't work. If I send you a confirmation and it gets returned to me as undeliverable, I delete your entry from the directory. Even if you don't want your e-mail address listed in the directory, you still need to tell me what it is so I can contact you if I have a question about your entry.
• You Didn't Use Mixed Case. You entered your information either entirely in upper case or entirely in lower case. I REFUSE TO ACCEPT ENTRIES ENTIRELY IN UPPER CASE LIKE THIS. i also reject entries that are entirely in lower case like this. Quite frankly, I don't have time to fix your capitalization problems. Use upper case where upper case should be used, and use lower case where lower case should be used.
• You're Not A Belly Dance Teacher Or Performer. The purpose of the directory is to help teachers and students find each other, or to help performers and prospective employers find each other. Period. I don't list restaurants that hire dancers, vendors (unless they also dance), musicians (unless they also dance) etc.
• You Didn't Provide Information On How To Contact You. I need at least either a valid e-mail address, a telephone number, or a postal mailing address. You can give me more than one of those if you want to. If you don't give me any of those, then your directory entry is worthless because it doesn't provide a way for people to contact you. What good is it for me to tell people that you exist if you don't provide information on how they can reach you?

Q: How do I get listed in more than one state or country?

A: My policy is to list an individual on only one state or country, even if you live near the border of another. You have to choose which one you want to be listed in. If you live very, very close to the border, tell me which one you live close to and I'll put a sentence under it suggesting that people in that location also look at your state/country for additional listings.

Q: Why isn't there a place to enter comments?

A: I used to allow comments, but I eliminated that section of directory entries. My reason was that the comments area was just too much upkeep. One problem was that many people didn't bother to read my rules about what types of information were not allowed, such as date/time/place of classes or performances. They would ask me to stick this stuff in their entry, causing me extra work to send them replies explaining that no, this stuff wasn't eligible to be included because I didn't have time to keep it up to date. Other people complained because I placed a limit on the length of comments allowed and they thought I should make an exception to let them say everything they wanted to say. I got tired of dealing with all the requests for exceptions, and the frequent requests to change stuff. It was too much work, and because it's a free service, I don't get anything in return for all the time I put into it.

Another reason I discontinued comments is the fact that the more information I allowed in them, the more bandwidth it took to display a page to a visitor, which means that the more money I had to pay to my web hosting company for my web site. I decided to quit paying a lot of money to display other people's advertising copy. It also made the pages slower to load for people visiting my site.

People who want to talk about their philosophy, post advertising copy, provide schedules in when and where they teach/perform, etc. are welcome to put up their own web sites and post all that information there. I can't afford the workload of hosting all that in my directory.

Q: You didn't add all the specialties I asked for, and you changed the wording on others. Why?

A: To make it easier for people using the directory to compare apples to apples when considering which teachers cover the dance variations they want to study, I use standardized terminology for specialties. That way, people who use the directory won't be bewildered by whether or not terms like "Egyptian style" versus "raqs sharqi" versus "Egyptian Oriental" are all different forms or what.

Here is the standard list of specialties that I accept in the directory:

• Raqs Sharqi. Refers to Egyptian-style belly dance. ("Raqs sharqi" is the Arabic name for this dance form.) Not sure what the difference is between Egyptian style and other styles? Read Styles Of Belly Dance In The United States for more information. Note that my meaning of the term raqs sharqi does not carry all the connotations of the Raqs Sharqi Society in England and parts of Europe inspired by Soraya Hilal. I use the term to refer to the dance done by Egyptian performers in Egyptian nightclubs.
• Ethnic/Historical. Applies to dancers who perform research and seek to re-create as accurately as possible the specific music, garb, and dance of a particular geographic region at a particular point in time.
• Westernized Nightclub. For dancers who embrace the glittery beads-and-sequins look but aren't seeking to specifically imitate the dance style of a particular Middle Eastern country or region. People in the U.S. sometimes call this "cabaret", but the correct term is "Oriental".
• Tribal. Refers to dancers who embrace the "tribal" style that originated in California and eventually spread to Europe, Canada, Australia, and other parts of the world. Whether a dancer's style is American Tribal Style group improvisation or one of the other branches of the Tribal tree, I use the term Tribal to include them all. For more details about what this style is like, please read Styles Of Belly Dance In The United States.
• Veil. For dancers who specialize in performing with one or more veils. This could be either the Egyptian-style veil entrance that Samia Gamal originally pioneered, or it could be the Westernized veil work that arose in the U.S. and eventually spread worldwide. It also encompasses double veil, dance of the 7 veils, and other variations.
• Balancing. This encompasses all variations that involve balancing an object on a body part. Therefore, it includes sword, candle, tray, basket, and anything else you can think of to balance somewhere on your body.
• Ethno-Fusion. This would apply if you combine belly dancing with flamenco, modern dance, jazz, gymnastics, or anything else.
• Turkish. For dancers who study and perform Turkish-style Oryantal.
• Finger Cymbals. If you don't know what this refers to, it probably doesn't apply to you!
• Snake. Applies to dancers who perform with a snake.
• Cane. Refers to the folkloric Egyptian raqs al assaya, which is dancing with a cane.
• Shamadan. If you don't know what this refers to, it probably doesn't apply to you!

If you have a totally unique specialty that absolutely cannot be described by one of the above options, I'll consider adding it. But for the most part, I expect entries to adhere to the terms described above.

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Q: May I use one of your articles for a paper I'm writing?

A: It depends on what you mean by "use". You may not just put your name on my article and turn it in. Your teacher expects you to do your own research and write your own paper, not just copy what I said, and I agree with your teacher. However, if you want to quote one or two sentences from one of my articles, PLUS quote other articles or books written by other people, you may do that. I expect you to identify my web site as the source of your information.

Q: I need a bibliography, will you please give me one?

A: Your teacher expects you to do your own research and write your own bibliography. When I was a student, I had to learn these skills, and I agree with your teacher that you should learn how to think for yourself. That's the whole point of your class!

Q: May I use a photo or a piece of artwork from this web site?

A: I normally don't give people permission to use my photos or artwork in their class projects. If you feel that nothing else but my pictures will meet your needs, you may send me email and explain why you need this. I'll consider your request.

Q: May I put one of your articles or photos on a web site I'm building for a class project?

A: I don't allow my articles to be placed on other people's web sites. But you may link to my web site if you wish.

Q: May I please quote from one of your articles in a paper I'm writing?

A: You may, but you must use appropriate techniques (such as footnotes) for identifying my words as being a quote, and you must identify me as your source. Ask your teacher what techniques are appropriate for identifying my text as a quote.

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