The Gilded Serpent presents...
Taka

I started belly dancing about 1973. In late fall of 1973, I was in the audience at the Aitos Folkdance Taverna in Berkeley and saw Najia Marlyz dance. That did it; I started lessons at Najia's Dancing Girl Studio (located on Solano Avenue in Albany, California)!  By the fall of 1974, I was a working dancer at the Casablanca Restaurant in Berkeley. Before that, I had only danced in Najia's student nights at the Casbah Cabaret and the Bagdad. I had learned to drum and I would sit in on musical sets at the Casablanca.

Next, I danced at the Plaka Taverna. It was just off Broadway in North beach. Plaka was a place that was popular with tourists and the Greek sailors. The waiters there cheated on the bills; they even tried it on me once! I made a lot in tips but only $10 in actual pay. When the Greek ships were in port, I made especially good tips. I danced two shows per night and made about $50 to $100, which I considered good money at that time. The Greek sailors were respectful to me; of course, that was because their Greek captain was there too!  As a group, Greeks treated me very well as if I were their sister. (Unfortunately, I would have to admit that the Arabs did not really treat me that same way.) However, I arrived at the Plaka one night, and it had a sign, saying "Closed". They hadn't even bothered to call me!

So, next, I started to work at the Greek Taverna, but the owner was dishonest to me. I grabbed him by his collar and told him that if he ever did that again, he would have a "lot of trouble". Of course, I meant it in the psychic mode; I don't know how he thought I meant it though. I can look quite scary at times! I was dancing at the Greek Taverna when it closed down also.

I danced at the Bagdad only as a substitute dancer, but I did dance as a regular at the Casbah Cabaret. I do not remember how long my run was there. The musicians always played beautiful music for me because they knew that I had trained as a musician so that we could communicate. I got a dance job from a guest of the Bagdad. He was an Armenian, and his party was for an Armenian New Year's Eve party in Reno, Nevada. First, he flew me to Reno to check out the gig; then, he sent Najia (my duena) and me airline tickets to Reno with all of our expenses paid. I remember that I only danced one set with taped music and everybody was happy.

Haroun

Getting back to my dancing job at the Casbah.
Fadil Shahin was always fair and kind to me. Other dancers were good to me, too, although we didn't have much in common. The Casbah bartender, Haroun, was always kind, generous, and safe! When he found gigs for me, he always arranged for the taxicabs, and we shared the fees. Haroun never misguided me, and since there were many seedy parties at that time, that is saying something! The Doorman was George. He had a reputation that he was able to procure all sorts of things for people for a price, like limos and whatever. However, I felt that I could not trust him. A really nice girl and beautiful dancer, Sim Sim, worked at the Baghdad at that same time and was friendly to Najia and me. She taught us beading and how to construct a sturdy dance bra and belt set. She was what we called then "economical in her dance" and her costumes set the highest standard at that time. Don't forget, though, that whole Jamila and Bal Anat camp in black Assiute cloth and tattoos was going on at that time..

I remember Khadija and her extensive tattoos. She did and incredible water thing with her fingers! At the Casbah, Sharlyn had the best spins; She could spin around the edge of the entire stage with high energy and never made a misstep. Prince M. [editor's note: Prince M., a Saudi, is deceased now.] always sat at the first barstool. If anyone accidentally sat there, that person was politely asked to move. Both clubs were near each other and were pretty.. umm.well, it was Broadway and a rough district. It was a sleazy area: it featured topless dance, and topless massage.  It was seedy in general. All of the Greek clubs had moved away by then. Sometimes the Arabs (from I don't know which Arabic country) would have too much to drink because they were not used to controlling alcoholic beverages. Once, I left the stage and hid out because one fellow was threatening. The regulars who came there were well behaved.

Fadil was paying only $10 or $15 to his dancers by then. I heard it had started out to be $65 per night.

Dancers would get desperate and push the dollars into their underwear. I learned to pick up paper money with my toes!  Everyone saw me do it; it was no secret. I made my hand go like a snake and my toes would hand the money to my fingers. Dancers were on the so-called "honor system" with their required sharing of tips. Sometimes sleazy American tourists would wave a $100 bill in the air and say, "You can have it if you come back later!".However, they would switch it surreptitiously to a one-dollar bill.

Oh, I remember that at the Bagdad the dancers were required to go onstage between sets because they usually only had two musicians.

Mara was dancing at the Casbah about the same time I was. She was a graphic artist and painted some wonderful illustrations of dancers for my column in "The Bellydancer Magazine". Didn't she also do an oil painting bust of you, Najia, with the cat, Bast, as an illustration for an edition of Cleopatra? [Yes, she did, it had evil green eyes, instead of brown like my own.-Najia] From Najia who was her teacher, Mara had learned how to turn six quarters individually into patterns using only her abdominal muscles. She was quite famous for that-along with her sensual dancing. Do you remember, Najia; was it quarters or silver dollars? [Hers were quarters. I turned only five silver Egyptian coins, which were larger and fit my muscle configuration as my special contribution to the fine art of dance- though that hardly made our presentations "authentic."-Najia]

As a dancer, I was Taka, but nobody knew I was also the mysterious Princess Astra who wrote an astrological column for belly dancers in "The Bellydancer Magazine". Do you remember it? We had a publicity photo of me reclining, wearing real Persian chardor  along with high-heeled shoes! You can use that photo if you can find it. All you could see in the photo was my general shape. Nobody knew who Princess Astra was, and nobody had ever seen her dance. Also, Princess Astra never appeared in public. We had a formula for writing the column: tips on costume design and dance style based on each month's astrological charts. I was designing and selling beaded costumes at the time.

At that same time, (about the mid-1970s) I corresponded with a prisoner who was in a penitentiary in Ohio or somewhere in the mid-west of the U.S. We were "pen-pals". He sent me poems he had written and observations about his life for a couple of years. No, he wasn't on death row; it was just something minor! He was writing to "Princess Astra" who seemed to him to embody all things beautiful and sensual.

Now that I am thinking about it again, I am just so thankful that I came through those times relatively unscathed, considering the drugs and alcohol that were happening back then. I received good treatment from most people. Nonetheless, I looked out for myself; I carried a pair of flat shoes for leaving the clubs at night so that I could run quickly if I needed to get off the dark streets.

Regarding our dressing rooms in the clubs:
They were usually very small and all three dancers would be in there at once, dressing and applying their make-up. Well, the women's restroom was even worse.

Fadil had many student nights and always asked visitor dancers on stage to dance to the live music for five minutes. He always knew everything that went on in his club. He had elaborate head and eye gestures with the bartender to communicate from stage.