Because I was a member of the Perfumes of Araby during these years , I got to witness our snake dancer up close and personal . Nikki Engle gives another insight to snake performance : when to feed your snake . Feed him too close to performance and he just may poop in his basket , something Nikki found out first hand on stage ; she used her kaftan to wipe away the poop and brought out her young Burmese Python for a stellar performance . She learned to keep a small towel in the bottom of the basket in case that ever happened again !
Nikki , 1978
What if you do not feed your snake , to avoid this event ? Your performance must be timed so that your snake is not too hungry ! Going back to the Warner Brothers performance mentioned at the start of this article , a producer of that event and his assistant came to see our dress rehearsal and sat right in front for our run-through . We always do our dress rehearsal as if we are actually performing : with hair , make-up and costuming , running through the show in real time , not stopping to correct a flaw . Unfortunately , the assistant to the producer had a beloved new snuggly puppy and smelled like that delicious animal , a perfect meal for six foot Rajah . As Asia came forward with Rajah , he smelled that puppy and struck out for a meal . He connected with Asia ’ s arm and latched on , not realizing she was not that tasty puppy ! Fortunately we had a snake wrangler Melanie ( also a snake owner ) with our show :
September 2022 � The Belly Dance Chronicles 41