PHOTO CREDIT: Above photo by John Rickman Photography, San Jose, California.

It looks completely unnatural when you don't move hair off your face during a performance.

I'm not talking about having a piece of hair drop over an eye or other minor issue. I'm talking about when a mass of hair smears across your face or sticks sideways to your makeup in a glob.

So, when it happens, there is no point in trying to wait until you turn away or find a way to artfully brush it back. Everyone is sitting there looking at that hair and waiting for you to move it off your face. They can feel it stuck to their own faces. Just be relaxed and real and gracefully remove it now! Just reach up. Interrupt an arm from that choreography and move it back naturally.

You can still look graceful and feminine doing something natural that is very feminine, and that is very feminine.

If it happens repeatedly during a choreography, then think about why it is happening and consider doing something about it. Use moves that block it in advance. Change your hair decoration. Change your hair style, or use more product. Nobody wants to change a beloved hairstyle for something like this, but think a minute:

When a photographer captures a beautiful photo of someone with hair across the face, it is while that person is clearly moving, not when standing still with the hair stuck to the makeup and sweat (underlining to everyone looking that this dancer is wearing a ton of paint and sweating).

This is my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Michael Baxter, Santa Clara, California.

• Handling Bloopers. What to do when you make a blooper during a belly dance performance.

• Dancing to Distraction. By Shira. A light-hearted look at things that distract audience attention away from our performances.

Saqra (Seattle, Washington, USA) is a powerful dance artist and a master instructor. Her fluidity, grace, and technical skill is highlighted by her friendly demeanor and clear joy of the dance. She did not inherit the diva gene.

Saqra won titles in Belly Dance USA (Oregon), Belly Dancer of the Year (California), Belly Dancer of the Universe (California), Wiggles of the West (Nevada), and many other competitions. She was voted "Best Kept Secret of 2005" and "Instructor of the Year 2008" by readers of Zaghareet Magazine.

Saqra's journey in this dance form began in 1977 and has led her to study with many of the best dancers in the world, including in America, Canada, Turkey and Egypt. Saqra continues to travel and study both in the USA and abroad and prides herself on proper research for anything she teaches. Folklore, fakelore, and stage creativity: all three are valuable, and Saqra clearly presents for each what they actually are. Saqra is constantly expanding her expertise in the traditional ethnic forms of the dance, the modern stage variants, and the continuing evolving fusion techniques, all these areas combined keep her material fresh and current.

Saqra is widely known as an event promoter, musician, music and instructional video producer, and a registered hypnotherapist in the state of Washington. That is enough stuff to start explaining what she has been doing in belly dance since 1977. Visit her at www.saqra.net

PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Michael Baxter, Santa Clara, California. In the photo, Saqra is holding her Teacher of the Year 2008 Award from Zaghareet Magazine.