Aziza Sa'id's FAQ - Dancers in TV Series F-J

Movie Title	Dancer	Description
Fame - "Class Act"	Laurie Rose (aka Mesmera)	[TV Series] (1982) playing Belly Dancer (episode # 2.4)
Fantastica Italiana	Antonella	Yesterday at the TV program Fantastica Italiana there danced a beautiful Italian dancer I had never heard about. 45yo, the seductive sultry black-haired Antonella, from La Spezia, danced for the Nation. She has been living in Turkey for 7 years. -- Tanja, in Italy
Fantasy Island	Phyllis Davis, Georgia Engel	"I caught Phyllis Davis of TV show ("Vegas" and "Love American Style") and B-movie ("Sweet Sugar") fame belly dancing on a "Fantasy Island" rerun yesterday. Her fantasy was to discover the true story behind Mata Hari, so it began by her popping up at a restaurant dressed in a cabaret costume, being recognized as Mata Hari, and having to dance for a room full of expectant fans. She did some hip rolls, but mostly her performance looked as if she were trying to prove it only takes one to tango." --William Another episode of "Fantasy Island" featuring already-has-beens Arte Johnson and Georgia Engel (remember them?) are on the Island, both of whom fulfilling their wishes to be a "Sheik" and a "Harem Girl" respectively. Weird episode on a weird series. - Paul B
Fashion Emergency	Europa	I saw the Fashion Emergency show. The dancer's name was Europa. She was getting a new look as she is now selling her own line of jewelry and had a meeting with the shop Harai (excuse the spelling!). Her jewelry was wonderful and I believe may be sold under the name "Shocking Moon". They showed some clips of her dancing in a pretty dark coloured costume with veil. I thought the man from Fashion Emergency (his name escapes me) who was helping her put together her look was awful. At one point he said with a condescending smirk that Europa was now entering a more "legitimate" line of work!!!! . -- Shelby
Flash Gordon
Footlight Parade		Notable for James Cagney saying, "What's with the Oriental number?" and not using the b-word! - Gwyn
Galaxy Ripple Chocolate		Just spotted a brief flash of a dancer in an advert on Channel 4 (UK) last night - the advert's for Galaxy Ripple chocolate, and features lots of bodies doing ripple-y things, including a dancer's lovely tummy and hips, framed by a silvery costume with lots of fringing. I've only seen the advert once and it's a couple of very quick shots of the dancer. I wonder who she is. -- Fiona, in Oxford, England
Get Smart! - "Mary Jack Armstrong"	Tania Lemani	the dancer was also Tanya Limani, doing a version of the same dance she performed on Star Trek
Get Smart! - "Die, Spy!"	Barbara Feldon	(March 1966) "... an episode of Get Smart! where Our Hero and a Cosby impersonator were hunting for Kubitschek and his minions of ACB, the third spy network. There was not much actual dancing. In one plot twist Max was called to the Club Tonight by their dancer, Tamara, as Kubitschek had been threatening her partner, Tahday, and Tamara was their only hope of spotting the fiend. This exchange ensued: Kaos Man: She's going to go into a Dance of the Seven Veils. If she takes off one veil, it means Kubitschek is at table 1. If she takes off two veils, he's at table 2, and so on. Smart: What if he's at table 7? Kaos Man: Then the cops come in and raid the joint. However, she was shot before being able to finger him, leaving Smart to announce 'There's no Tamara.'" --Will Linden
Get Smart! - "Survival of the Fattest"	Tania Lemani	Tania Lemani, playing "Carla"
Gideon, Hallmark Hall of Fame	Little Egypt (Lorraine Shalhoub)	Little Egypt as Orpah
Gilligan's Island	Tina Louise	3 shows on which Tina Louise, ahem, danced. Ms. Louise performed a rather ragged hula on one episode. The reason? She thought the dance would snap the professor out of the trance he'd been put into (don't ask...) The second was more of a straightforward bellydance, and she was actually not too bad. The reason? A cockamamie stall to prevent Gilligan from being burned to death. (Again, don't ask.) The third... During a dream sequence, the skipper imagines he's the sultan of a harem consisting of Ginger (good), MaryAnn (better) and...Mrs. Howell? (Paging Dr. Freud...) With a cliched clap of the skipper's hands, Ginger "dances", MaryAnn sort of slinks around, and Mrs. Howell looks like she's having a seizure.- Paul B
Going Places - "Turkey"		PBS Travel Show on going to Turkey called "Going Places"
Good Day L.A.	Veena and Neena Bidasha
Growing Pains
Hangin' With Mr. Cooper	Veena and Neena Bidasha
Happy Days		When I watched a reunion show of theirs on TV, they showed clips of an episode where Marion apparently felt Howard wasn't paying enough attention to her, so she decided to try bellydancing. -- Sherezzah
Hard Copy		(U.S. TV series) featured the Barbi Twins belly dancing
HBO - "4 dancers"		A short filler piece (about 15 seconds) on HBO - "choices to watch on HBO"- 4 dancers" 1. Ballerina in a blue tutu 2. Belly Dancer in blue Harem 3. Go-Go dancer in blue short tight dress 4. Flamenco dancer in blue tiered skirt --Amanda
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys		TV shows Hercules, Xena, and The Adventures of Sinbad often feature snippets of ethnic, pseudo-, and maybe even real ME dance with interesting/colorful costumes. The snippets, though short, add nice touches of ethnicity, dance and color to the shows. "Two TV shows that have the occasional Bdance scene and use ME-sounding music are 'Hercules' and 'Xena'. ...The costuming is 'fantasy' but fun to look at anyway." --Joya
Highlander: The Series		"...an episode of Highlander: The Series entitled 'Reasonable Doubt.' In this show, there is a flashback sequence which shows Duncan MacLeod pursuing the bad guys into an opium den/brother in 1920s Paris. There are a number of women lounging about in Salome-esque type costumes and there is one lady in a green cloak who is dancing. She looked like she knew what she was doing. The costumes, by the way, are really fabulous--very lush, very Art Deco." --Robyn "I was watching the TV Series Highlander the other night... (It was a re-run :( ) but it also had some un-historically costumed dancers in a 'Turkish' history scene. I almost cringed at the costumes, but the dancers weren't bad at all. Too bad they couldn't get the costuming closer." --Sannan
Hill Street Blues		during roll call, bellydancer performs for Sgt. Esterhaus
Hollywood Backstage		Don't know if anyone remembers a 70s (or so) series called Hollywood Backstage, but MTV or VH1 has gone to re-running it. A month or so ago I saw an episode in which the reporter/emcee was at a club called The Seven Veils in Hollywood. The club featured a dancer, and a popular star of the day danced with the dancer, even borrowing her veil. (Sorry, couldn't tell you who the star was, tho' that was the reason that HB was taping.) The dancer was brunette, wore red skirts and coin belt and bra, and really danced quite well, when the camera stayed on her and not on the star! ; -)
I, Claudius	Vashti	Really great BBC TV mini-series from 1976, based on Robert Graves novels, which traces the Roman Empire from Augustus through Claudius. In the 13-part series, episode 7 "Queen of Heaven" opens with a Middle Eastern style dancer performing. She uses finger cymbals, does back bends, arm work, and wears a rather odd (to my eye) costume: a roman-esque robe over what look like shorts/briefs of some nature and perhaps a bandeau as well. The brief dance and dancer are presented respectfully and are rather interesting. As a side note, episode 1 opens with a troupe of African dancers (topless, lots of beads, short skirts) and a male drummer performing. "I heard once that the dancer in I, Claudius was Vashti (of England)... this was at Oasis Dance Camp when Vashti herself was there..." -- Sherezzah
I Dream of Jeannie - "The Americanization of Jeannie"	Tanya Lemani	Actress and former belly dancer Tanya Lemani, of Star Trek's "Wolf in the Fold" fame, appeared on an early episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman Monday on the "TV Land" cable network. In this episode,"The Americanization of Jeannie", Jeannie and Hagman dine out at a restaurant where "Sadelia" (Lemani) is the entertainment. She does a good, lively veil dance in a cabaret costume showing plenty of leg for the time (November 1965) and navel ornament the size of a silver dollar. Being jealous of Sadelia getting Hagman's rapt attention, Middle Eastern 'native' Jeannie declares the dancer "a fraud." The episode is good for a cute laugh and nostalgic look at mid-1960s fashion. Lemani (now Tanya Lemani George) danced two years later on "Star Trek", later on "It Takes a Thief" and a couple of movies in the late 60s. She has since worked as a location manager for several films, and appears at TV nostalgia conventions.
I Dream of Jeannie		Bob "Gilligan" Denver guest starred as Jeannie's cousin, bd in episode
Ice Skating	Oksana Bayule
Incredible Hulk - "Sideshow"		In this episode, two bellydance sequences
Inside Entertainment,		from Calgary, Alberta. segment featuring a local actress moonlighting as a bellydancer
It Takes a Thief - "38-23-36"	Tania Lemani	Tania Lemani also played Miss Greece in this episode.
Its Burlesque!		The history of Burlesque (A & E special) has some short historical clips and a few contemporary clips which are pretty good. Talks about the difference between stripping and belly dancing a bit, but gets some of the historical facts wrong. -- Aziza Sa'id
Jenny Jones Show	Neena and Veena	Talented Twins - Neena and Veena Bidasha, bellydancers