Join us for this St. Louis dance event!
May 9, 2025 • 7:00pm
.ZACK Theater
3224 Locust St, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA
Back by popular demand (and with support from Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis)
This show combines documentary footage and live performances to tell the weird and wonderful 120-year history of St. Louis’s underground bellydance community.
Tickets at Metrotix!
https://www.metrotix.com/events/detail/shimmy-stl
Did you know?:
- A belly dancer at the 1904 World’s Fair balanced a chair in her teeth while shimmying
- In 1908, a St. Louis woman opened a school for “Salome Dancers” that turned out over 150 performers a month.
- Belly dance was reinterpreted as “The Hoochie Coochie,” and that dance morphed into modern burlesque.
- By the 1970s, bellydance was so popular in St. Louis that you could see a show at Famous Barr
- Most troupes and dancers in St. Louis can trace their dance lineage back to a single woman who launched it all.
- Our St. Louis PBS station once broadcast a weekly bellydance program!
What you’ll see
Here’s a sneak peek at our documentary footage.
- Edison video footage of the 1904 World’s Fair dancer
- Insane footage of Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils
- Minnie Mouse doing the Hoochie Coochie
- A snippet of our local PBS bellydance show
- Some of St. Louis’s best performers re-enacting all of the above — and so much more! — live onstage!
About the show
We put this show together last year at the request of StLou Fringe Festival. We painstakingly researched the history of bellydance in St. Louis, and found a surprising number of connections between our city and trends in American bellydance.
The story goes back 120 years, and we’re telling it through newspapers, film, historical magazine spreads and album covers.
We brought in some of the top bellydance soloists and troupes in the city to re-enact iconic performances like the 1904 World’s Fair bellydancer and the 1970s telethon performances by Simone’s 7th Veil Dance Company.
The response was overwhelming. We sold out, and extra chairs were squeezed in to accommodate the crowd!
We wanted to restage the show in a bigger theater, where the audience could have more space and we could bring better visuals. The Regional Arts Commission offered us a grant to realize our vision, so now the show is even bigger and better.
If you love quirky history, dance, or the City of St. Louis, this show is for YOU!
.ZACK Theater
3224 Locust Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63103
$25 general admission • $40 VIP seating
Box office opens at 5:30pm
Doors open at 6:30 • Show starts at 7pm
Presented with support from the Regional Arts Commission.
Featuring some of St. Louis’s top bellydance talent
FAQs
Is this show family-friendly?
Belly dance is much more family-friendly than many people imagine! But this particular show will include some performances and video footage that intersects with burlesque, so although it’s not blatantly obscene, it will be suggestive at times.
Will there be food?
Cocktails will be available before the show and during intermission, but no food will be served at the theater. We recommend Fountain on Locust to dine before the show — it’s an easy walk from the theater.
Where is the .ZACK theater?
The .ZACK is in Midtown St. Louis, on Locust. It’s close to the Fountain, Small Batch, Pappy’s Smokehouse, and Urban Chestnut. This part of the city is experiencing a revival — if you haven’t been there in a while, come early and check out the neighborhood!
Can I buy tickets at the door?
Probably, yes. But remember that last year’s show sold out, so arrive early if you want to buy at the door. Box office will open at 5:30pm.