Belly dancer underperformed, agency owner not true to her word

I hired a belly dancer from this agency for my wedding. She was meant to do successively 20mn dancing, 20mn interacting with guests, 10 mn break/clothes change, 20mn dancing, 20mn interacting with guests again. I had to go to her 3 times to ask her when she intended to start as she was just standing there, doing nothing. Eventually, when she did dance, it was only for a few minutes, definitely not 20mn. And after that we saw very little dancing from her. Instead of being a crowd pleaser, she entertained 3 seven year old children, which made me think "this is a rather expensive babysitter". I was happy to pay the rate we had agreed, but she had not delivered what was expected of her. When I raised the issue over the phone with the agency owner, she said she was leaving it to me regarding the remaining payment (almost 3/4 had already been paid in advance anyway) as I wasn't satisfied with the belly dancer's performance. I requested feedback from my DJ as she would have been the person who saw the belly dancer the most that night as they were both inside a marquee at all time, and I also asked some of our guests, and they all confirmed my impression of her: waited around a lot, didn't dance much, entertained 3 kids. I therefore felt I had already overpayed her as it is, so decided not to pay the remaining amount. The agency owner, instead of keeping to her word of leaving the decision to me regarding the remaining payment, threatened me of court action. Suspiciously, no recent reviews on the aurora bellydancing website, and any reviews that's on there seems handpicked for being particularly flattering, in a way that does not reflect at all my experience with this agency. I would not recommend it.

Aynur Yasar - 02/09/2016 | report this review