Here's a great story Maria Karena told me a while ago, "Back in ancient history, I learned in San Francisco that dancers had to dance barefoot in order to be authentic.  (Ahem.)  So I remember later dancing at an Arabic/Turkish club in Washington, DC, where the assistant manager would regularly come to the dressing room with a bottle of alcohol, a needle and tweezers to pry beads out of our feet.  Eventually, I ended up at a Greek club in Milwaukee, working with a girl from Lebanon.  She told me where she came from, dancers always wore shoes.  "Eeet iss soo disgusting to see your dirty feet when you do floorwork.  I cannot watch you!"  So I started wearing high-heeled sandals.  Then I moved to Chicago, where the dancers told me, "showing bare legs on the stage is okay when you are in your 20's, but after that you need to wear tights."  So then my teacher in Chicago taught us to wear fishnet tights--flesh colored.  Metamorphosis.  

I always thought it was funny that we were taught that bare feet was authentic, and then I discovered that the dancers in the middle east wore shoes!  Does that make them less authentic than American dancers?  :-) "

Comments, ladies?