The Secret Life of a Bellydancer

A “Galatea Films” FILM
WRITTEN BY Geoff Allen

Based on Geoff Allen’s 2009 hit play, The Secret Life of a Bellydancer tells the story of Jamilla, or Janice Barker.

Jamilla disobeys her strict father Rex, the organist in the local Presbyterian church, to marry an Egyptian. Two years later she arrives at Auckland airport, emotionally and physically drained after her marriage has ended.

Rex, makes her work the night shift in his supermarket. Surrounded by muzak, monotony and her life going nowhere, she dreams of the desert and begins to dance among the aisles. Exhausted, she falls and knocks over an entire row of shelves. The checkout girls bored out of their brains regularly scan the CCTV tapes and witness her dancing after midnight. It moves them to ask her to teach them Bellydance. The women sneak into storage rooms after work in order to keep their new passion secret from their men. The Secret Bellydancers are born.

When a local Bellydance teacher, Delilah Delight, tries to hire Jamilla’s girls for a dodgy rugby club fundraiser Jamilla finds herself agreeing to a ‘Belly Off’ – a dance competition against Delilah’s best – and her star dancer the stunning Russian princess of Bellydance – Veruska. Can a bunch of overweight Kiwi women pull off at least one win?
That’s the secret to the Secret life of a Bellydancer.