Snake dancing
There are a few good articles about this on Gilded Serpent and on the web. I did dance with a snake for about a year at a club gig. I had a super nice bull snake (heterogeneous - aka half albino) named LoLo. Some things I found helpful were:
* not wearing any bracelets for the snake to get permanently entrenched in, or scratched on.
* not dancing under a chandelier or ceiling fan for the snake to get interested in.
* don't let them get in your big hair sprayed hair - they can be hard to remove. There's a great story there...
* have a contingency plan if he/she goes down your pants or bra (shakes finger, naughty snake) and head them off early - don't let them go there, it's not very classy.
* know what kind of snake you have because people will ask incessantly what kind of snake is it, is it real, is it alive, etc. I love the 'is it alive' thing, like I'd dance with road kill or something.
* protect your snake from the environment and people, if people insist on petting him/her show them an appropriate place on his body, people tend to go for the head (like a dog) and that's an easy way for them to spook the snake and get bitten. If you don't like the looks of someone it's ok to say 'no touching' or 'not right now, he's had enough' also.
* If you are performing for a short time and don't want the snake to move a lot, you can chill him a bit before the show. I used a doctors bag with a small ice bag on one side and the snake in his little case on the other. Don't chill him too quickly though, that's rough on the snake.
* try to limit your movements where the snake is, imagine how he must feel trying to hold on to something in this odd environment. I used to put mine on my wrist and basically hold it out most of the time (so he didn't get any ideas about a place to hide in my bra), or in front of my body, holding that fairly still, letting my body and other arm do most of the dancing.
* don't imagine that you can train the snake to stay in one spot on your body. even people who have great relationships with their snakes report that this is a crap shoot at best.
I'll try and find those articles for you....
Good luck!
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