Roll up, roll up, for belly dancing

The man behind Bellydance Superstars is an American with bleached hair, a booming voice and he's on an unlikely mission to bring peace to the Middle East. Apparently, a sexy veil, belly buttons and gyrating hips are just what the world needs after 911 and the invasion of Iraq.

Miles Axe Copeland III is the kind of man who sees only the big picture. The impresario who brought you Sting and The Police (his brother Stewart was the drummer), The Bangles and Wishbone Ash is hitting the spot with his latest entertainment venture.

A chorus line of belly dancers and Hollywood production values meet most of the criteria for a hit show following the 10-year success story of Riverdance. Bellydance Superstars has sex appeal, a veneer of culture and the timing seems about right. Belly dancing is hip.

"Anyone for tea?" Copeland roars when he learns I'm English, mimicking an upper-class accent. Even the star-inured staff at the CTI TV (中天電視) restaurant in Taipei take notice as the 62-year-old and three belly dancing beauties from his harem settle down for our interview, which has been arranged to promote a series of shows beginning in Kaohsiung next week.

"Actually, I was born in London myself, old boy," Copeland shouts, before establishing his Middle-Eastern credentials. His father was a CIA agent and his mother was a British spy. He was brought up in Syria and made friends with the rich and powerful in Damascus, Cairo and Lebanon, becoming fluent in Arabic along the way.

In his Web site biography he claims to have promoted the first "psychedelic-style happening in Beirut" and formed a security consultancy before relocating to London and becoming an agent, manager, producer and record company owner.

His story is as colorful as his hair is colorless but it came to an end of sorts when he split with Sting after 2001 and you can tell that it still hurts — and not only financially. He winces and changes the subject when I remind him that The Police have reunited, obviously without him.

Moving quickly on, he says this left him promoting smaller groups and one of these was Oojami and the Turkish musician Necmi Cavli, producer of the album Bellydancing Breakbeats in 2002. It turned out to be one of those serendipitous meetings that eventually led to the Bellydance Superstars.

"It started out as a way of marketing Arabic music and I thought how the hell am I going to promote this?" he says. "The answer was belly dancing and I organized a competition with a US$1,000 prize in LA and around 140 dancers turned up."

Sonia was one of the winners and the perfectly formed brunette who trained in classical, modern and jazz dance before turning to belly dancing says she's going to be eternally grateful.

"I made a living belly dancing for 10 years but I had enough of the restaurants and weddings and this has helped me move onto a bigger stage, travel and do workshops. It's been a dream come true."

The Bellydance Superstars hit the road with the Lollapalooza 2003 tour, were invited to a festival in Bali and then did 58 dates around North America. The grind of traveling and daily shows made the group the lean performing machine it is today, Sonia says.

Copeland later hired choreographer Jillina, who honed the Bellydance Superstars' act when it appeared for an extended run two years ago at the Folies Bergere in Paris and more recently at the Monte Carlo Casino.