An ex-flight attendant ditched her job in the skies to become a professional belly dancer – earning £100 per hour at events.



Lizzie Abou Chedid, 37, spent nearly 10 years working as cabin crew for Emirates before the Covid-19 pandemic halted her work in Dubai.

She had been belly dancing since she was 18 and the extra time allowed Lizzie to train everyday on Zoom with mentor, Leyla, 43.



Training to become both a teacher and performer, Lizzie started working events as soon as restrictions eased in Dubai.

After the birth of son Khalil, four, in October 2021, Lizzie and husband Naji, 52, made the move back to the UK in August 2022 and Lizzie resigned from her Emirates role in March of the same year.

She now works part-time as a belly dancer - performing in restaurants and corporate events across Manchester and Liverpool - earning £8k-a-year which includes her teaching work.

She earns around £500 per month teaching belly dancing three classes a week.

Lizzie, a full-time mum, from Crewe, Cheshire, said: "I always had a fascination with belly dancing."



"My teacher had been having weekly classes doing online Zoom classes – I was training every single day."



"She trained me and it became an obsession."



"We turned the spare room into a little studio for me."



"That was it, train, train, train and then with Dubai we came out of lockdown a lot sooner than a lot of other places."



"I was immediately asked to do group gigs or bits on my own."



"A friend of mine recommended me to [...] an agency in the UK without me knowing which was really sweet of her."



"It went from there – I'm really busy I do one to two gigs a week mostly in restaurants and so some corporate things and occasions like weddings and birthday celebrations."



"I absolutely love it."



"My husband always says to me if I'm a bit moody ‘you need to go and dance'." "

Lizzie moved to Dubai in 2013 after securing her Emirates job, meeting husband Naji at a friend's wedding in 2018 and marrying just three weeks before lockdown began.



After training more intensely, Lizzie's belly dancing mentor offered to train her to become both a teacher and performer.



"That was a far off dream I thought would never happen," she said."



"I thought am I not too old now to be a performer, I was 31."



"The tourism industry [in Dubai] wanted to pick back up and get people back in and there was a shortage of dancers."



"I was still flying at this point too."



"I would do maybe a flight a month or one every two weeks."



"I carried on teaching whilst pregnant which is great, belly dancing whilst pregnant is so good for you."



"I went back to performing when he [Khalil] was two months old"."



Lizzie resigned from her job as a flight attendant in March 2022.



After moving back to the UK Lizzie signed with an agency in the UK, and alongside caring for her son full-time, squeezes in action packed weekends of dance.



She said: "For a 20-minute performance I'll be paid £100 but factoring in the drive which might be an hour to where I dance, and my costumes are $500 a piece."



"With my teaching and performing I earn £8,000 per year."



"I wouldn't say it's amazing pay because I don't think anyone in performing arts is paid enough."



"Covid was a saving grace for me."



"Because we were grounded we weren't flying as an airline and operation ground to a halt. "

"It was the first time in eight years that I'd had time to sort of get into a normal sleep pattern, have rest and also have time to attend online lessons and I suppose train harder and to focus. "

"Because a lot of the time I would attend classes but I was usually tired or I'd miss some due to travelling. "

"It was a combination of being rested, and having time to focus and up my game so to speak"."