We're belly pleased to offer you a job . .

But belly dancing, the traditional dance performed at Middle Eastern weddings, is about to make its first import from Scotland. Experts in Egypt are so impressed by the skills of an Edinburgh belly dancer they have offered her a full-time job performing the traditional dance in the country's capital.

Lorna Gow is now set to jet off to the African nation to become the first Scot to belly dance professionally in Cairo. The 32-year-old, who was put through her paces in a series of gruelling auditions, blew local competition away to secure the job at a top hotel.

Lorna, who teaches belly dancing in Scotland, will spend the next six months in Egypt perfecting her art. And she hopes the experience will allow her to secure more work across the Middle East and prove her Egyptian doubters wrong.

She said: "I get two responses; the Egyptian dancers either think it is amazing that a Westerner can do Arabic dance, or they say: 'You're not Egyptian so you'll never be able to do it properly'.

"The Egyptian girls do have an edge over me - some singers are danced to in particular styles and they have grown up with that, so it will be harder for me to cut it."

The former DWP worker in Wester Hailes started belly dancing when she was 21 after she was spotted by a dance teacher in an Edinburgh club. Three years later, she quit her job handing out giros to become a professional dance teacher and performer.

Belly dancing has become an increasingly popular way of getting fit in the UK and demand for Lorna's expertise has grown with it. She now has a student roll of 400 pupils aged between three and 82 years old in 20 classes across Scotland, including the Capital's Dance Base studio in the Grassmarket and Edinburgh University. As well as holding down a residency at Edinburgh restaurant Morocco Walima in Dundas Street and performing in sell-out shows in the Edinburgh Festival, Lorna has also taught pioneering belly dance-therapy classes with disabled pupils in Penicuik and Bonnyrigg.

But now the self-confessed belly-dancing fanatic feels she has outgrown the scene in Scotland and can't wait to take Egypt by storm next month.

And she is prepared to go to any lengths to fulfil her ambitions of becoming a belly-dancing diva, and to make sure she fits in with her new colleagues. She said: "I used to be blonde, but I've dyed my hair brown. I want to fit in. But I'm not going to wear a veil because I'm not Muslim. However, I am going to cover up.

"For most, dancing is not a high-status job. It's not very socially acceptable but as you get a higher status in the industry you move up social ranks. The top girls have their own orchestras, limousines and bodyguards. They're divas! You have to be aware of the culture and respect it, you can't put your foot in it.

"I'm very excited, nervous and proud to be Cairo's first Scottish professional belly dancer."