What is still in a name?

[parasitegirl]

An update on my stagename.

I’ve been Ozma for a few months now and I am happy with my choice. True, troupe mates enjoy teasing me for being the ruler of an imaginary land, but it is good natured teasing. Gaijin #4 asked me to fill in for her at Yokohama restaurant gig one day next month, and she’s already encouraged the loquatious Turkish man who works there to ask me for the full story of where Ozma comes from.

I’ve found that anyone who is knowledgeable about the ways dancers take on Middle Eastern names inevitably asks one question: Ozma, what does that mean? I know they are looking for a simple answer, like “Ozma is an Arabic name meaning pretty butterfly” or some such reply. Customers from the general public inevitably ask: “Ozma, that’s an interesting name, where is it from?” What they are really asking for is my Middle Eastern homeland or bloodline. I would get a different variation of the question if I danced under my given name, but it would be looking for the same Middle Eastern source of my “exotic nature". And sometimes, I turn the equation around and use my name as the source of my exotic nature, “Yes, I’m an American. I learned belly dance in Japan. What else can you do but the unexpected when you’re named after a fictional ruler of a fictional land?”

Comments

[sultansfavorite.livejournal.com]

I find it funny that most Middle Eastern (real) belly dancers that I've seen have Western names. ;-) That's why I gave up my "dance name" and just use my real name.

[jellia-jamb.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I can think of nothing I would like to be more than the perpetually beautiful and childlike ruler of a fictional land. I also find you intriguing and exotic.

[parasitegirl.livejournal.com]

Well, I knew where you stood on this issue, it is how you got here!

I am actualy intriguing and quixotic, some of my fondest Spanish Language Camp memories of childhood involve Don Quixote night and acting out the windmill attacks.