parasitegirl | Stir crazy...day one.

Going a little crazy here. There are now two of us supervisors…and the school schedule has changed…and our supervisor has changed…and we have no clue what we should be doing. The new Mr. West, Mr Mi, told me there will be a meeting with the schools on the 20^th…but waiting until then to really help identify what it is we are to do is insane. Today we sit doing nothing. I brought my personal computer so that I could share the work-computer internet with my partner here..because goodness knows when he’ll be given his work computer.

I’ve burned a set for tonight’s gig in my hood, Matsudo. They called me last minute (last night) but it’s only 9 minutes away and the same price for a shorter set…so I can never say no. I do say “If you gave me more warning I could bring you customers” but…oh well. I’ve mailed a few people from Zumba, but they can’t make it, and a local dancer…who knows. There is a party of Japanese women who want a dancer and I can do that. (Yes, I asked for party specifics, I learn…last time it was odd old J men, one of whom longed to go to Oshkosh for the air show). Ramses is now called Sahalin. I checked the gourmet online listing for them and it is specific about the fact that belly dancers are available on request and that the default dancer is Russian but that an American dancer or Japanese dancer are also a possibility.

The last few weeks have been busy. I’ve drilled and practiced and thought about choreography when I’ve had a free night (except last night) but I feel behind. I don’t want to loose the momentum I felt I had a few weeks back. The Istanbul sets are doing well, but I feel I could really get in there and polish up a few of the songs with practice choreography to help drill a better sense of repetition/ variety/complexity into my improvisation. Friday, I danced at Istanbul Akasaka-mitsuke. People really do respond well to the “you will get up and have fun with me” command to dance now that I’ve started to own it. I thought one gentleman was doing to kiss me. More women and men have been hugging me. A birthday group wanted me to stay longer, but I was getting worn out and trying to pace myself. Saturday morning I had to be up early for the lung doctor and to swing by my ob/gyn for more pills.

On Saturday I danced at Ginza. One women not only enjoyed the set but also identified where I had bought my lovely wedge shoes when I changed into my street clothing. “I loved it! And your shoes! Jocomola!” An American business man, cute and around my age, could be heard from my changing area preparing his Japanese counterparts for what bellydance is…and some of it was correct. When I danced he kept attempting to speak to me in a language I could not place. After my set I was happy to hear him explaining that I was a good dancer and they’d been lucky. He approached me after I got changed to figure out where I was from. The language he’d tried was Russian because in his travels he’d learned that many of the dancers now working in Turkey and Egypt are Russian, so he’d assumed Japan might be the same. In retrospect I probably should have given him my card, he was cute and very polite.

I still need to think more about workshops, but I think that requires I ask around to dancers who know me about what they think my selling points are…what are the sorts of things people want from me if I do teach. What are my unique qualities that set me apart from the average Tokyo dancers and what are my own strong points. Jo has offered to help organize my first workshops when I decide what I’m doing.

Tomorrow I’ll bring in my two big old books on Dreamweaver and start trudging ahead on that as well. I think I have a bio page finished and from there I should be able to take it live, get feedback and use it as a template for the other pages. Let us hope.

The next few Fridays I’ll be at Konya in Ginza. I still need to figure out what I am doing on the 17^th for my birthday. I’d rather not spend my birthday dancing.