Last night I was reminded of a gig from the past.
The gig I thought about was at MTV studios (a café) with a truncated cast of Afet Collective members performing at someone else’s charity show. The issue I had problem getting over was a stage lit from below and the possibility of my undies showing due to it. I also thought about my father's email to me on the subject of gigs aspects out of your control.
Last night I danced at Bosphorus Hasan for the first time in a few years. I wore the white costume I got from Eshe (Eshe, I swear, I’m coming along on the bedlah thought process! I plan to order cups soon for myself, you, and Henna projects). The costume has a snap-in modesty panel for the high leg slit. It looks a bit risqué without it (not so much for the high slit but because over the high slit is an open cut-out “ring” and the combination of the two causes people to wonder how you get underwear under the costume and if you might not be wearing any) so I wear the modesty panel.
The audience was good and there was one table of drunk girls who were totally loving it all. One girl with a huge grin cheered and jumped up and down when I gave her my veil to hold on to. It was going very well. There were a few tables not into it, but they went about their food and conversation and I didn’t try to force them to care. There was also a table full of salarymen unsure of how to react.
And then, midway through, I stepped on the modesty panel. This unsnapped it from the cut-out ring but not from where the chiffon snapped to the open leg slit halfway down. It was a very obvious undoing as now my thigh was exposed and the flap, well, flapped about my knee.
I would have had to grab the panel with one hand, reach INTO my costume with the other hand to snap it back in place...which isn’t very lady like nor was it going to sooth the tables that SAW something happened and were holding their breaths to see if I panicked or freaked out.
I smiled, reached down, unsnapped the rest of the panel in a swift motion and gave the panel to the girl with my veil, and smiled and said (in Japanese) the phrase for, “That’s life/ these things happen/ what ya gonna do?” and people breathed out, relaxed, laughed, and were back with me. I wish there had been a way for me to gracefully say “Hey, my undies are built in here, you’ll see nothing so don’t worry!” but I made my leg movements a bit smaller so no one would be concerned and finished my set. In the dance-a-long the girl handed me my panel back and I tucked it into my gauntlet and waved it like a fancy hankerchef because…what else could I do?
I danced off to the changing room and laughed my ass off.
After the set the one table I had had my back to during the unsnapping thanked me for the show, they’d loved it, and they’d though the dramatic leg show moment had been all a part of it…”First she discards the veil, then some of her costume…ok!” ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
