Buggirl's Increasingly Strange Tokyo Tales...

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?”

I decided that I liked the (dance)name Ozma. It brings me joy to go to the convience store and think "I am Ozma, I rule over the land of Oz and yet am still not a bitch." while I buy a Snickers.

So today I sent my teacher an Email informing her that I am Ozma. It was odd, but I feel good about it.
( And so it is )

Dance name take two:

 

Okay, one of the other things I must consider when choosing a dance name is that it will be pronounced with a Japanese accent by my classmates and mispronounced, with no rhyme or reason, by my teacher.

 

So let’s look at what we have:

 

Fahada (the leopardess): I have a fear that I will be called something that sounds like father…and I won’t even have asked, Who’s your daddy, bitch? I am also slightly uncomfortable with taking on an Arabic name simply to seem more exotic and different. You see that copy of Orientalism? It’s making me feel a little embarrassed. It would make more sense for me to plunder my own bloodlines ask my father for my great-great grandmother’s name if I want to go slightly ethnic (Mexican) and then we could also talk about why the hell she sold all of that so-called worthless downtown L.A. property back in the day.

 

Bugs: Kimuchi is right, Sacer is just ripe for mangling. When you get right down to it, the Scarab is a dung beetle. It is sacred because it rolls around spheres of crap in a manner similar to how the male sun god rolls out the sun. They are mighty useful animals…but…dung is dung. I’m earthy, but not THAT fucking earthy. And there are other sacred beetles that appear in Egyptian hieroglyphs, but they don’t make for great names either.” Elaterid…but if that’s hard to pronounce just call me the Clicking Beetle.(insert crazed zill playing)” And as much as being a one-woman plague of Locusts goes…I don’t like to advertise it.

 

So last night I was wondering about other sources for names. Duh, Bug, you read! As a child you often went to Halloween in obscure costumes you made based on minor characters in the Oz series of books. You were Polychrome, the rainbow’s daughter. The Patchwork girl appeared in your early poems…you want to be…

( The latest in names )

 

If I were a DJ I probably wouldn’t take on a DJ name other than my own. I don’t think that is simply the legacy of days with dj Mitch. I have nothing against Dj names, but I’m rather attached to my name. As names go, it is flexible. I am hardcore enough and would feel silly advertising it with a name change. And there is also something to be said for the “I’m indifferent to my image, I just spin the shit I want to spin” aspect of keeping your mundane name.

I would write under my own name...unless I wrote romance novels and then my pen name would be Jasmine Van Emman. I sign my art under my own name. My own name would serve me if I acted.

But, I’m not a dj or a published author. I do dance. Actors get to take the names of the characters they play. A dancer takes on a persona which requires her to act as if she’s just being her faaaaabulous/mysterious/sensual self. To see a dancer drop the persona while still on stage or in costume is to be betrayed. A good name prepares the audience before they even see you, it can convey an image.

I’m writing because I may be reaching the point where a dance name is a thing to further wrap my mind around. I’d like to hear from the Dj’s and Dancers about your feelings on taking on a dj/stage name.

Yet I am hesitant to truly take a dance name. I’ve found one, but am unsure if my hesitancy is due to it being unsuitable for me or if my hesitancy is about the change of name itself. My own name? Let’s face it-Kayt or Kathryn-you remove the name from me and, well...I’m not pretending NOT to be a glow-in-the-dark gaijin...but to advertise it?

Thus far I’ve been leading toward Fahada, which I am told means Leopardess. I knew at first glance that names translating into flowers, dainty animals, meanings such as pure, chaste, and feminine or descriptive terms such as mirage, illusion, or so on just weren’t suited for me.

I should also look into obscure terms and names related to beetles/scarabs as well..

Imput asked for.