Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Open Mic Night -- Unexpectedly Dancing

On my first visit to the Middle East Restaurant and Club (the Corner), we saw a troop of dancers who were, in a word, disappointing. As we were leaving, I stopped to talk to the MC, who told us that while they did have "house" dancers, the club also interspersed these sets with "open mic night" dancers. In short, anyone can dance. I also met another girl, Alayisha, who had just moved into town, and was interested in dancing.

Fast forward two weeks. I get an email from Alayisha saying that she would be dancing at the Middle East, and would I like to come and be moral support. Of course I would. The evening began with a dancer who had a lovely smile, but not so much in the way of isolations or technique. Next was Mahsati, a better dancer with a gorgeous shimmy. Finally -- after the MC harangued me into dancing with her a few times, just for kicks -- my friend Alayisha came out and danced. It was quite lovely, and I was well pleased with my evening.

After that, we all gathered around to chit chat. When I saw the second dancer hanging out with the MC, I sat down next to her and asked her if she had any thoughts on local belly dance teachers. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, the two of them had conspired together, tied a hip scarf around my jeans, and were creating a playlist for me to dance to.

The MC gave me a brief introduction, explaining how she'd just hauled me up from my dinner table and thrown me out on the dance floor, put on (a different version of) Aziza (because of course there are about a zillion of them) and off I went!

After I stumbled through Aziza, the MC dragged me back onto the floor to improvise a drum solo. It was one that I recognized, but had never learned choreography to, so um..... I shimmied a lot. A LOT.

Mahsati, Alayisha, and various members of the audience (including J) gave me lots of smiles and encouragement, two $1 tips, and a decent amount of cheering and whistling. I'm still kind of in a daze of "What did I just do?" but I had a good time, and I hope the audience enjoyed it too. (I mean, I'm assuming they did, 'cos one random elderly couple slipped a dollar into my pants, and a cluster of young men were all making ogly eyes.) Woot!