“Come
with me to the Casbah”
By Nisima
As
promised in my Letter
to the Editor, following are some of my most cherished memories
of two years as a dancer at the Casbah in
San Francisco.
After 3 years
of belly dance training by several teachers in the Bay Area,
I went on a "class field trip" to North
Beach to observe the professional dancers at the clubs. I
became instantly enthralled with the live music and atmosphere
in the North Beach clubs and restaurants, but it took several
more visits to the Casbah before I got up enough courage to audition
for Fadil
Shahin, the Casbah's owner.
After my short
15-minute audition, Fadil hired me as a regular dancer for one
night a week, letting me know to bring enough costume changes
for the three shows I would be performing, and to be on time.
I nodded yes to everything and went home in a daze, totally thrilled
to be a regular working dancer at the Casbah! In those days,
those shows were at least 35 minutes long; a marathon! However,
soon, I built up stamina. The music was fabulous and personally,
I liked the nightclub ambiance better than restaurants, where
a dancer must dodge waiters and compete with the dinner service
in order to get the audience's attention. Even the fact that
the club closed at 2:00 a.m., and I had to be at my full-time
day job at 8:30 a.m. didn't deter me one bit. I was so jazzed
up on the live Arabic music after those three long shows, I didn't
even feel like sleeping right away when I got home anyway!
I think being
that the Casbah was a nightclub and not a restaurant was one
reason why it attracted a lot of people for its size. The turnover
in the audience was faster because there was no food being served.
It became
an informal meeting place for many dancers, musicians,
students and teachers, out of town visitors; a lively social
mix that helped keep us in touch with what was happening
in the belly dance world. Remember, we didn't have internet
access then. Even now that we do, I don't think it can
compare to the experience of physically being there, with
the music, with the people!
But, I promised
some cherished memories, so here goes:
My worst show: Okay,
let's get this one over with. I, against all good advice, wore
a new beaded costume without practicing in it first. I know!
I know. So of course the bra just had to open, in front, right
in the middle of my show. Every dancer has had a similar experience,
but what made mine particularly embarrassing was that I didn't
even notice it for a couple of minutes! I kept dancing until
I noticed a cold draft and glanced down to see, in horror, that
my bra had opened in front a good 6 inches. Oh, cringe! I do
remember thinking that the guy in the front row seemed a little
too wildly enthused during my taxim section... Anyway, I spun
around with my arms crossed over my chest to some very surprised
expressions on the musicians' faces, and then raced offstage
to the dressing room to effect immediate repairs. I, of course,
had plenty of the big safety pins we dancers always had, and
after
securing the bra that had betrayed me, (well, that's how
I felt about it at the time) got right back onstage to
hearty applause and finished my show.
Okay, lesson
learned the hard way! I always "stress tested" my costumes and
checked them very, very carefully after that.
My best show: My
all-time favorite show was the time an entire Middle Eastern
bachelor party came in to celebrate with the groom before the
wedding the next day. They kept asking the musicians for special
songs, getting up and dancing in the audience and on stage, throwing
money chains all over the musicians and me, and in general having
a whale of a great time! The rest of the audience really got
into the spirit of it, too. I knew my show was a little longer
than usual, but when I got offstage, one of the dancers asked, "Are
you okay; do you know you danced onstage for a solid hour before
even leaving for tips?" Well, I guess time goes quickly when
you're having fun! Not having the personal experience of dancing
in the Middle East , I viewed this a valuable dance experience,
completely relevant to the culture of the music I loved so much
and still do.
The musicians: I
got along fine with the musicians. They were professionals and
obviously in direct control of the music to which I was dancing.
This being said, I did occasionally ask for specific songs or
rhythms, but I didn't get too adamant about it, because I could
see a lot depended on how the night was going for them, who was
on break, was there a "guest musician" and so forth. Frequently,
they did oblige me, but just as frequently they surprised me
but always the music was wonderful, and the general pattern of
the shows was the same. I don't know if others will agree with
me, but I just don't think you can expect live music be consistently
the same each show, unless you hire your own band. It was very
clear that the musicians were not the dancer's personal band
employees. I also personally felt that a dancer who had to have
complete precision for the choreography needed to perform to
taped music.
However,
tapes did not provide the same kind of spontaneity and
rapport that happens with a live band, and I was trained
to improvise within the patterns of the music; so it was
just not a problem. The only time I ever felt it was at
all difficult was when there were "guest musicians" because
it was a real challenge to adjust immediately to a new
drummer, for instance, because the shows were long. A good
dancer should be able to handle anything for 15 minutes,
but 35-45 minutes is a long show! So, what could we dancers
do, but relax, be as centered as possible to respond at
the best level we could and smile? A lot.
Other dancers: The
camaraderie and fun of working with other dancers also meant
a lot to me. We took turns rotating the order of our performances,
tipped each other off if there was a rowdy person in the audience,
shared the latest "dance news" and in general looked out for
each other, supplying safety pins, needles and thread, cookies,
and support. I think many dancers miss this supportiveness, and
it's one of the reasons why troupe performing is popular again,
and there are plenty of nightclub style troupes around.
Zills: When
I started working professionally as a belly dancer, it was unthinkable
for a dancer not to play zills, and play them well and at the
appropriate times (not during the drum solo, please!). Off-rhythm
zill playing throws the musicians off and is not pleasant for
the audience to hear, either. Many dancers subsequently gave
up playing or even learning to play the zills when the Modern
Egyptian style of music and belly dance became popular.
However,
I was and remain, an "American" style dancer and still
play zills. I should get a T-shirt that says just that: "I
Still Zill!"
My only mishap
with zills was the time one flew off my finger and sailed clear
across the room and hit the mirrors on the wall loudly! Fortunately,
no one was hit, and no one mentioned it to me later either. That
was another lesson that I learned the hard way! Always check
your zill elastics carefully before a show.
Tips: Going
out for tips was a requirement in the clubs. Period. So, I did
it as quickly as I could and kept as much distance as possible.
An over-enthusiastic tipper always got immediate direction by
my taking their hands firmly in mine and remember, those zills
are a lot of brass on the hands! Of course, you could easily
make a hasty but graceful retreat by playing a different rhythm
and shimmying away! So, I never had a problem at the Casbah with
tipping. Actually, my only really negative experience of tipping
happened at a restaurant loaded up with the passangers of a cruise
ship from Hawaii. There were 400 of them, wearing aloha shirts
and muu-muus, and getting up onstage and trying to hula to the
live Arabic music. Even the musicians looked a little stunned
at this!
I was
half-way through the audience going out for tips when a
sweet-looking little old lady grabbed the back of my costume
bra (which fortunately was very sturdy), swung me around
with surprising strength, and flung me right into her husband's
lap, yelling, "Kiss her Henry, it's your birthday!".
The owners of
the restaurant had started to walk over, because she was way
out of control, but fortunately, poor Henry was in so much shock,
I was able to immediately jump off his lap, blew him a kiss and
shimmy the heck out of the room! Although the owners apologized
to me for the incident, it was a long, long, long, long time
before I consented to dance for another "cruise ship party" again
at that restaurant!
Costuming
at Nightclubs: The costumes were of course very glitzy
and feminine, and nothing ethnic was acceptable to any club
owners. I personally preferred then and still do, the look
of the beaded costumes, but I sometimes wore two or three layers
of skirts, depending on the weight of the fabric. I wanted
an air of "mystery" about the costume; I liked the idea that
no one could see how hard your legs and knees were actually
working to produce those syncopated hip shimmies that seemed
to "float" above the skirt. Besides, I'd always been trained
that a dancer needed to entertain everyone in the audience,
including women and children, otherwise you really were limiting
yourself. I actually got very nice comments from women of the
audience about my costumes. In particular, I appreciated the
Middle Eastern woman who paid me the compliment of telling
me "You are a nice girl; your costumes are beautiful but also
more modest". Well, the bras and belts weren't all that "modest",
but in comparison to some others, I guess they were. The fact
of the matter is, we were performing on a raised stage at close
quarters; so as a practical matter, I wore skirts that I didn't
have to worry about revealing more than I wanted to reveal
during a spin. I'd seen that happen with dancers occasionally,
and it's a jarring note in a performance; no matter how beautiful
a dancer is. The musicians appreciated elegant costuming as
well and didn't like anything they considered too revealing.
Remember, they had to observe it a close range on stage! So,
all things considered, as a professional courtesy, dancers
with whom I worked always let each other know if there was
a problem with a costume.
To conclude my
Casbah memories, let me just say that when that club closed,
the dancers I worked with and I cried for a week; we were inconsolable
because we knew it was the end of a era in belly dancing. Recently,
when I saw the photos of the
Casbah building's interiors being gutted to be rebuilt as something
else, I experienced a sharp pang of sadness! Then, a second
later, I realized that the ambiance I loved at the Casbah was
created by the people, not the building, and that camaraderie,
that feeling between dancers, audiences and musicians can never
be destroyed; it is too powerful to just disappear and I firmly
believe that power has resurfaced into other venues. Thank you
all for coming with me to the Casbah!
Have a comment? Send us a letter!
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