Cabanas on Friday September 29, 2006
Esin, Ayhhan, Pam de Ocampo and Mariya. September 29, 2006 9:04pm
It's 10:46am on Monday as I type these words. Just getting around to catching up on blogging. Got myself a coffee and a donut from across the street to jolt my system--the sugar provides the glucose to get my brain in gear and the caffeine just wakes me up. Yeah, I know it's not the healthiest combination, but I just know that it works for me.
Anywayz, Friday was a good night business-wise. We had a couple of large parties including a wedding reception which requested one of those folding partition thingies to give them some privacy but when the flamenco show got started they promptly removed the partition themselves so they could watch. When my dancers Mariya and Pam de Ocampo came out, to the delight of the parents, the children that were out of control running around (Iike kids are supposed to do) sat on the floor or in their parents' laps to watch.
My friends Ayhan and Esin were there giving us moral support and they came all the way out from Ashburn, Virginia!
Tony Cibel, one of the partner owners of the harbour restaurants Tony and Joes, Nick's Riverside Grill and Cabanas, was there with a bunch of friends and family at a table next to the stage at his request. As soon as I played the intro to the opening Sevillanas, I heard the sound of chairs being repositioned in the direction of the stage.
To top it all off, I met this lovely couple who snagged a table by the stage. Turns out they came to Cabanas because of my website, yay! OK, so this couple is currently more into salsa but somehow in their search for info on salsa in DC my website came up. Oh well. They enjoyed themselves and promised they'd check out some of my other shows soon--I recommended Cafe Citron on Mondays since the DJ puts on some salsa.
So in the back of my mind I was hoping for an enthusiastic response from the audience so the owner could get a first-hand experience of what it's like on our better nights as performers. Sure enough we got it! Of course, gaining a receptive audience is something we can't control. If we have it, great. But we still have to do our job as performers and give them something to respond to, right?
Like any high performance activity, we had to clear our minds of extraneous thoughts and focus on the task at hand: connecting with each other artistically...
Aha! I was caught paying attention to the dancer. My thanks to the photographer. September 29, 2006 8:52pm (photo by Esin/Ayhan)
I'm not going to go into detail about the "clearing of the mind." Everyone does it differently. Some meditate. Some do Tai Chi. Some transform themselves instantly when they're in front of a live audience. As for myself, I've done this performance thing enough times that I don't have to use any "methods."
With experience, you realize that you have to treat each performance as a new beginning regardless of what has happened in the last set, or last week or five minutes ago. Performing at the top of your game so to speak takes a lot of mental energy, so you can't let all that extra crap get in the way. I say all this and I do have my moments where I have to remind myself to follow my own advice so don't nudge me on one of my bad nights and tell me "Dude you choked! I thought you were a maestro."
Actually, do nudge me. I need a kick in the butt every now and then.
Here I am connecting with Mariya. Thanks again to the photographer for capturing me in this crucial moment. September 29, 2006 9:54pm (photo by Esin/Ayhan)
Yeah I'm in wise-man mode, not that I am claiming to know it all, but I have do have a few pieces of advice I can give. This past Saturday, one of my dancer friends called me long-distance as she was about to go onstage for a major dance competition. She wanted me to give her some words of advice and encouragement. At the moment, I was in Georgetown enjoying the beautiful weather and the positive energy of the people leisurely walking up and down M street so I was in another world mentally speaking.
I caught a little off gaurd though. Given that I've cranked out a lot of good advice and inspiring words over the years through my website and this blog, I didn't deliver the goods when she put me on the spot. I gave her whatever advice that came to mind in that moment. And from the ensuing silence on the other side of the line, I could tell that my words of my supposed wisdom weren't exactly what she needed to hear.
Yeah, it bugged me that I didn't come through for her. But I had to let it go. There wasn't much else I could do via phone. And she's an experienced performer herself, so I had all the confidence that she'd figure out what was clogging up her spiritual gears.
Sometimes these situations happen at seemingly the wrong time like five minutes before going on stage. But sometimes this stress sort of thing is good cuz it gives you that adrenalin that we all need to give our performance that extra edge. Assuming you've done all the physical preparation of dilgent disciplined practice, you just have to trust yourself and mentally get out your own way. That's why we performers practice, practice and practice some more.
When we get out onstage there are so many possible unexpected obstacles that we may to face. There's no time to think. The music is inside of you. Let it guide you. Assuming you've done the preparatory physical work, your body and soul will take care of the rest. It's like being a symphonic conductor. You can't be running around personally correcting and directing each and every member of the orchestra. You just have to assume that everyone's done the groundwork. You're just there to bring it all together and guide it along.
OK, that's one down with one more to go. I'm going work on a quick blog entry about Saturday at Tapeo and I'm heading out to enjoy the beautiful day, squeeze in a few errands and get ready for my gig tonight at Cafe Citron. See you there!
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