Firedance review, cut for drama and length.

Ok, I can now finally explain myself and run of cryptic posts!

This weekend was Capoeira Nago's batizado: the group that I don't really belong to but train with when I can. Last year there was firedancing, and I promised to take part next time. Fast forward ten months. In early February I paid for the batizado despite having no income. My condition was to have my firedance and it was approved by Sapo – the leader of the Milwaukee Nago group. About a month before that a girl by the name of Steff approached me requesting lessons. In March she came to the seminary and we had an initial lesson in the gym. She learned fast and quickly surpassed me in most ways. I do butterflies better than her, and that's about it! I think it's hilarious that because YouTube didn't exist when I started learning, I haven't progressed as far. Now I've got a ton of things to work on, and my style and technique have never been better! Having someone to work with and having someone to push you on to greater achievements works wonders, it really does.



So that's all the happy stuff which reality left alone. Steff and I trained alone for the rest of March and started meeting every Thursday evening at the lakefront after my Capoeira Batuque classes. Two weeks before the performance we had music and a choreographed dance number, which is apparently rare due to the “lone wolf” nature of most firedancers. We were ready to rock. Then the drama hit.

To properly understand the drama, I need to repeat some very brief history of Capoiera Nago. See, I love Capoeira Nago. I secretly hope Batuque stops training so I can join Nago without being evil and breaking my vow to be Batuque. The reason I love Nago is because they're a community. Batuque, pound for pound, has better lessons and I learn more. I love our mestres and our training priorities. But I don't really “like” my fellow players. Too many of them are jerks and the others are very young and I can't really interact with them outside of class. We're also small. Nago is roughly four times the size and most of them are sort of my age, or at least proper adults. I went with some to the anime convention, they read web-comics and play video games and other things I can relate to. So I'm stuck between my dutiful loyalty to Batuque and my quasi-preference to Nago. I like to say that I'm a capoeira ambassador, but I doubt Batuque professors would see it that way. My only real logical defense is that I'm physically unable to attend any Batuque classes because they meet at 6:00. Nago meets at 8:00 and I can go after evening prayer & dinner.

So I am an outsider to Nago, and that makes me something of a diplomat when dealing with other people. There's a relatively higher cord by the name of Arturo. I don't like Arturo because he's mean. Very mean and condescending to most people. I'm certain that most people don't care for his company. I personally don't have any problem with Steff, but she has caused problems in Nago in the past. For one, she openly called the professor (Sapo) an asshole in the middle of practice. Even when that's true, it's JUST NOT SOMETHING YOU SAY. I have scattered reports of Steff-fueled drama from a number of sources, but because I'm not Nago I've never actually been part of the situation. Also, Arturo and Steff do not care for each other at all in the slightest bit.

Two weeks before the show, Sapo emailed me and said that we'd have four firedancers and that Arturo would be organizing the show. This was bad. Having a mean person who doesn't like me and likes my dance partner even less is a bad sign indeed. Thus began my two-week marathon of diplomacy mode. Every single day for two weeks I was the hub of information between four firedancers, Sapo, and Arturo, and I did my very best to keep everyone happy. And by “everyone happy”, I mean “everyone not murdered by everyone else”. Steff vented at me about Arturo every phone call, Arturo fished for signs of incompetence on Steff's part, and Sapo just tried to do as little as possible to keep the drama from coming back on him. It was not a fun experience for me: it reminded me a lot of BSFFA politics, actually.

On the whole, though, it worked out. I spent most of the time resisting Arturo and calming Steff because Arturo was being very arrogant about organizing the party, which he did a crappy job of in the end, by the way.

See, Arturo immediately lost my support during our first phone call. He said that he'd seen the other two firedancers (Miranda and Tanya) and knew they were professional. He implied that Steff and I had to earn out place in the show: a place I was guaranteed three months ago. Naturally, I was pretty offended. I vouched for Steff's dedication, explained that I'd been doing this for 8 years on two continents, and that we were ready. He still didn't accept it. Those two professionals? They both cancelled. Tanya canceled THE DAY OF THE PERFORMANCE without explanation or warning. That, to me, is the opposite of professional. Steff and I proved ourselves through action. At least now we can point to this weekend as an example of our reliability.

The following is an example of what I had to put up with from him. Notice my diplomacy and his attempt to get a testimony out of me against Steff:

Email 1:
Arturo,
    Here's the link for our video of Steff, taken with a digital camera.  It was 3 mb too big for gmail to send, so I put it up on youtube.  There isn't much to hear between the lack of music and wind.
-Justin
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRzRBX1-P9s
 
 Email 2:
Justin,
 
Thanks for that. Would still like to see choreography. Please advise.
 
-Arturo
 
 Email 3:
Hmm...  So you'll need to see Steff and I together at night with fire & music.  Well, that's not going to happen tonight or tomorrow.  I'm going to go to class as usual tomorrow night and hopefully Steff will be feeling better and make it.  I talked to her tonight and we'd like to go through the routine with fire & music Thursday night after the workshop.  That will be the final opprotunity to practice the "full effect".  After Thursday night we could do the choeography without fire anytime anyplace or with fire during the day.
 
Let's give Steff 24 hours to recover and decide on the final practice time tomorrow night at Neutral Grounds (or right after).
 
 Email 4:
Ok.
 
The idea is for you to open for Miranda and Tanya, correct?
 
 Email 5:
We'd actually think it would be better to finish up the firedance stuff, but we can go first just as easily.
 
 Email 6:
You would be opening for them if all goes well.
 
Did Steff tell you that Sapo said it was fine for her to perform, or did she just approach you?
 
 Email 7:
When I paid my $150, Sapo and I agreed on a firedance I told him that Steff would be taking lessons from me in the near future with the intention of performing with me.  I don't precisely recall when it became solid fact, but Sapo's known about Steff's firedancing for a while as far as I'm aware.  When I gave him the cash back in February, we actually talked about Steff, Miranda, and I forming a formal troupe.  That was before Miranda moved away, so that whole train of thought got derailed at about that point.
 
That's the way I remember it unfolding, anyway.  Hopefully see you tomorrow, we can talk more then.
 
 Email 8:
Wow,ok.
 
All good. See you soon. My toe is still sprained. I may not make it to class.
 
-Arturo
PS: The $150 was the batizado fee, right?
**************************

In the end, I was asked “so do you want to just quit and not do the firedance?” about a dozen times. For all the people who couldn't be relied on, I stood fast and didn't put up with any of that crap. You know all those organizers? They were doing me a favor by planning/helping with the event – they didn't have actual authority over my show. If they couldn't plan the show properly, I'd just do it myself. Eventually that's exactly what happened. I got the supplies. I trained and taught Steff. I moved the couches out of the way for the dance space. I explained the situation to the club manager and the needs to the DJ. Fuck the easy way out and the lazy solution. It's a shame I couldn't count on more people to help me, but that's a luxury and not a necessity.



So to end on a high note, the show went off without a hitch in spite of all our obstacles. We were awesome and sexy and did a bit of improtu dancing because of the canceled performers. We're going to try to perform at Irishfest and/or Summerfest next. More on that later. I'm hoping someone will forward me pictures or video of the dances.

For now, I'm going to relax a bit and focus on classes because during this weekend

THE GOOD GUYS WON, THE BAD GUYS LOST, THE AWESOME PEOPLE BREAKDANCED AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT.