Thread: Worst show ever?

I need to hear stories of your worst show ever...I think I have just had my worst one since Coweta Blue Whale Days. Ok, nothing tops Coweta Blue Whale Day, but this weekend was creeping dangerously close. You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine...

KS

I feel blessed that I haven't had too many really really bad shows.

One of my first performances makes the list though. It was up on a stage, with a skirt that was a bit short, and I forgot to take off my mis-matching socks.

My first teacher was a bit, well....nuts. For our first show (after 6 months of classes she had our troupe of 4 put on an ENTIRE show by ourselves ). As baby bellies we knew no better I'm afraid.

It had:
* I dream of Jeannie homemade by teacher costumes (she put herself in the middle of the piece and had a face veil... thankfully we weren't 'allowed' wear one as she was the star ..l;,
* 2 Shakira numbers
* a cheesy 'Flamenco' piece which consisted of us kinda half stomping about the stage in mens matador outfits, with crazy teacher as the 'senorita' in a fluffy gypsy skirt

and the worst... the show opened with the five of us in monks habits parading around the stage to O Fortuna (yes...from Carmina Burana) with heads down...until at the climax of the piece we threw our hoods off to reveal...............................VENETIAN OPERA MASKS?!!?!?!

Then we dropped to our knees around the crazy one and 'hailed' her as she she stood arms to the heavens...you can picture it ..cr.:.p::.p::.p::

I'll never forget it. Worst show ever. Then the crazy teacher dumped us all because we wanted just wanted to go back to our normal bellydance class again... She said it had always been her dream to have a contemporary dance troupe and that we were holding her back ..l;, At which point we pointed to her large class poster and said...but um....we signed up for bellydance classes?!! ..l;,..l;,

Let us never speak of this again. Thankfully we all went and found decent teachers, and never looked back!

Originally Posted by Sarahamh

My first teacher was a bit, well....nuts. For our first show (after 6 months of classes she had our troupe of 4 put on an ENTIRE show by ourselves ). As baby bellies we knew no better I'm afraid.

It had:
* I dream of Jeannie homemade by teacher costumes (she put herself in the middle of the piece and had a face veil... thankfully we weren't 'allowed' wear one as she was the star ..l;,
* 2 Shakira numbers
* a cheesy 'Flamenco' piece which consisted of us kinda half stomping about the stage in mens matador outfits, with crazy teacher as the 'senorita' in a fluffy gypsy skirt

and the worst... the show opened with the five of us in monks habits parading around the stage to O Fortuna (yes...from Carmina Burana) with heads down...until at the climax of the piece we threw our hoods off to reveal...............................VENETIAN OPERA MASKS?!!?!?!

Then we dropped to our knees around the crazy one and 'hailed' her as she she stood arms to the heavens...you can picture it ..cr.:.p::.p::.p::

I'll never forget it. Worst show ever. Then the crazy teacher dumped us all because we wanted just wanted to go back to our normal bellydance class again... She said it had always been her dream to have a contemporary dance troupe and that we were holding her back ..l;, At which point we pointed to her large class poster and said...but um....we signed up for bellydance classes?!! ..l;,..l;,

Let us never speak of this again. Thankfully we all went and found decent teachers, and never looked back!

Wow ! My worst experience doesn't even compare!

Ha ha! Well, they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so maybe it was for the best ;)

Originally Posted by s1dur1_sab1tu

I need to hear stories of your worst show ever...I think I have just had my worst one since Coweta Blue Whale Days. Ok, nothing tops Coweta Blue Whale Day, but this weekend was creeping dangerously close. You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine...

KS

So, come on Kittle Sparkle, tell us yours!

Ok, as the director, I was late for my own show and did not even know it till we went out to dinner after. Call was 7, show at 7:30, I waltz in at 7:30 thinking call is at 7:30 - I DON'T KNOW WHY. The *new* co-directors are freaking out, one because I'm not there and she can't get me on my cell, the other because the sound guy can't work with her music and I have the back up CD. I was thinking before the show, why are they so freaked out? No one ever said the word 'late' to me - so I didn't catch on till way after the show.

Let me just say, I swear, this is not how our shows usually go...

Then I do a veil dance under a blowing vent and the veil attacks and eats me. Admittedly, too late I realize I may not have done that dance with that hair arrangement, since it's been a solo for beginners for some time now and my hair has changed a lot since I performed it. Luckily it was to drums and the drummers bailed me out. Sigh..everything else at that show went ok more or less...

Then we have a show the next night, and although I prepared the music and had to bring my own sound equipment - which worked at home - but at the venue, half of the music would not play properly - would not play the vocals or sounded like it was under water, none of it would play loud enough. The dancers held up beautifully, never missed a beat, just kept dancing - so I'm proud of them.

Our announcer lost the sound on her mic halfway through the show also - that was the venue's equipment, so I have no blame in that area...but it sure made a difficult show even more awkward. About half of the show was drums, and 1/4 of the music worked, so not a complete disaster, but awkward.

My new gung-ho student who was so excited to see the show - brought her enthusiastic husband along also - was there to see the fiasco. Oh yes and let's not forget...one young teen was there and just playfully, I went over to dance near him (nothing lurid, just some shimmy overlays) and he was super shy (I thought) - the audience thought it was cute - later I'm laughing about it with the band that played after and his brother tells me he's autistic, and he said I made him feel 'funny'. Taunting the autistic, that's me...OMG!

Now of course Coweta Blue Whale Days is another post...

But really, I feel terrible! I seem to have broken every rule I ever made and then some.

But nothing tops Coweta...

(sic) oh gawd the Blue Whale Days festival in...Coweta? It was a total fiasco...we arrived late, having been lost for 45 minutes, we performed in front of a cattle coral, a dog wondered on stage during a sword solo, we screwed up big time, I totally forgot part of a choreography and made it obvious (ok now I'm laughing), I pulled an oblique on another solo, ouch!, and for the end of the show, we all finally got it together and did our final pose, and the big livestock truck behind the stage went VROOOMMMMMM, really loud and right on que. Damn, it was funny to me. My instructor seemed pretty pissed off. :)

a show where cane was done to 9/8
need i say more?

Originally Posted by s1dur1_sab1tu

(sic) oh gawd the Blue Whale Days festival in...Coweta? It was a total fiasco...we arrived late, having been lost for 45 minutes, we performed in front of a cattle coral, a dog wondered on stage during a sword solo, we screwed up big time, I totally forgot part of a choreography and made it obvious (ok now I'm laughing), I pulled an oblique on another solo, ouch!, and for the end of the show, we all finally got it together and did our final pose, and the big livestock truck behind the stage went VROOOMMMMMM, really loud and right on que. Damn, it was funny to me. My instructor seemed pretty pissed off. :)

..l;,..l;,..l;, Oh I shouldn't laugh, but that was hilarious.

Sounds like everything that could go wrong went wrong in your other two shows, but I'm impressed that the show went on nonetheless! Congratulations on that much I'll bet half the audience didn't even realise.

Originally Posted by Sarahamh

My first teacher was a bit, well....nuts. For our first show (after 6 months of classes she had our troupe of 4 put on an ENTIRE show by ourselves ). As baby bellies we knew no better I'm afraid.

It had:
* I dream of Jeannie homemade by teacher costumes (she put herself in the middle of the piece and had a face veil... thankfully we weren't 'allowed' wear one as she was the star ..l;,
* 2 Shakira numbers
* a cheesy 'Flamenco' piece which consisted of us kinda half stomping about the stage in mens matador outfits, with crazy teacher as the 'senorita' in a fluffy gypsy skirt

and the worst... the show opened with the five of us in monks habits parading around the stage to O Fortuna (yes...from Carmina Burana) with heads down...until at the climax of the piece we threw our hoods off to reveal...............................VENETIAN OPERA MASKS?!!?!?!

Then we dropped to our knees around the crazy one and 'hailed' her as she she stood arms to the heavens...you can picture it ..cr.:.p::.p::.p::

I'll never forget it. Worst show ever. Then the crazy teacher dumped us all because we wanted just wanted to go back to our normal bellydance class again... She said it had always been her dream to have a contemporary dance troupe and that we were holding her back ..l;, At which point we pointed to her large class poster and said...but um....we signed up for bellydance classes?!! ..l;,..l;,

Let us never speak of this again. Thankfully we all went and found decent teachers, and never looked back!

This is hilarious. I'm so sorry for you, but it's hilarious!! Was this in Italy? Because it sounds so... American!

Nothing so smashing as the above has happened to me -- yet. Though I have participated in a group number where everyone practiced her part separately until just before the show. The first time I got to see that the whole was an embarassing catastrophe was a week before the show! But at that point, if you're a pro and you've committed, you can't back out that late in the game. What does a dancer do?

That totally beats Coweta Blue Whale Days, did you get video? Wow, people are really strange (your 'instructor' I mean).

Thank goodness you didn't give up!

KS

Originally Posted by Sarahamh

My first teacher was a bit, well....nuts. For our first show (after 6 months of classes she had our troupe of 4 put on an ENTIRE show by ourselves ). As baby bellies we knew no better I'm afraid.

It had:
* I dream of Jeannie homemade by teacher costumes (she put herself in the middle of the piece and had a face veil... thankfully we weren't 'allowed' wear one as she was the star ..l;,
* 2 Shakira numbers
* a cheesy 'Flamenco' piece which consisted of us kinda half stomping about the stage in mens matador outfits, with crazy teacher as the 'senorita' in a fluffy gypsy skirt

and the worst... the show opened with the five of us in monks habits parading around the stage to O Fortuna (yes...from Carmina Burana) with heads down...until at the climax of the piece we threw our hoods off to reveal...............................VENETIAN OPERA MASKS?!!?!?!

Then we dropped to our knees around the crazy one and 'hailed' her as she she stood arms to the heavens...you can picture it ..cr.:.p::.p::.p::

I'll never forget it. Worst show ever. Then the crazy teacher dumped us all because we wanted just wanted to go back to our normal bellydance class again... She said it had always been her dream to have a contemporary dance troupe and that we were holding her back ..l;, At which point we pointed to her large class poster and said...but um....we signed up for bellydance classes?!! ..l;,..l;,

Let us never speak of this again. Thankfully we all went and found decent teachers, and never looked back!

Originally Posted by zamora

a show where cane was done to 9/8
need i say more?

I wish I could explain this joke to my husband...LOL...

KS

Originally Posted by Lauren_

This is hilarious. I'm so sorry for you, but it's hilarious!! Was this in Italy? Because it sounds so... American!

No, it wasn't in Italy, better not say where lest anyone recognise me from those dark dark days ..l;, ..l;, ..l;,

The teacher wasn't American, but she had spent quite a bit of time in Australia where I can only assume the sun had done some permanent damage. (That said, she wasn't Australian - the Australian dancers I know are all lovely, sane people)

The whole thing was captured on video, but I never saw it! I'm sure I have some pics though, I'll have to dig them out and post them for a laugh ..g.:

We were invited to do a show that took place inside a large festival tent. On this day, it was pouring rain and had been raining for some days. Our show was supposed to begin at 7:30 pm. By 8:45, we were still waiting. Our instructor went to talk to our contact for the festival and explained that some of us had other commitments for after the show, and asked how much longer we'd have to wait. So, they said it was time to come to the tent and wait backstage. Backstage was a sea of mud. The organizers had laid a path of boards down, but they'd been so walked on, it wasn't much better. Also, there wasn't enough room on the boards for us all to wait. And this was no ordinary mud. This was slippery, slimy, suck-you-down kind of mud. We were trying to hold our costumes up as we waited, and trying to keep our feet out of the mud as much as possible. The holdup was the band that was tuning up onstage. They wouldn't stop tuning up, and they wouldn't get offstage. The organizers asked us to dance on a tarp that was laid in front of the stage. The tarp was full of puddles. We refused. So, the organizers got the band offstage but said we'd have to watch out for the band's equipment, as the band didn't want to move it. It was almost 9:30 by this time. We really should have left right there and then, but we did an abbreviated version of our planned show, cutting out any numbers with floorwork and any large group numbers.

The hem of my costume did come clean (it was an easily washable skirt, fortunately), but the gold came off my dance slippers along with the mud, when I cleaned them, and they were ruined.

This didn't happen to me, but a friend of ours:
Imagine being on stage as the teacher with your student troupe of 12 at an event ready to do your troupe routine that you and your student troupe have practiced and perfected. You've burned your music onto a CD like good professionals do - nothing can go wrong! The world is at your feet! They are going to love it!....and then the CD goes on random select through your routine....

I am a member of the "worst show ever troupe" and even though there was a problem with the sound and my allergies(lots of sneezing and bladder leaking when sneezing) We had a ton of fun more fun than the two shows ago when I hit the director with my cane.(although that was fun too)

EM

i lost my skirt at moun of tunis.

my fav co fair story was the time our stage was set up across from a big dinosaur display of big rubber mechanical dinosaurs. BIG.

we're doing a serious , moody veil & the T-Rex starts up. so picture us tralalaing around with veils to a chifti with GRAWRARRAWRR accompany us.

when ya do fairs ya just gotta laugh.

Originally Posted by s1dur1_sab1tu

(sic) oh gawd the Blue Whale Days festival in...Coweta? It was a total fiasco...we arrived late, having been lost for 45 minutes, we performed in front of a cattle coral, a dog wondered on stage during a sword solo, we screwed up big time, I totally forgot part of a choreography and made it obvious (ok now I'm laughing), I pulled an oblique on another solo, ouch!, and for the end of the show, we all finally got it together and did our final pose, and the big livestock truck behind the stage went VROOOMMMMMM, really loud and right on que. Damn, it was funny to me. My instructor seemed pretty pissed off. :)

THat is hilarious. Sounds just like a Spinal Tap moment (when they get lost under the stage, and then when they perform while jets are taking off).

THose are some pretty funny moments! I've had some of my own but nothing like what others have posted.

I've had my music stop playing on 2 different occasions (thankfully we had a live drummer but looked odd while doing sword and wings) and I have had the random music select happen also. The worse for me though was my first solo at the SAMEDA Christmas party. It was a fusion style dance. I had participated in the 3-Day walk and my feet still hadn't recovered from all the blisters. Feet were very tender, balance totally off, pulled a hamstring muscle during the splits, and couldn't keep the discouraged look from my face. Also got ahead of the music with the choreography and I was not very good at bellydance freestyle back then. Not good! My hubby still comments on that so-called performance : ( Unfortunately it is on videotape.

Twice now I have slipped off of my glasses doing a glass dance in competition. Why... because when I'm nervous my feet sweat. WHich is WIERD because it has NEVER happened too me any other time performing on glasses before.

I've done this! And it isn't easy! And it was done for fun and the dancers that know me enjoyed it, the GP didn't understand the joke but enjoyed the dancing. Dancers that don't know me probably just posted to Bhuz about it....

Originally Posted by kahaz

I've done this! And it isn't easy! And it was done for fun and the dancers that know me enjoyed it, the GP didn't understand the joke but enjoyed the dancing. Dancers that don't know me probably just posted to Bhuz about it....

Referring to 9/8 cane, that is!

Hmm... I have had several noteworthy music botchups.

1] The guy who took a cd cut to order- and played backwards, last track to first.

2] Sadly, too many skipping music stories for my nerves- and they always try the 'must be the cd' story. I test , over and over- a minimum of 5 different systems. Don't blame my cd's for your bad equipment!

3] My best was the other night- part of a massive special festival at a really larney local venue. Our first set [all on one CD, BTW] plays perfectly, as does the next 1 number of the second set. the next 2...play...at...zombie...speed...

I mean, How do you do that to a CD? I know you could strech tape, but CD??

Ugh. I have some more horror stories, but am too traumatised at the memory to share just at the min, sniff.

Sarahamh - I feel your pain !

not the worst we've encountered by far... but certainly a surprising show last summer. We were dancing on stage at the Cariwest festival, when a young man decided to streak through the crowd, came up the stage steps, through our formations and leaped off the back. Shocking!!
At least he was well built... ;-)

Originally Posted by Bellydancingcaroline

Sarahamh - I feel your pain !

I feel better now that the world knows ..l;,

Originally Posted by tattood1

we're doing a serious , moody veil & the T-Rex starts up. so picture us tralalaing around with veils to a chifti with GRAWRARRAWRR accompany us.

ROTFLMAO!!!!! ..l;,..l;,..l;,..l;,..l;,..l;,

Originally Posted by Lauren_

TThough I have participated in a group number where everyone practiced her part separately until just before the show. The first time I got to see that the whole was an embarassing catastrophe was a week before the show! B

Hey, I don't remember you being in that number I did here in Milwaukee a couple of years ago...

Dancing at a local festival back when I was in a troupe. It was 96 degrees (I looked at the bank clock!) I could feel the HOT through my charactor shoes!(dancing on the black top of the road!) We were wearing black capes with hoods and face veils OVER the costumes for the first number and then took them off for the 2nd, the 2nd costume was a velvet top! Why oh why choose this when most dancing is done in summer (OK we may have snow all winter here in Buffalo but in summer it is HOT!).
after it was over I thought I would die of heat stoke (that was not our only number) then hubby brought me a blue moon beer after the performance and I perked right up!