Thread: The Traps and Pitfalls of Dancing with a Live Band

There are so many!!!! But I will relate one experience that I never forgot. I was dancing my usual show, with my usual band. The difference was, this was NYE and the club had brought in "special singers". The first "Special" singer, was the appetizer. He wouldn't stop singing and so my show started 1/2 an hour later than it should have.

The band then began to play my regular show which was scheduled for 1/2 hour.

The 2nd "special singer" was the big name. 1/2 way through my show, the owner started signaling the band by whirling his arms around and cutting his throat. We all knew that meant "WRAP IT UP NOW!" Well, as the audience had just requested me to do a certain song the band had to do it. Everything was done in warp speed. And a 1/2 hour show was done in about 15 minutes. It's was just aweful crazy! I couldn't breathe when I was finished.

So later, I asked the owner what happened. He told me the singer was upset because the audience was getting into my show (clapping, singing etc.) and he was worried that by the time he got on stage, they'd be worn out!!!! The way he said it was, "Obviously, these people want to get up and dance. Get rid of the dancer so I can sing and they can dance.!"

The owner saw through it of course, but the singer was such a BIG NAME he didn't dare offend him.

Oh brother.....can you say 'ego'?

I feel soooo blessed that I still have the opportunity to dance to live music regularly. I LOVE IT!!! No other show makes me feel as energized, powerful, beautiful, and in the moment! .. BUT... some crazy stuff does happen when working with live music... and even though some of these 'moments' are just embaressing, crazy, (kinda creepy), or funny... I still love it' because they CAN happen because improv dancing to live music is just so REAL. (did that even make sense..? hope so!)

but one of my crazy stories was also a NYE show.. hmm...pattern here? ;)

Only for me it was a different band.. the regular band all had better paying gigs... so I guess the nightclub got stick with whomever they could manage to scrounge up last minute on NYE for a midnight-5am gig. .. yeah. ;)

so there was one violin player and a keyboard player, they couldn't find a drummer, but my normal singer was there. The band was so out of sync with each other and just not exactly crowd-pleasing.. the singer wanted me to go on really bad to help the night out and give the audience a distraction. However he couldn't stand the musicians apparently... so he comes up to sing with me... and to get the violin player to just STOP playing.. he grabs his bow... (the player was NOT happy about this or expecting it!) and then gives it to ME and tells everyone I'm going to dance with it...! The poor violin player looked sooo nervous and upset... and the singer was just trying not to laugh.. and I got to add a new prop to my repertoire for the night. the startled look on the poor guy's face just made the night memorable.
Needless to say I won't be taking *that* gig for NYE next year...

but seriously I just loooooove working w/ a live band.. it's so raw and exciting.

Originally Posted by ShirazRaqs

I feel soooo blessed that I still have the opportunity to dance to live music regularly. I LOVE IT!!! No other show makes me feel as energized, powerful, beautiful, and in the moment! .. BUT... some crazy stuff does happen when working with live music... and even though some of these 'moments' are just embaressing, crazy, (kinda creepy), or funny... I still love it' because they CAN happen because improv dancing to live music is just so REAL. (did that even make sense..? hope so!)

but one of my crazy stories was also a NYE show.. hmm...pattern here? ;)

Only for me it was a different band.. the regular band all had better paying gigs... so I guess the nightclub got stick with whomever they could manage to scrounge up last minute on NYE for a midnight-5am gig. .. yeah. ;)

so there was one violin player and a keyboard player, they couldn't find a drummer, but my normal singer was there. The band was so out of sync with each other and just not exactly crowd-pleasing.. the singer wanted me to go on really bad to help the night out and give the audience a distraction. However he couldn't stand the musicians apparently... so he comes up to sing with me... and to get the violin player to just STOP playing.. he grabs his bow... (the player was NOT happy about this or expecting it!) and then gives it to ME and tells everyone I'm going to dance with it...! The poor violin player looked sooo nervous and upset... and the singer was just trying not to laugh.. and I got to add a new prop to my repertoire for the night. the startled look on the poor guy's face just made the night memorable.
Needless to say I won't be taking *that* gig for NYE next year...

but seriously I just loooooove working w/ a live band.. it's so raw and exciting.

OMG! That's so awful it's hilarious!

Well, there is an oud player here that will play 3 or 4 minute taqsims between EACH song! lol. Talk about shimmy practice...

There's the keyboard player who gets drunk, refuses to play anything you request (out of a LARGE repertoire) AND steals your tips. lol... needless to say I don't work with him anymore.

... my favorite WTF live music moment? I danced w CD at a lovely little cafe that can best be described as Health Food/Lebanese/Hippy fusion. :) They feature live music often and following my show was an Appalachian style banjo player/singer.
Right before I went on he asked if I'd stick around after my show and do a song with him. I had read his bio- he's been performing over 20 or 30 years... I said "yes!" with both trepidation and enthusiasm. I have to say- it went GREAT! We both worked intuitively, I KNEW where the accents were coming and he and his banjo also provided some fun shimmy moments. I think I was laughing/giggling the whole time and so was the audience. So, that was the birth of Belly Dance Appalachian Fusion.

Crimeny! I have purchased violin bows for my kids- they can be more expensive than the violins! I bet he was nervous!!!

I just wish we had more opportunities for live music up here- working on cajoling friends into playing for us now!

Originally Posted by Doozer

Oh brother.....can you say 'ego'?

Yeah, really! In fact, it may have cost this star a few fans who probably saw through it.

I am very fortunate to have a least a moderate amount of opportunity to dance to live music here in Southern California, but I have to say that my first foray into that sorta scary world of real people playing real music over which the dancer has absolutely no control was pretty horrible.

I was a new, very green, performer; I had started doing very small segments of my mom's shows to get some experience several months previous to the Big Day.

Well, Mom and I went to a very well-known ME club in our area and saw a dancer do some floor work which, among other things I can't remember now, included placing her knees toward the musicians (towards the back of the stage), feet flat on the floor. Thus she was positioned such that her head and shoulders were on the floor, toward the audience, and her hips were up in the air facing the musicians. She then proceeded to place her hands on her bottom and circle her hips in the air. Yup. Best. Floorwork. Ever. At least her skirt was full; no slit-age.

Well, Mom decided that if this gal could do that, then she sure as heck could get me up on that stage with live musicians for some experience.

Well, the owner/manager agreed and I dutifully prepared to do a 10 minute maximum little something a few weeks later.

Well, either it was the world's longest 10 minutes or they really did go on forever, but those musicians, even when I motioned "cut" three different ways, completely ignored me. I finally made a couple of little turns, bowed, hopped off that stage and scurried to the "dressing room" (another fun story).

It was enough to put someone off to dancing with musicians ever again; mercifully, about 99.9% of my experience over the next 30 years have been very positive!

Deborah