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First real post, woot!
So I am a professional bellydancer.
The owner of one restaurant where I perform is just totally rude to his dancers. To be fair, he comes from a culture where dancers are on the same social rung as prostitutes. He just doesn't get the fact that bellydancers in the States are often educated professionals... I even know a few dancers with PhD's. But even though dancer after dancer has lectured him -- and many have quit and let him know why -- he continues to be a jerk. He expects dancers to come in as soon as he snaps his fingers, even though most of us live in the 'burbs, and gets annoyed when we remind him that he needs to give an hour's notice. It's like we're not real people and can materialize in an instant. He hits on the dancers and is also a huge pain in the ass about paying. His favorite excuse is that he "ran out of checks."
Tonight I had food poisoning and it was my night to dance. I should have looked for a sub at the first sign of tummy trouble and instead tried to suck it up and just deal, so I bear a great deal of responsibility for what happened. But I told him as soon as I realized how sick I was (over an hour before the show) and asked him to look for a sub right away. After he lied to me and told me he'd called everyone and nobody could do it, I reiterated, "I can do a set if nobody else can come in." He finally DID call right before showtime, and made a point of doing so in front of me so I could hear his passive-aggressive remarks. Of course by then everyone had eaten dinner and had a full tummy and couldn't dance. If he'd just called when I first told him to he could have probably found a sub.
It is a point of pride that I have never cancelled a gig, I danced on a sprained ankle once. I did a private party -- the most demanding type of gig -- the night right after I found out my dad had cancer. NEVER cancelled, ever.
So I guzzled down some tea with cumin to settle my stomach and danced even though I'd been sick in his bathroom and felt like crap. I danced a shorter set (18 minutes instead of 25, which is about as long as one table can pay attention to a dancer anyway, since I was there at the request of one large group and the rest of the restaurant was empty) and I offered a huge discount. Luckily the people at the table were an awesome audience, they clapped and sang along and were soooo nice. They never found out I was sick and I'm sure didn't even notice that the set was a little shorter.
He always keeps dancers waiting, too. I was there for three hours altogether and only about 20 minutes of that was spent dancing and changing. I swear I had to sit around and wait 45 minutes after the show was over to get paid, even though the owner must have known all I wanted to do was go home and get into bed! The restaurant was almost empty so there was no way the owner was busy. From him I wasn't expecting an "I admire your work ethic, Zoe." But I didn't even get a "thank you!" After sitting there for all that time waiting -- and seeing him wander in and out of the kitchen and walk past me several times -- he came out and asked, "OK, so do I pay you for dancing tongiht?"
Um, yes, sorry. I still came here from the suburbs and danced for you!
I apologized again for being such a pain in the ass about dancing and having to shorten the set and all he said was a quick "Don't worry about it" with no eye contact and left.
I only took home $40 from the restaurant, a big discount off the standard $65 for a 25-minute set. I live in a place where the cost of living is very high, so for the time I spent there I made barely a living wage for dancing when I was miserably ill, and that's not counting driving time. The upside is that that really nice table gave me $15 in tips!
OK, now that I've gotten that out of my system I actually will go to bed.
So I am a professional bellydancer.
The owner of one restaurant where I perform is just totally rude to his dancers. To be fair, he comes from a culture where dancers are on the same social rung as prostitutes. He just doesn't get the fact that bellydancers in the States are often educated professionals... I even know a few dancers with PhD's. But even though dancer after dancer has lectured him -- and many have quit and let him know why -- he continues to be a jerk. He expects dancers to come in as soon as he snaps his fingers, even though most of us live in the 'burbs, and gets annoyed when we remind him that he needs to give an hour's notice. It's like we're not real people and can materialize in an instant. He hits on the dancers and is also a huge pain in the ass about paying. His favorite excuse is that he "ran out of checks."
Tonight I had food poisoning and it was my night to dance. I should have looked for a sub at the first sign of tummy trouble and instead tried to suck it up and just deal, so I bear a great deal of responsibility for what happened. But I told him as soon as I realized how sick I was (over an hour before the show) and asked him to look for a sub right away. After he lied to me and told me he'd called everyone and nobody could do it, I reiterated, "I can do a set if nobody else can come in." He finally DID call right before showtime, and made a point of doing so in front of me so I could hear his passive-aggressive remarks. Of course by then everyone had eaten dinner and had a full tummy and couldn't dance. If he'd just called when I first told him to he could have probably found a sub.
It is a point of pride that I have never cancelled a gig, I danced on a sprained ankle once. I did a private party -- the most demanding type of gig -- the night right after I found out my dad had cancer. NEVER cancelled, ever.
So I guzzled down some tea with cumin to settle my stomach and danced even though I'd been sick in his bathroom and felt like crap. I danced a shorter set (18 minutes instead of 25, which is about as long as one table can pay attention to a dancer anyway, since I was there at the request of one large group and the rest of the restaurant was empty) and I offered a huge discount. Luckily the people at the table were an awesome audience, they clapped and sang along and were soooo nice. They never found out I was sick and I'm sure didn't even notice that the set was a little shorter.
He always keeps dancers waiting, too. I was there for three hours altogether and only about 20 minutes of that was spent dancing and changing. I swear I had to sit around and wait 45 minutes after the show was over to get paid, even though the owner must have known all I wanted to do was go home and get into bed! The restaurant was almost empty so there was no way the owner was busy. From him I wasn't expecting an "I admire your work ethic, Zoe." But I didn't even get a "thank you!" After sitting there for all that time waiting -- and seeing him wander in and out of the kitchen and walk past me several times -- he came out and asked, "OK, so do I pay you for dancing tongiht?"
Um, yes, sorry. I still came here from the suburbs and danced for you!
I apologized again for being such a pain in the ass about dancing and having to shorten the set and all he said was a quick "Don't worry about it" with no eye contact and left.
I only took home $40 from the restaurant, a big discount off the standard $65 for a 25-minute set. I live in a place where the cost of living is very high, so for the time I spent there I made barely a living wage for dancing when I was miserably ill, and that's not counting driving time. The upside is that that really nice table gave me $15 in tips!
OK, now that I've gotten that out of my system I actually will go to bed.
and please don't hate us.
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