Hello, all.

I was talking to some restaurant owners recently, and they told me that they are interested in setting up a steady belly dance gig at their restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights, culminating in a huge New Years party at the end of the year.

I'm in a weird position with this, as these people would rather work through me, at least initially ... but the last thing I want to do is become the coordinator of this arrangement ... especially the unpaid coordinator, at that, the one who gets called at the last minute and has to find a sub, ha ha. So, I guess I'm willing to be the initial go-between, make the first round of introductions and help work out some the knots in the contracts, but after that, I think the business of bellydancing is best left to the business owners and the belly dancers.

Here's the other catch ... As is the case in so many other restaurant gigs, there was a clear, spoken expectation that the dancers be "professional and young" ... and the hinted expectation that they be "pretty" and "slender" ... At the time, I didn't feel like ruining an otherwise pleasant conversation with some culture-clashing, values-based debate about art and sexism, etc, so I just said that I would pass the word along.

If anybody is interested, PM me on Tribe for my personal email address and home phone number, and we can talk about this more, including details about the restaurant, etc. Thanks.