They arrive, much like love, when you least expect them. The real treasures fill our souls in an enduring, deep way, leaving a tattoo of accomplishment and self-realization nothing and no one can erase. Priceless because no money, influences, "sleeping with your boss" or convenient "friends" can buy it.
The beautiful team of SALAMAT MASR (which I believe will be the FUTURE of Oriental Dance Cairo Festivals due to its quality and spirit) gathered yesterday afternoon/evening for a meeting and show. While I waited at the line to enter at one of the places I used to perform in Cairo, two egyptian tourist guides approached me speaking in portuguese.
-Are you Joana? - Asked one of them, clearly pleased to see me.
-Yes, I am. How are you?
-I am fine, even better now that I see you.
-Oh, thanks.
-Finally, you´re performing here again! We´re so happy you´re going to dance for us once more.
-No, I am not performing here anymore.
-Oh, really?! What a pity because you´re the best.
-...- Blushing, no answer.
-I mean it. All the clients we brought here were in love with you. Egyptians and foreigners, equally.
-I am very glad to know that.
-No, you don´t even know...they always said you ´re different from any other dancers and that you dance with your heart.
-Well, that´s my job. If I am an artist, then I HAVE to dance with my heart.
-Agree! But you did it in a way that touched the heart of your audiences too...- Then he smiled and asked if he could shake my hand, apologizing - at the same time - for "bothering me". Deeply tender, respectful, honest. No strings attached, no benefits to take from me. Pure.
I blushed again and again from the inside out, feeling that kind of warmth that will remain inside my chest for a long while, compensating for the doubts, disappointments with a "professional" environment that is not professional at all, giving me strenght and patience to believe that TALENT and QUALITY win, at the end of the battle (and, make no mistake, it is a BATTLE) over SMART ASSES and DISHONEST connections that serve no ART.
The cherry on the top of the cake was another sweet and unexpected comment coming from the Oriental Dance legend Zizi Mustafa * who was sitting in the audience of the show that followed. She just saw me playing around for a minute on stage (VERY rare thing to happen) with other dancers (my dear brother Mohamed el Sayed, included, of course!:)) and went out of her way to tell me:
You, you are. - She insisted, pointing with her finger at me, while the actual dancer who performed for us received a blank smile.
No, I am not a compliment junkie but it surely feels good to receive such spontaneous lovely feed-back from the most unexpected sources and at the most unexpected times. Specially when you almost lost faith in the whole THING and start to feel like a "fish out of the sea".
There are a lot of dance schools and marketing made or self proclaimed ORIENTAL DANCE STARS but...I ask myself: where are the ARTISTS?
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