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For three years, I have been in China teaching Swing Dancing. Now I'm wandering yet again...
2004-11-02
Latest problem
Last week the swing dance night went very well. I approached the bar and asked them if they were could hold another dance night, either on Thursday or Wednesday. They said they were going to do salsa every day of the week. I said, OK, though I was dissapointed, and walked around the neighborhood to find another place we might be able to hold our dancing. I went to the place which used to be called Jazz Seeker, which has been sold and is under new management. I was hoping they would be struggling for business and we could start up a Wednesday night there again. But the new owner are foreigners and they have their own plans on the place. I talked to the manager, who was very polite about it, but he said the only way we could have a dance night there would be if we rented out the entire venue, as if for a private party. This felt like a stick in the gut. Suddenly I feel like I'm in the wrong place; like I'm wearing street clothes to a formal event and everyone's looking at me. So I take off and go home.
So at this point, I don't know where I'm going to put the new night. But I make plans to add a new performance class on our regular Sunday night. My partner Andrea is going to teach her styles for dancing and addditional tricks to the girls, and I'm going to teach aerials and throw-the-girl-around steps. This will be for the people who are in our dancing troupe, so that we are prepared the next time an offer comes to do a show.
Yesterday I called our Sunday venue. I knew they had a salsa class in the afternoon, but we had had the evenings to ourselves. So I spoke to the manager, and she said the salsa class was going to run until 7pm, then they would have salsa dancing. I was like, "What?" I confirmed the information. "So what are we supposed to do with swing dancing?" I asked her. She said, "You can continue to dance on the roof terrace." This is an open-air porch-like thing on the roof of the building. However, we had only gone up there for fun. We knew we could not remain there for much more than a couple of weeks now that the weather was turning bad. So I tell her that this won't work, and she says we should have a meeting with the salsa guy, Bob, a person I have met and had lunch with before.
So I make my first call to Bob, and I'm still not quite upset. I talk to Bob, and he's evasive. I ask him what's up with salsa night on our Sundays, and I tell him that we have had the place on Sundays and he's moving into our territory. He said at first, "I cannot give you an answer right now" and similar things like this. The ironic thing was, just last Sunday I saw Bob doing the afternoon class and he said he was going to make a dance company and wanted me to join it. And now I've found he's expanded into the very time in which I had reserved for teaching. I confront him on this, and he says "the management wanted this" and so forth. I am still pretty calm, so I say I'm sure we can work something out, and ask to meet. He says he'll get back to me.
I think about this a while, and I get pissed off. Bob knew we were there on Sundays, and he didn't even bother to check to see if there had been a possible conflict. Granted the bar management should have said something, but apparently in the negotiation the swing dance role had been dismissed as 'minor' and not a consideration. So I'm not mad at the bar because they are the boss and I have to go to them for a decision. But I am mad at Bob, very mad, especially since he's acting as if he had no knowledge this would cause me a problem. I call him again, and I'm very upset. I ask him again why he did the Sunday night thing, and he again tried to claim he was not responsible, that 'management wanted it'. So I just tell him point blank: "You know what I think. I think YOU requested the night in the first place." At this he did admit that yes, he did. And I say, "And we were already there. You are pushing us out!" He went on to say that we could have the balcony, and this just made me more pissed. I was already there! The little **&*&*&*&*&*&.
So anyhow, I do know this guy as an acqauintence. I also know him by reputation. A friend of mine says he's sneaky, although I'd seen nothing up to this point which would have made me agree. So I tell this guy, "We need the Swing night on Sunday. You already have six other days here! Plus you have events outside in other places. You don't NEED Sunday! But we have only this one night, at only this one location. Our other Wednesday location has gone out of business and if this one goes away, we will be in a very bad situation!" So, with that, I asked him to withdraw his offer to teach on Sundays. I don't know how effective that may be. He's a weasel so he's no going to do it on principle. Plus he's got some other teacher involved as well, so he's not going to burn them for the sake of us. I tried to make a meeting time with him and the swing folks and management together, but he's dodging it.
So, at 3pm today, 2 hours from now, I head out to Silver Moon. I'm asking some of my people to come with because I am not feeling very strong right now and I need the strength of the group to get me through this one. Just last week we began our classes, and I sold monthly lessons to a bunch of people! And my old partner Kellian has been bringing in about 25 college kids from here school every week. We were just beginning to make some progress, and if this falls through I just don't know what to do next. This can't fall through. We have to keep it and fight for it.
-J
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