The Wandering Monkey

An update on what's been going on since my return to China.

We had a performance on the 19th and 20th.  It was our largest attended performance, which was during a concert for a Chinese big band.  We performed two dance numbers during a 1:45 long musical performance.  This was one of the most difficult performances we've ever had to get ready for.

When we began rehearsals, it was a weekend at my home.  We didn't have any choreography at all, and I had just selected one CD song which we would dance to.  We would do two numbers; the first a CD music selection of our choice; the second "In The Mood" which would be played by the live big band.

We finished the weekend meeting at my apartment, which was large enough to host our dancers: Andrea (the German champion), Chris (my dance partner) and Ramulas (my Shanghainese protege).  The first meeting went well, and we said we'd meet again on Tuesday.

On Tuesday the whole group meets again, this time at a dance studio we managed to get ahold of.  Again, the rehearsal goes fine.  Andrea brings her camera and films the rehearsal.  She says she'll email the video to each of us.  I'm thinking the video is too big for email.  I just tell her to bring it on Sunday to our regular dance night and she can give it to us by CD.


"But Sunday will be too late," she says. 

I counter, "What do you mean?" 

She says: "The show is this Friday."

I nearly pooped my britches.  I thought it was NEXT Friday.  I feel a sudden wave of panic.  We're not ready!, I think.  It's Tuesday and we don't even have choreography finished for a single one of the songs.  I ask everyone, "Who can meet tomorrow?"  Andrea cannot, but Chris and Ramulas can.  So we all meet again, in the same borrowed dance studio.

We have another decent rehearsal, but now we've added a great deal to the choreography.  It's getting too much for me to memorize.  I've never been strong at memorizing routines, especially under pressure.  And, since Andrea is not present at the rehearsal, I think we must keep all the choreography relatively easy to follow, since she's not going to be able to rehearse with us at all until just before the show.

Now Wednesday, Ramulas and I both present in the dance studio, waiting.  My dance partner is not present at our meeting time.  No word on when she is to arrive.  Ramulas gets a phone call from her, and says he's going upstairs to show help her find her way in.  I wait 5 minutes.  10 minutes.  OK, I sit down and start going through the choreography.  15 minutes.  I think, someone should be back now.  20, 25, 30.  I call Chris and no answer.  35.  I call Ramulas, and he's says they'll be coming very shortly.  40.  and at 45, they stroll in.

I am beyond upset.  I'm doing everything I can do to contain my temper.  I can't start yelling, because it will just upset the others, but 45 minutes late for a 2-hour rehearsal!!!  I try to go on best I can, but I've become so upset by this that I can barely think clearly.  I excuse myself and go out to the bathroom to try to clear my head and get focused for the rehearsal.  This lateness of my dance partner had become a chronic problem.  In the past several months, she was more often late than not to our regular Sunday events -- from 5 minutes to a half hour.  And when she arrives she's a quick with a smile and an 'Oh sorry!' and we're supposed to just move on.

Anyhow, I made it through the rehearsal, though not the best I could have.  I have a hard time even looking straight at her, because I am disgusted by her lack of concern.  As to the reasons I am upset:

Two days later in a phone conversation, we hash this out.  It takes three hours.  From 12 to 3am, maybe longer.  But I'm able to finally express just how upset I am that she's chronically late.  If you are an instructor and late to your own class, what's the deal?  I'm also upset, because:
* I talked to both my assistant instructors, and neither of them was too keen on teaching.  Both wanted me to take over again ASAP when I returned.
* They also both said that if I stopped teaching, they would also stop.

These two were supposed to be the future of swing dancing in China.  I wanted to stop teaching, get them to take over, and go on and get an office job.  A computer job.  Make some money.  Go to swing on weekends, when I feel like it, if I feel like it.  But it's now clear to me that this goal will not happen.  If I stop being personally involved, the whole project will end within two weeks.  It will not carry on.  It will not become part of the Chinese culture.  And personally, my life for the past two years will not amount to any tangible accomplishment, aside from media exposure.

This realization hits me pretty hard.  My relationship with my own project was not stable.  I was coming to terms with the fact that it could not live on its own, and I needed to stay involved.  But I was not generating enough cash from the current scope of the project to keep involved.  And so it seemed doomed.  Doomed indeed.

So, facing this situation, I look at my available cash reserves - about two months.  I look at my options for part time work, and see if I can keep alive based on this.  And I look at my options for full time work which would let me keep doing the swing activites on the side.  And I'm feeling a great deal of pressure now.  I want to give the swing effort one more chance.  We've got a good opportunity with this performance, and I want to make a good show of it.

And when my vital, vital dance partner comes 45 minutes late with nothing more than a cute smile and excuse #23 of 100 possible excuses, I'm feeling that high blood pressure, you know?

The talk goes on about three hours.  I illustrate my position to her.  We go back and forth about all sorts of things; how relationships are managed, how friendship and responsibility in teaching are not the same thing; how we will have one set of rules with me as her friend, and another set of rules with me as her dance leader.  And on, and on, at least five times repeating and rediscussing every major point.  But in the end, it worked.

I never appreciated why bosses cared so much about punctuality.  What is 5 minutes, anyhow?  I'm probably one of the worst offenders, historically, of the punctuality rule during all my jobs.  But I know why it's important in this case.  My original dance partner had a problem with arriving to class on time, and eventually it lead to other things, culminating our inability to teach together.  I very much saw this same trend with my current partner.  Lack of responsibility for coming on time is a symptom, not just a problem.  It represents lack of interest and / or dedication to the job.  But from a more practical point of view, the class beings at 6pm!  Students are present, paying for a class, and the assistant instructor shows up late!

Before our talk, I was really on the edge.  I was prepared to start seeking a new partner.  This is no small task.  This is nothing I would ever consider if I had a choice in the matter.  To find a new partner, you must look at 100 people who have the skill to be a partner.  Not too many people are skilled enough, but amongst those who are, very few have the other things needed; dedication, responsibility, interest, compatible personality, willingness to teach, and so forth.  Plus, it takes 5 months to train a person, in the best of circumstances.  Losing a dance partner is like losing a work partner, or losing a girlfriend whom you care greatly about.  You can't just replace them.  It takes time, looking, and many failed attempts before you can find the right one.

But I am able to illustrate to her the delicate condition of the swing movement right now.  I have accepted that I am key to its success or failure.  As I go, so goes Shanghai, and if Shanghai goes, Beijing's position is weakened greatly.  And the fledgeling groups in Najing and Hong Kong, barely breathing now, become but a vague memory a few months from now.  And as such, so much depends on my ability to depend on my dance partner.  I need her to accept her responsibility as such.  And she understands, finally.

So, that all done...

The show went very well.  I was very nervous before the performance.  We had never as a group completed the choreography from the beginning to the end without stopping at least once (and you can't stop in a performance!)  Ramulas had learned almost the whole routine, but I kept forgetting my position.  I knew all the moves, but I concentrated on getting one done, and the next one would blank from my mind.  In the end, Chris could remember the routine.  So she verbally cued me throughout the dance as to the name of the next segment, and I pulled it off fine.  Five times I needed her to remind me for our first dance, but the viewer would never know it.

Then, on the second night, we did it again.  I am still very stressed, very.  I know that if this performance goes well, we may have a shot at making something workable.  If it flops, we don't have any chances to redeem ourselves before the two month deadline.  This time, however, I only need to be reminded two times during the dance what the next move is (!) :-)

The show ends.  The promoter is very happy.  The people in the audience really came alive when we performed.  As I often say, we connect the audience to the music in a way they can see as well as hear.

In the other part of my life, in the daytimes:

I have been talking a lot with a guy who wants to set up a computer game company out here.  I was referred to him from an old co-worked of mine, who had worked at the my old computer game company on Los Angeles.  This local guy now had a potential investor, and the two of them are meeting constantly, so I'm more interested.  He's holding meetings, talking to lots of people, and generating a lot of excitement.  I'm not sure how well it will all work out, but I'm on board and contributing quite a bit of things to the project and helping focus the priorities.

Oddly enough, out of the blue another friend of mine says, "I think we have a potential investor for the dance studio".  I meet with this guy just two days ago.  I show him the information about swing dance, including a video of the well-done performance from Friday.  In the video, we are on the big stage, with the big band playing behind us, wearing our costumes and looking cool and dapper.  I must admit, I really was impressed watching it.

The person we meet is the investor's agent.  He says his investor may want to put his support behind our swing dancing plan.  "It's about time," I think.  I tell him all of the good news and good things about swing.  And I think about all the work I've put in so far to get this distance.  And so now, oddly enough, I'm looking at an entirely new picture.  What a difference a day makes.

It's still not certain, but there's as good of a chance now as there ever has been.  I've done some very detailed financial and operational analysis, including taking into account all of the predictable pitfalls of the industry.  I take into account, for instance, the fact that for two weeks in a year all business grinds to a halt, so I work this into the financial plan.  I take into account the fact that you will have to give 'discounts' to certain people.  I analyze the likely usage of a dance studio, and the minimum quantity of students needed to maintain operations, and minimum teachers, and so on.  I provide charts of our informal analysis of our target demographic, and approximate demographics of the Chinese as well.

In the end, I walk away from this meeting with the investor's agent interested, and asking me for the business plan and executive summary.  This is a good end result, as good as it can be.  So now I am preparing said things, and anticipating any expected responses.  And so on, and so on.

When I get home, I think to myself, of all the people in the world right now, who has the right combinations of skills in the right areas to pull this deal off?  I think just me.  There are other dancers, and other business people, and many people doing both in Shanghai, but who else could manage this specific deal?  If it is to be anyone, it would be me.  So I'm off to make some documents and some business plans and get ready for the investor meeting, which will hopefully happen next week.

Peace,
=J