Well, maybe not ‘ever’… but it was a good one.

Friday night I went to watch my friend dance at a little cafe in town. It was a fun night with her, her boyfriend, and two of our other friends. While we were there, a woman came in and asked if she’d be interested in dancing for an event the following night. Then she said she’d be interested in more than one dancer. So my friend came and got me from our table and introduced me to this woman. We talked a bit and agreed we’d do a half hour show the following night at a Persian New Year party. At 11:00 pm.

After which we wracked our brains trying to come up with 30 minutes worth of choreographed and non-choreographed dancing. We managed.

Last night we arrived at venue to find a VERY fun party in full swing. They had a rockin’ band playing with an excellent singer and almost everyone in the room was on the dance floor. Supposedly it was to be an event of at least 500 people, and from how crowded the floor was, I’d say they were all up dancing when we arrived.

At this point we looked at one another with the “uhoh” face. We’ve had this happen before. People having fun dancing at parties don’t usually like to have that interrupted to watch a couple of dancers get out and do their thing… they’d rather be doing it themselves.

But we were greeted warmly by the woman who hired us who said the band would be taking a break shortly, and at that time we would go on.

We quietly reassured one another that we were professionals and we would dance, and get paid, regardless of the reception of the crowd.

It came time to dance, they made an announcement, everyone went to sit down, and our music started.

Much to our surprise, and gratification, the energy in the room swelled when we started dancing. They were clapping, cheering, and having a great time. (Even through my extremely bad and wobbly dancing on goblets. I need to work on my balance more.)

When we got to our last two songs (roughly the last 12 minutes of the set) we started getting people up to dance. That’s when the money started flying. I don’t even know how many times someone came up and threw bills over my head. Very few people even bothered to try to tuck cash into our belts.

My favorite thing, though, was getting to dance with all these beautiful Persian women. They are so poised and graceful, and their movements so natural in dancing, several times I just wanted to stop dancing myself to step back and watch them. They grow up listening to this music and dancing to it, and it truly is second nature to them to dance as they do. They are simultaneously demure and sensual as they dance, something some of us try to achieve and can never quite manage.

Everyone was very kind to us the entire evening. The organizer insisted we dance an extra song, and she showered us with even more money, after which we were inundated with requests for our business cards and given many complimentary encouragements. (One woman said she had seen many, many dancers, and that we were the very best she’d ever seen. She added that she thought we should take our show to Vegas.)

I felt as though I had performed for a group of people with true class and refinement.

If only every gig could be so edifying.