I was in a magazine...in English!

These are the long awaited pics from the last dancing job I did back in February, my post on which you can see by clicking http://daysofbeckster.blogspot.com/2008/02/in-nomine-amoris.html. (I know there's a way to make the link look nicer, but my usual HTML trick ain't working!)

So anyway, for all of us who needed a translation of 'In Nomine Amoris' the kindly writer has obliged...
This is my "How DARE YOU have a higher leg extension than me" face.
Don't try this one with a hangover.
WooHOO! I'm like a windmill! Oooh, keep pulling shoulders down...
That all-important finger-hold for the turn...
Ah...too bad there's a mic stand in the way.
Uh huh, let's show 'em that nine minutes of pas de deux is pretty tiring.
Woh, red catsuits...Must mean it's one of those 'sexy dances'. Must try to be sexy!
Yeah, see I'm really ticklish under my arm....

Oh No, I won't go...

So, I've been offered a job on another cruise line (which will remain nameless lest they, like, sue me for revealing company procedure or something) and because I'm kinda irritated by their meagre offer, I'm going to post the "short version of the contract" exactly as it was sent to me (well, okay, I corrected a few typos)

Hi Rebecca,

Here is a short version of the contract, letter of intent to follow.

Rehearsals start 2nd June 08 in Northampton

Accomodation provided.

The cast is 12 dancers and 4 singers.

9 week rehearsal period

On board first performance 12th August date to get on board is still in discussion.

Shared accomodation on board.

We provide 5 main shows which I briefly spoke to you about and then the welcome show and farewell show .

We do have duties covering library for an hour etc. cast parties as well.

All our dancers start on a basic of $2000 and during the rehearsals it is half salary which we pay in pounds whist in UK.

From the day you step on the ship you are paid full salary even though there is a period of rehearsals whilst the old cast perform their last shows.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any more questions....I'm sure you have!

Not a great deal, right? And any seasoned sea-dog like me knows you're supposed to be given the EXACT hours of duties you'll be required to perform per week, ie 20 (a part-time job in itself, forget the dancing!) or 3, as was on my last ship (and to be honest I despised those!) plus they're supposed to give you a breakdown of WHAT those duties are.

But it this my lot? How come people seem to keep wanting to pack me off to sea? And by turning it down am I committing myself to a year of unemployment? Any job is better than none, for sure...

On Monday there are auditions for 'Grease' and 'Wicked' in the West End. My agent has not managed to get me an audition for either.
Just when I think I'm a successful performer I realise that when you're over 23 and haven't done a West End show in a while nobody wants to know, unless you're prepared to dress in white at 10am and hand out library books.

Sorry to vent, reader...

In Nomine Amoris

That's right folks, In the Name of Love (or 'luurve' when said after a show, and two drinks)
It's the name of the first production I've been in since leaving dat ole Cruisin' bidness.

The gig was in Portugal's Algarve, Lagoa to be precise, and at 75o euros for just one show (plus five days rehearsal) it was also twice the pay I'd have earned from a week at sea. I wish jobs came along like this more often....Here's the programme.

And look, me! I have no idea if my Biog is correct, it's all Portugese to me...

The three other dancers in the cast were the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, and way too talented to be kicking around with the likes of me.
Here are the two guys, after a particularly tough day of rehearsing, and about to go for a beer at a pasteleria across the street.

Taxis, flights, hotel accommodation in my own room

(just when I thought I'd eradicated it from my vocabulary, the Hotel Cristal!)
breakfast AND dinner all paid for -a local restaurant 'sponsored' us for the latter- plus music composed by an emotional Serbian named Zoran who actually cried during rehearsals, the show, seeing us interact at dinner (no joke, the guy loved us) added up to a pretty damn-near perfect job, even with pointe shoes on.
Here are mine, all pancaked up to look like extensions of my feet, which they most definitely are not.
I always have to ask myself how something so biologically wrong can look so pleasing onstage?

In a nutshell, it was an original work, and original choreography. (Read: nobody ever did it before, so I could call a few shots)
The dressing rooms were the nicest and newest I've ever been in. Check it out: FREE WATER!
Humble dancers never usually get such things.
And this shower is unbelieveable of a theatre its' size (350 pax).

The piano/violin/flute trio who accompanied us without conductor (we were only in the second act, time for nice long warm-up at the Get-Go!) made the whole thing unpredictable- one piece was decidedly slow- but lyrical and lovely. Not to get all artistic, but I could actually feel them. No tracks to fill, no old rehashing of Broadway, just us.

This is my partner and I, about a minute after pretty-much nailing our first pas de deux, called Nostalgia (but you have to say "NostalGIA" not the English "NosTALgia")

I'll have to work out how to put video on this thing and put it up here when I get the DVD through (just don't tell anyone, OK?)

My mum flew out to see me the day before the performance, to see the show and also to revisit Carvoeiro, the village in which we were staying and also the place we've holidayed when I was little, in this very villa actually.
I always think it's funny how life sometimes throws you opportunities like these (and even calls them NostalGIA!). Here we are exploring the resort we stayed in about 20 years ago.

I jumped into this pool from here,
and cracked my chin open...
and we used to eat here in this restaurant where the steaks come on sizzling hot stones.

My sister I remember fell into this fountain, and they used to have a Portugese dance troupe in this area with the fish mosaic.

Look, it was all so new when we first came here!

There's a bar for sale in my beloved square. Hmm, what would I call my bar?

We found a Donkey Protection Charity shop. I never saw one before. Burro's Bazar would be an awesome name for a bar! ...Right?

Eric, not to be outdone, flew out on the day of the performance, in true Rock n Roll fashion having driven all night after a gig to get to Stansted (cue Roy Orbison). Easyjet is a wonderful thing people!

After the performance and party, my new friends went home early Sunday morning.

Eric, Mum and I stayed until Monday, giving us a free day to go and explore Silves, an historic town which dates back to the Iron Age and boasts this impressive castle and Knight's Templar connections, although apparently Saudi Arabia has been trying to reclaim it since as they had resided in it for many years later.

I remember gazing through these long narrow windows as a child, now look! There's a man through this one, and he's my one!

I want to know what all these notches are about...sharpening arrows before shooting them through the windows?

As you can see, the weather is, and had been for the whole week, not great.

From the top of one of the castle turrets,
you can see a wonderful mausoleum and collection of buildings housing coffins (I have no idea what you're supposed to call them!), like I saw in Buenos Aires where Eva Peron is buried. I wonder if it has been overrun with cats like it's Argentinian counterpart.

We slept half the day, Eric catching up on his lack of sleep the night before (Ah!),

me just catching up due to poor sleep after a week of intensive dancing (I never ached so much in my whole career) and mum chilling out.

And then we went out and ate. Oh yes, we ate. Mushrooms, huge shrimps, steak, and more garlic than you could shake at Lestadt himself.

Back to the UK then, and back to unemployment.

NY and the Village Vanguard Jazz, but first, Me!

So, just because some people have been accusing me of not actually doing an honest day's work on the ship but simply schlepping round various ports, I'm putting a 'work' shot in. It's Nick and myself, about to give it some 'Chicago' dancing. I don't know why it came out this small, but it's just as well.

Now, on to other things. These are my trying-to-be-discreet-by-turning-off-my-flash-and-red-eye-reduction-on-the-camera-before-snapping efforts from our night out at the final half set of the Village Vanguard Orchestra in New York's Greenwich Village.

Yes, they're dark, but they capture the atmosphere of the place pretty well. We got in at a discounted rate of only $10 because by the time my man finished working, it was 11.30pm, the time the last set starts at the Village Vanguard. It would otherwise have been $30 to hear big-band jazz, not cheap even by my London standards.

The room was fairly small for such a large group of musicians and had all the elements required for a 'genuine' big-band experience, four trombones, sax and trumpets, of which the lead trumpet-player was of the crazy, frat-boy ilk etc. and one really great bassist.

Duncan was impressed.

Eric and I had been to The Village (we talk like locals now!) earlier in the day, for his appointment to try out some upright basses at a specialist store called David Gage, check out this showroom (I'm a regular undercover photographer now) and on our walk there I particularly liked this collection of tiles painted by locals after 9/11, some had really poignant messages on them.

After the Village Vanguard had finished their final set, and my company did the usual and sometimes profitable "Hey, I'm a musician/you're a musician" social thing, we got a tip-off to go to Smalls for more jazz.

This three-man outfit couldn't compare to the evening's previous entertainment, but we stayed a while anyways, and I did get a good shot of the bass player.

The perils of dancing

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Bond split Achieved!

OK, so before I even start writing about this, I have to say that the girl in the picture is not me, it's Lauren, the original girl cast to do this crazy move, and I'm pretty sure she does it better than me, I'm just so happy I got through 2 shows in the track! In rehearsal, I was aware of a tension, which suddenly turned into applause once I got through the move. It was great, a real rockstar moment. Seriously, it was even worth the (considerable) pain involved!
So, two new tracks done in as many shows, welcome back to cruising Becky! Yesterday was another show night, and tonight I'm free and going to see the farewell show with one of the cast members, Wolfie.

Oline the Dolphine (and the Can-can from hell!)

So, three nights ago (yup, the internet's been erratic these past few days) we did a full-length show with only 2 female dancer-ensemble members out of 4. Trying to cover a stage in a Can-can that's usually comprised of 4, screaming, kicking, skirt-shaking dancers takes some doing! It was the hardest show I ever did, due to extra parts I had to learn, including a rhumba where I had to hold metres-worth of my skirt during partnering to avoid falling down. But also, as my female line-captain agreed (the only lady who could empathise as she was the only one going through it with me!), it was an also a great buzz when we got through the 2nd show. We did it!

Anyway, 2 days ago was Dolphin day! I nearly missed it due to the fact I forgot there was a tender-boat ride involved in getting to the gangway in Cabo San Lucas (I know, I'm stupid, but when you're on the 2 hour library shift in the morning, you don't get to look outside!) but I made it.

Once inside, after signing various I-won't-sue-if-a-dolphin-eats-me waivers, you're given a wristband to put you into groups of 8. Ours was the grey group, or "gris" as our reserved table in the waiting area said. Benita, a friend informed me that this means "pig" in Swedish, so yup, I was in the Pig Group to swim with the dolphins. We were given the option of wetsuits, an option I'm glad I went for as it got pretty nippy after an hour in the water.

Eventually we were led in our groups to various points around a big lagoon pool. 6 dolphins came out and jumped high out of the water for us for a while (the equivalent of their Can-Can for the afternoon) and then Julio our dolphin trainer introduced us to our dolphin. Her name was Oline, and she was the oldest (at 26, pretty old for a dolphin) heaviest and bestest dolphin they had at Cabo Dolphin, according to Julio.

After showering, we jumped in the water and Oline swam slowly around us and through our group of paddling bodies, letting us pat her. Clayton, one of our acapella singers, said she felt like a giant hotdog, and I have to say it's not a bad descrition.

For the next hour, we hugged, kissed, danced with and got a ride on the dorsal fin of Oline. She danced while we sang Shakira (apparently her favourite singer) and we fed her food from our mouth!

Ocassionally I was struck with the notion of cruelty, I mean, how many times already today had these intelligent creatures performed in this way for groups of smiling tourists like us?

I did learn that baby dolphins have whiskers! They lose them as they grow older.

It was all very up-close, Oline hung around us very near at all times, but, clever girl that she is, she knew that's where her food was coming from.