The picture I am sharing here is two different nights at a restaurant in the San Fernando Valley in the late 1980s. John Bilezikjian to the left and Souhail Kaspar to the right. This is the last regular gig I had with John. I worked other places after that and then retired in 1994. John has this far-away admiring look…… cause he loved that costume on the right. He said it reminded him of a dancer he use to know from way back. He rarely made comments about costuming, but this costume was the exception. I met John in 1978 and worked with him at many many nightclub gigs. I cant remember most of them because my brain is not what it used to be. But I do remember The Moroccan House. My 3 year old daughter Elayssa Thompson would be there often with her daddy and she would either be sitting on John Bilejikjians knee or dancing on the booth bench between John and her dad. The dancing was more like bouncing….to the recorded music playing during our breaks. John would be laughing while her father said dance shawa dance! (Shawa is an endearment in Romany) Those were special times… Most dancers of the era I am from will probably understand perfectly what I mean when i say we bond with the music and the musician during the show. It moves through us and becomes us and we become it. It was in the moment and of the moment. And more so with Johns music because it was so inately Joyous. So, there is an unspoken bond that deapens the longer you work with someone. Plus it really helps when that musician is the nicest most supportive person ever to work with; who talked to you like a friend, an equal. (Most musicians kept their distance). So, to all of the dancers who worked with him and bonded though the music….you understand and feel with me…. we are all so bereft so utterly devistated and speechless because he is gone.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 05:52:25 +0000
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