this week

What a week!

A WEEK OF DIRTY DANCING FOR FELIX BUSUTTIL. INTERVIEW BY ZILLAH BUGEJA

Monday
Teaching starts at 5pm till about 9pm, except for Fridays. I’m currently working on the new cabarets Yada will be performing in this season, one at Selmun and hopefully another at Comino. We are preparing for Sardegna on 6 June, where a school invites us every year to perform in an open-air show with a church for a backdrop, in the Comune di Sinnai. The school gets financial help from the comune to bring foreigners over to dance.
This is in stark contrast to the lack of financial support locally, especially when it comes to using our theatres. Why should a local company pay the same amount as a foreign one? We need a conscious government to alleviate the financial burdens. It would be impossible to pay everybody involved in a show for all the hours involved. We survive because people love it. You always fear that you’ll get no for an answer from the authorities when asking for assistance. There is mismanagement of public funds – there is enough money out there. If we didn’t have the backing of a school we wouldn’t survive.

Tuesday
I always sleep at 3am, I’m a night person, and not able to sleep easily. So I wake up at 10am or 11am, and if anyone suggests a meeting at 8am I cringe.
Days starts with a cup of tea. Catherine my assistant comes over because I run the office from home, and we plan who’s doing what and where and how.
Last week was spent on TV to promote Dirty Dancing. There’s so much happening on the island that you still need to work to make your voice heard. People tell me they haven’t seen our advertising – it was everywhere, we had billboards, flyers, leaflets, but it’s still not enough.
I’m fine with TV, but I hate being asked the same questions. I mean, everyone knows I’m Gozitan. I’d rather someone asks me what I feel and believe is right and wrong.

Wednesday
Had a couple of classes at 6pm. Managed to stay quite calm, as usual, in spite of the MCC show. When I do get into a bad mood, I try not to talk, think about the moment and about what I’m doing, and say to myself, it’s alright, and I’m fine. They tend to disappear that way. I’m positive because I know that others are feeding off it!
If I had to live in England I’d have a different way of thinking. Born and raised in Catholic Gozo and having the responsibility of teaching children, I am diplomatic in what I say. I’m the one who’ll fight for justice if something angers me and I don’t care if people call me blue, red, green or black.
Dance is so powerful. Malta has so much talent and there is so much happening on the theatre scene too. The authorities must invest more money in the arts: why is all that money pumped into a national football team? Why shouldn’t we have a national dance company? They would travel, do well, and be ambassadors, not only score but score very well.
Maltese always have to travel abroad to be successful. Why do we have to wait for the Eurovision to come along which is such an unfair competition, to expose our singers?
Rehearsals in the evening went on quite late, till 10.30pm.

Thursday
Feeling that this is a peaceful week. Dress rehearsal today for Dirty Dancing and it was also the first show at the Oracle Casino where we are the resident dancers. It’s a cabaret which starts at about 9.30pm. Spent the morning preparing costumes. It was the opening night and the place was packed!
Which reminds me, how come Fabrizio had Danish dancers? God knows how much they were paid. Weren’t Maltese dancers good enough?
I air these frustrations only so that we can better ourselves, as dancers and as a nation. There is a stigma here that dance is only for girls, and that dedication to dance will get you nowhere, just as my mother used to say to me. For Dirty Dancing we used a lot of outsiders as well, men from the Latin American sphere were willing to dance for us. There really are excellent dancers here.

Friday
Usual routine. People want light entertainment, we’re fed up of politics and all the rubbish that’s around us. We just want to have a good time!
Dance is not considered as an education locally. Abroad you can get your O or A level in dance. Why do parents here have to pay VAT on dance lessons? Dancing teaches aesthetics, love of beauty and of pain, how to survive, how to suffer and bleed. You grow as a person, spiritually and psychologically. I don’t think it should be taxed like that.
As a performer, you have to be a chameleon, always changing, always shocking. We’re traditionalists here, but we love being shocked, as long as feelings aren’t hurt.
I started off with Irish dance, then went on to medieval, tango and now 60s. Next year it’ll be Madonna, where the show will be a reflection of everyone’s life, following her evolving from naff to erotic to a pure person. It’s going to be a wee bit naughty, with three women playing the Madonna role.
We always try to go out after every performance, so 50 to 60 of us descend somewhere.

Saturday
Ate at home. Tend to watch the news on the hour every hour. Euronews is on every day and I watch a lot of Living channel because I love life.
In the afternoon I was teaching kids which was also a preparation for the summer show. I was quite calm.
Played to a full house. It gives you the courage to put up more productions and work harder. This was our most successful production to date, but not financially. The pool cost Lm1,500 for a two minute scene…I had to be loyal to the film. We had Afghan hounds and motorcycles, the works! And then it was time to party at Salvino’s after the show.

Sunday
Went to mass. I’m a strong believer, although not a staunch Catholic. Every single day I thank God and tell Him that without Him I’m nothing.
I’m very disciplined with the children at the school. Maybe it’s my voice, or that I tower over them, but they are very well behaved and I think it’s because they know they can treat me as a friend. Teaching 250 kids and 250 adults and preparing for the end of term show is a headache, but not a migraine, I love it!
Pigged out at Cara’s, something I tend to do for energy. As preparation for the show, I boost the dancers by doing a physical warm-up and a psychological one too. They make this cocoon, close eyes and breathe out all negativity, feel warm all over. We hold hands and feel that we’re a team – it’s very powerful.
Played to a packed house. The whole audience was dancing at the end and nobody wanted to leave! On stage, Justin and myself were thrown in the pool! We recovered by drinking champagne and threw a mini party for everybody.
Off to Hanks after the show. They played the Dirty Dancing soundtrack and we celebrated till the early hours.