This week’s blogger, Ms. Margaret Ying Drake, plays Teeny – the stylish, moody and rather troubled belly dancer and Jules’ on-again-off-again girlfriend. Now in real life, Margaret is a mesmerizing dancer with impeccable taste, but that’s where her similarities with Teeny end. Margaret is one of the sunniest and smartest beings I’ve met on my journey through Oh, Sophia thus far. And one of the toughest, she proved, when we shot our epic all-nighter – the Hookah Bar scene – my ode to the Bombay ‘item number’ and Teeny’s moment to shine.
But I’ll let Margaret tell you about it. Enjoy!
Margaret’s photo by Cristina Telespan
Considering that I am a native New Yorker – born and raised – I felt a little silly that I was the only person escorted to set in the lower east side by my father at 2:00 a.m. the night we shot the belly dance sequence. Living at home is an advantage when you’re a struggling actor, but it also allows your father to know that you’re ready to walk out the door at 1:00 a.m. to go filming. “St. Mark’s is no place to go by yourself at 2:00 a.m.,” he said. I don’t think he’s been to St. Mark’s Place in a very long time… or knows that the Lower East Side is often where I spend many late nights. But I let him accompany me right up to the front door of the hookah bar, just like he wanted to, and introduced him to the crew that was loading in. Then it was time to play!
After putting on an exorbitant amount of makeup, and probably the heaviest belly dance costume I own (of course, out of all the options, the one that weighed 15 pounds was Bornila’s favorite) I was ready to go, and we shot the outdoor scene with me and Lipica (who plays “Diya”). Moving inside the hookah bar, we planned out the master shot where Teeny dances through the bar. I don’t know how long we spent planning the shot, but it required that I dance over and over so that Gabe, Bornila and Eric knew the ins and outs of my movements. With 15 extra pounds, that gets to be quite the workout, and considering that my internal clock was totally off by starting my day at 1am, I was relieved that I had time to nap before the extras got there for the actual shoot.
And boy, what a nap that was! I sat on the edge of a bench and laid back.. and I was out like a light. Bornila woke me up about an hour later. It was time.
Air conditioners and fans were off to prevent sound issues. The front door was closed, windows sealed off to prevent any early morning light seeping in. Hookahs were lit up, glitter abounded (at Bornila’s demand for more and more sparkles, to which I, of course, happily complied) and the dance began. It didn’t take long for the sweat to start pouring. No ventilation, a 15 pound costume, and an unbreathable synthetic polyester skirt had me quickly exhausted and swearing to splurge on real silk for the rest of my belly dancing career. So many shots and angles, over and over again… I danced until I became somewhat loopy. I hadn’t eaten before I got to set because if I dance on a full stomach, I get sick. With only the hour-long nap, I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough time to digest, so I hadn’t eaten during rehearsal either. So now it was going on 9 hours since I had left for the shoot, and I was starting to wonder whether avoiding nausea was worth the starvation. Water alone wasn’t cutting it.
Still, I danced. It was the longest span of time I’d ever danced in my life, and it was glorious. Veil swooping, spinning, shimmying, undulating, back bending, fabulous belly dancing, over and over and over again! It was exhilarating and deliriously fun, and when we wrapped at noon, I stuffed myself with all the noodles my tired body could handle. It was a much-needed and deliciously satisfying ending to a fantastic experience.
