Having just arrived in Sydney spring a year after leaving for Parisian autumn, I’ve been catching up with friends who have been asking what I got up to. To remind myself about what went on behind the scenes, I thought I’d jot a memoire and share it here.
2018 was the first winter I experienced in 10 years. Being an antipodean wimp when it comes to the cooler weather, I had figured out that winter was an option and planned my trips accordingly. I thus enjoyed sparkling Sydney summers and early autumns following by fresh and hopeful European springs and festive summers, then sunny North African autumns, crisp but sunny Christmases in the Pyrenees then back to Oz.
However, this happy cycle broke when I fell sick last April on a trip to tap dance and write stories in Cairo (a cocktail of likely salmonella, pollution, post traumatic shock and lack of sleep sent me into a loopy panic and 10 days in hospital. Won’t go into detail but here’s a piece published in Get Lost magazine on when it was all kicking in!)
After the (finally not so unpleasant) hospital (thankfully I had management, the embassy and family spring into action) where I renamed the nurses Nefertiti, Hatshepsut etc, played the harmonica then had to fly home and lay low. I got through the winter and the slump with help from family, the puppies and a new posse of friends- the Sydney jazz musos. Thursday nights were a blast. We’d meet at Jay Dahzen’s gig, jam with her then hop around various other jazz venues. These talented, generous musicians soon became friends and I’m eternally grateful for Jay, Courtney, Rob, Di, Naomi, Tom, Ann, Dan, Richard and several others and their tunes, passion and for making me feel a valued part of life again.
Here’s a little tap with the fabulous Dan Barnett Big Band just before leaving town… (he’s releasing an album next week that you can find out about and order here).
Then, luckily, I landed my first book contract- The Art Lover’s Guide to Paris. I was thrilled. Then panicked. But with encouragements from friends and family, I dived into research and after two weeks of not being able to eat but reading everything I could get my hands on about art in Paris, I booked my ticket and headed back to the French capital.
I have become an advocate for stop overs. Us Australians have around 23 hours of flying before reaching Europe and it can be a tad long! Getting out of the airport not just the plane at the necessary change of crafts is rewarding (although direct flights have already started from Perth and planned for Sydney). Not only do you get to stretch your legs, breathe and feel half human again, it’s the chance to explore a new, exotic location. (Here’s my Vietnam story). This time Jade, my speedy travel agent (who used to be my speedy hair and make up genius for my cabaret show ‘Parisian Rendez Vous’!) booked me for a 3 hour Singapore change and a 3 day Dubai stopover. 3 x 71/2 hours. Much more civilised than 23 hours!
In Singapore I called a beautiful jazz singer and tap dancer friend Alex Hsieh. I was in luck- there was a jazz jam happening as I landed! I was advised (not by her) to stay at the airport, but the moment I considered staying put, I thought ‘that’s it, my life is over if I have no sense of adventure left’. So I whipped over to the cute little jazz club off an alley of restaurants and bars in the balmy eve and grabbed a seat. Ten minutes later Alex arrived as cheerful as ever. Knowning all the musicians, she jumped on stage for the next song to sing. I tapped, her friend filmed, then I dashed back to the airport despite a sudden downpour and not finding a taxi…
After another 7 hours I landed in Dubai and the next 3 days consisted of catching up with Ruby TV publisher David, sleeping off the jet lag, seeing Egyptian DJ friend Amir Sharara play, going dancing, taking a boat trip, swimming (in crazy salty and too warm water) and eating seafood. Another 7 hours and I arrived in Paris with zero jet lag left! Highly recommended (and let me know if you need Jade’s contact!).
Paris is beautiful in autumn and I plunged into the book research. The first exhibition I attended in a ‘cool’ new gallery in the trendy Marais was a pair of underpants and a t-shirt on the ground in the basement splattered with a few dollops of paint. Seriously.
I shouted my friend Lila a drink to apologise for inviting her. Moving on, I started some serious gallery hopping with Lila and other friends, sometimes alone. I visited museums, discovered public art, attended the open door festivals, met a new Australian pal Pin at a cocktail at Sothersby’s, bidded at an art auction with Pin for an art lawyer (I didn’t win but the experience was strangely thrilling), interviewed the fabulous Kader Attia and a bunch of other artists and art experts, attended more fairs, tried a sketch class with Annie, stayed out till 7am on a barge on the Seine with artists discussing art and life and made day trips to Fontainebleau, Giverny and Versaille with Pacino and discovered the amazing Palace hotels (a hot chocolate or tea may cost 15 Euros but I figured the experience was part of the book and in the rapidly descending European temperatures, one needs something to boost the morale!).
Listening to Debussy on loop with white tulips on my desk helped the writing flow and before I knew it I had written 50K words and had to cut 10K- so much for being terrified for the length. Phew. The book will be out in Feb 2019 with White Owl Books! Email me if you want to be notified when out, or I’ll post here and on Facebook.
Christmas in the Pyrenees was typically French with foie gras, oysters, roasts, chocolate, log fires, piano sessions and stunning basque country drives.
In early 2019 I got a call from Algeria and was invited to perform a tap dance in traditional attire at the Algiers Fashion Night. It was wonderful to head back after two years and was great to meet the designers, the journalist and reunite with the team at Index Communication, hang out with the official photographer, the talented and fun Dutchman Rob Schreuder, and do TV interviews (mostly I love doing TV in Algiers, I feel like I’ve flown in from outer space or the future). We got great coverage and write ups and they’re planning the next one for next year. http://www.rubytv.net/runway-magic-in-algiers/
Our manager Tarik organised an incredible guided tour of the Casbah, including a psychedelic pit stop at a tea house, that I’m hoping to write an article about soon, then I extended my trip to visit my gorgeous cousins in the towns of Jijel and Béjaïa and catch up with friends, the wonderful Kirk from the Canadian embassy (nope there’s no Australian one) and met Australian photographer Anita Hammadache (who takes emotive photos of daily life in Algeria) reconnected with the generous and talented choreographer Tarik , the fabulous Algerian haut couture designer friend Rym, as well as friends Naima, Souad and a few others. Was also very impressed by the Algerian military who located my missing camera in less than 24 hours!
Then I got food poisoning and missed my plane. After vomiting for about a day, I was whisked off to the family home in the mountains of a friend for recovery with fresh floral air, local organic figs, olives, honey and herbs. Once better I climbed olive trees, danced in fields of flowers, siesta-ed amongst the local bees, met a donkey whom I feel in love with, marvelled at the bright white mountain goats, visited the ruins, meditated to the birdsong, got a thrill from the fox howls and drank in the warmth of log fires and gasped at the shooting stars.
Back in Algiers, a second tap performance was more spontaneous, at the Palais de la Culture with the legend Lotfi Attar. Unfortunately the security were not down with my mis-en-scene (I think they thought a tap dancer was a black and white minstrel type cliché) and when I marched on stage for a number about the importance re-education of the kids (a hit from the 90s), they dragged me across stage and put me in monkey grip. Either they thought I was an American suicide bomber (I was wearing headphones, army cap, navy green jacket and black army-like pants and boots to match the singer which was part of the number), or a stripper. Maybe both. Either way it was crazy. I was showing my teeth like a dog in rage when I was finally replaced on stage thanks to my friend who had jumped in to send the message that I was the international guest ‘surprise’ performer and of no immediate national danger (!) But by the time I performed my intro (but wacked out from the experience) and proceeded to put on my tap shoes, the song was over! Luckily the audience was very warm and lovely and thought it was part of the act, cheering anyway. I had another number to their hit song Zina so thought I could rescue everything.
But this time, after being introduced rather than back announced, I went to tap and the audio engineer didn’t turn down the other instruments, so it was more or less a silent tap dance! Di Artist.
About to die of frustration, I pulled the cute little girl in the front row on stage to spin like kids and hop like kangaroos and it saved the day. Her joy made everything worth it but despite this and the audience being adorable, I have to admit it was an extremely frustrating experience. At least I got a front row view of the finalé with the gnawa musicians which I filmed on my phone:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAF-upsg7qM&t=157s
Afterwards I needed to head back to the mountains to regain my zen and see the olive trees and the bees. Then whipped back to Algiers airport to get the last ticket on a flight to Paris just in time to make it to my Le Shuffle Project concert with guest drummer, the brilliant Adam Teixeira at the small but charming Les Chansonniers in Ménilmontant. We had a great audience, inspired tap and lots of fun under a full moon. Exhilarating.
The next week I felt somewhat wild and nervous- due to the security incident quite possibly and another little incident I won’t go into, then headed down to – Cannes! Last year I was in hospital in Egypt (with Nefertiti and friends over my beautiful and unworn gowns) and there was no way I was going to miss it again.
But we were all very sad as Australian actor/singer/songwriter Tom E Lewis passed away from a heart attack that week. After a sleepless night for several of us, actress Susie Linderman organised a private and beautiful sand ceremony. Then I had a tonne of things stolen and developed a bad bout of bronchitis (not ideal for watching films so I frustratingly missed many or had to duck out). Cannes can be incredible and being sick there is like torture (especially for people with FOMO). I managed however a brief tap with La Blaze!, met colleagues, saw some films, and attended red carpet events, press conferences with Cate Blanchett, Nadine Labaki and many other great filmmakers and snuck off to Nice for a night to see jazz and tap dance!).
Back in Paris, summer arrived with an intense heat wave! I cooled off inside the beautiful (and air conditioned!) Jean Nouvel designed Arab World Institute during the terrific Arab Film Festival and met some of the filmmakers including Egyptian Tamar Ashry whose charming film Photocopy I loved and chatted about on Jerry Guirguis’ Egyptian Radio Show out of Melbourne.
Meanwhile in Paris football fever hit and the French went wild when they won the world cup. Paris was crazy and it was like a millennial new years’ eve or the end of a war. Someone drowned in the canal after jumping in from over enthusiasm and there were other accidents from idiots on motorbikes, but generally the festivities were cheery and poor old France needed it after the last few years and a miserable winter (take my advice and don’t go to Paris in February).
I performed another concerts with Le Shuffle Project and continued producing our monthly jams with the Paris Tap Crew in Belleville then took off to Biarritz for tapas, swims, coastal strolls and to write some articles.
Then back to Paris to pen stories-such as on discovering the secret bars (I know, a hard job but someone had to do it…) and some more walking tours for The Big Bus Tour and Travel Guide (up soon).
Next I directed a quick little jazz music video for my friend Wendy Lee Taylor 🙂
Algerian actress friend, Mouni, came over for a holiday from Algeria, bringing an unbelievable heat wave with her, and we worked on a script idea, strolled the Seine, picnicked at cinema under the stars, hung with my friend Greta at late night jazz clubs then took off for Nice thanks to Nice tourism and the happy culture group and enjoyed swims at Ruhel Plage, long dinners, museum musings and apéro jazz in the old town (had to tap).
Then a day in Monaco, an unbelievably stunning boat trip, a dip and pizza with fireworks and expat locals.
Back in Paris I caught up with New York buddy Mozell to review rooftop bars and more for Mindfood (yes, hard job), wrote up articles for Provincial Living Magazine, The Big Bus Tour and Travel Guide and other mags then I headed back to Bordeaux for some serious late summer beach chilling and organic fig jam making 🙂
Finally TGVed back to Paris for a concert, a jam and a little a capella tap clip with Le Shuffle Project tap partner Mbango Baer and Finnish guest Jussi Lindroos.
Et voila.
What did I learn?
The benefits of a stop over.
Quite a bit about art in Paris.
How to tap dance on the cat walk.
That surprise performance entrances aren’t necessarily a good idea in official North African events.
That the Algerian military can be efficient.
To appreciate the little things in life- like meals with friends and jogs in the Buttes Chaumant and fresh air, good heath, home made fig jam.
That I love donkeys.
Where to go for a secret cocktail in Paris.
What’s next?
More tap, more travel, more artistic projects and an upgrade!
Stay inspired.
