The Girl From Nowhere: A Memoir by Eliska Tanzer

Author:Eliska Tanzer [Tanzer, Eliska]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Personal Memoirs, Cultural; Ethnic & Regional, General, women
ISBN: 9781443464871
Google: ZlT-DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-05-04T23:56:23.225262+00:00

Sequins, Shimmies and Salivating Men

I personally haven’t done much to combat the “Dancing Gypsies” stereotype. Honestly, I’ve never met any Gypsy that didn’t adore dancing, or at the very least know how to dance. I’m sure there are some out there, just not in my universe.

From a very young age I’ve been dancing. Watching my aunties, my grandmas and especially my beautiful Ma – I learnt how to lose myself in movement. It started when I’d be shouted at by Ma and to stop her seeing me cry, I’d start spinning around with my arms out. I must have looked ridiculous, but it worked. The spinning eventually morphed into me using my feet to turn as I swung my hips around. I was obsessed with Ma and everything she did, so when she’d walk with her hips shaking to an invisible beat, I’d do the same. When my family were drunk enough, they’d always start a dance-off and I’d be fervently drinking it in and practising in secret for the weeks that followed.

Ma caught me one rainy afternoon and instead of blowing up at me for looking simple, she sat and motioned with her hands for me to continue with a smile on her face. When I’d finished, I fell on to the floor exhausted, with my legs in the air. Ma shrieked in laughter and came and lay next to me.

“You’re very good, Eliska!” She patted my puffed-out belly.

After that day she’d spend a small measure of every evening showing me different dance steps and different ways to move my body. I couldn’t have been very old, but I picked it up very quickly by all accounts. I was never adept at useful things like helping out in the markets for food, but I could spend hours dancing just like my mother. I spent two years being “trained” by Ma. Every evening she was at home she’d set aside time to dance with me. It wasn’t much, but it was special – millions of kids had that evening-time for a bedtime story and a bubble bath, but I was luckier than all of them, because Lenka Zlatkov was teaching me the art of Gypsy dancing, belly dancing and escapism.

It was important for me to find something I could do well so I could help contribute to the home. I was always shame-faced when my cousins were showered with praise for bringing home bags of bread. I’d feel like the odd one out when they came back with treasures dug from the bins outside retail shops: shoes, tops, lipsticks. So, knowing I had a bankable dancing ability opened up a whole new world for me. Ma would take me along with her when she was working and make me dance for her clients. Sometimes they’d pay her extra if I took my clothes off. I’d be dancing naked and shivering slightly, overjoyed that I could help earn money with my dear ma.

My time in Drovane taught me so much, from the political to the personal.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.