7.10.22: I think today I realized that dancing is my absolute favorite way to conduct a drop. I don’t know why people choose obviously drug deal-y places for the exchange, but that’s too boring for me.
Life isn’t normally that exciting, so choosing creative ways to conduct business adds a layer of covert ops, mystery, blatant sovereignty, and really, the dose of adrenaline I need in my everyday life. It’s these little moments that help fill the time in between the greater experiences. Mundane activities coated in fun. To make them more interesting, more tolerable, and fully integrated with my regular life…
Like scheduling business during or around my life, not the other way around. Since I already danced, monetizing it in a creative way covers all of my “business expenses.” Petrol, venue cover charge, and the occasional parking racket. And the price of advertising is the cost of a conversation…sooo, my overhead is basically non-existent.
With dance, running this business is amazingly easy. First of all, no one really suspects it, and even if they did, what are they gonna do about it?! And since all payments are made in advance, the only real challenge is purely how slick I can be with the hand-off.
Normally, I’d choose a salsa venue based on the type of crowd and the type of music they’re most likely to play, and how much they post footage of the event online—but lately in a bit of a hike in word-of-mouth, I’ve been choosing them based on how much business I have to conduct there that night. I had 4 exchanges today. Solid outing.
With some customers, I danced a salsa. With others, a bachata. Most of the time, I do it right in the middle of a dance, but the occasional customer likes to get handed their product off-floor. Not as much fun, but whatever.
Of either dance, I’d say the easiest way to have an exchange is while dancing a slower bachata, the slow moves and closeness mask the art of the deal. Though I can definitely appreciate the challenge of handing over an 8th or dropping some tabs during a lively salsa. It’s easy to hand over during a dip, or a side-to-side, or some close-body moves, but with some of my regulars, we get creative. Sometimes you need to throw in a bit of flourish with your styling.
We play with the moment to do the exchange. Maybe we are solo-ing, maybe we are doing a little footwork around each other… touch of the hands, drop in a pocket. Or the hug at the end. “Thanks for the dance” and all that.
The point is, even if they weren’t aware of when the exchange happened, they can be sure that by the end of the song, it happened. And we can go on our way without a conversation about it.
The funny thing is, the people that know me and see me dancing bachata with increasing frequency–-that know bachata isn’t even my favorite thing to dance–- probably think I’ve had a change of heart. But really, when you’re making a couple hundred bucks over a 3-minute song, it makes it worth the energy expended.
Sometimes I wish there was footage of me to see if I’m really as sneaky as I imagine –to watch it, judge it, and improve my technique, but since I have yet to be caught out, or called out, I’m going to assume for the present that I’m the paragon of clandestine achievement.
Ava Loreimy 