Tilting at Windmills (Patreon)

Who should I bother again first? I thought, spinning my phone in dizzy little circles on the table.

Dorothee? 

Maybe she heard from Gregory but got distracted from telling me? 

Maybe there’s been a timeline push she didn’t tell me about that is making her more relaxed about all of this. 

What would that timeline be though? 

Did she forget that I have a pretty hard limit on my availability because Motherland: Fort Salem starts shooting again in November?

Or maybe I should follow up with the Moulin Rouge? 

What’s the appropriate amount of time to wait? 

It’s already been a few days. It’s probably a week. 

Wait– what if it’s different in France and I’m making an assumption that might be find in Canada but not in France and that makes my communication seem pushy or rude and that makes them not want to– 

No, wait, that’s silly. 

Oh– and they’re reopening after their big pandemic closure, on Friday they reopened. So maybe it’s reasonable that I should wait a few weeks even to hear a–

Stop it, Ess! I scolded myself.

My thumbs tapped impatiently against the cracked, waiting black screen of my phone. And then – a small epiphany: 

Kind of a good side-step, I thought to myself.

What if that’s too bold? I worried.

What would Rachel Strickland tell you to do? I asked myself practically.

She’d tell you to go for it and add a notch to your Rejection Belt, I answered, sighing internally.

I pulled up WhatsApp again, punching in a contact that I hadn't messaged since December 2019. 

Thierry. The Artistic Director of the Moulin Rouge. 

The man has worked for that cabaret for nearly 40 years – first as a dancer, then dance captain, then choreographer, up and up through the ranks until he finally sat at the very pinnacle of the artistic hierarchy within the walls of that venerated cabaret. 

He oversaw the duo act that Troy and I performed there be adapted to the unique dimensions of the Moulin Rouge stage, made the lighting perfect, tailored the entries and exits to blend seamlessly with the rest of the show. He was a lovely man to work with, and we had made a good impression on him. He took the photo below of Troy and I during our tech rehearsals at the cabaret in December 2019:

It wouldn't be totally out of line to reach out, I thought.

I'm doing it.

While my inbox remained empty of any response from Jean-Jacques Clerico (who runs/owns the entire damn thing), Thierry's response times were blisteringly fast. He wrote ...

* * * * * [ to be continued]