the night at the opera

Technically, it was the night at the symphony. Jonbek, I think, took pity on my boredom and agreed to take me to the symphony. We headed to the main theater, the ‘national theater of opera and ballet of tajikistan named after Somoni Ayni”. On the inside, the theater is well decorated, but as it turns out, it was rather empty. Like 30 people total, including 15 boys that showed up as a class field trip. The orchestra played Mozart, played well actually. After the concert, since it was still early, we went out for a drink.
There is a café in the park, complete with fountain and a summer stage. The performers ranged from an older very blonde very white lady in a tight black outfit singing kitschy Russian songs, to a fatter middle age dude singing tajik hits, to traditional dancers. The dancers were really talented, it was clear they were professionally trained and Jonbek thought they were likely local art institute students or teachers who were making money on the side. as the night progressed, the dancing progressed from really elaborate covered up costumes to less covered up short outfits, with bared midriffs, danced to the beat of the tajik heartthrob enrique iglesias.
The dancing around the stage progressed as well. There was a group of dudes drinking and dancing intermittently. There was an older Russian lady dressed in heels, leggings, and a tunic, who sat alone, and because she sat and drank alone, jonbek deemed her a sex worker. The lady would intermittently get up to dance too, either to attract clients, given her purported occupation, or just to relax. She, despite her older age, was beautiful, and I made a mental note that i would totally pay to hit that. The main entertainment though was just to the left of our table: a couple, a dude and his date, older and dressed in a traditional dress who danced just for him. Her moves were amazing, rivaling the dancers on stage, traditional, graceful, elaborate, and only for him. This went on for hours, and became progressively more risqué: the traditional dress started to slide up, the moves got lower and lower, the lady spread more and more towards our table. I wasn’t sure who he was, her date, her husband/boyfriend, but whatever it is he was paying for, an apartment, her kids' education, one night--it was all worth it. Then, at some point, she dragged jonbek onto the floor, which sent me into a bout of laughter as he tried to decline and apologize and tell her that he could not possibly. Then, as revenge for my laughter, the lady pulled me onto the floor. The bitch was strong: I slid, literally slid across the pavement as she pulled and tossed me upright. Suddenly, my face was covered with kisses and I was made to dance. After a little bit, I finally got away and sat down. This was now dangerous, we had to leave! The lady, then walked over, kissed me all over again, and told us that she is widowed, that she has grown children, and she just loves to dance. She then held our hands together and wished us happiness. And gave me more kisses. The Russian quasi-SW lady joined the table with the dudes; it was time to go.