Living between Madrid and Los Angeles allowed me, although it sounds incoherent, to recover from accumulated fatigue. Feeling pampered by my mother, she would recharge me to return to LA and continue fighting to find a distributor that was my main objective. What I didn't expect is that I would find it in Madrid the first day that I finally had the Flamenco Dreams DVD in my mega bag and I was doubly proud because the Cover had been designed by me. Actually I did everything, but always hand in hand with my Angel who continued to help me and guide me the way forward. 

 

I had arranged to have a beer in Madrid, with a friend from the neighborhood where we grew up together, Jonás. The same one who appears as Enrique Bunbury's road manager in another chapter. I showed him the DVD and he was in awe of the cast and the performance, but especially the incredible story of how that dream was born. 

 Right away he rubbed his nose, as if it were Vicky the Viking, he ordered two more beers and said; "You have to go see Miles Copeland at his office in Los Angeles ! He is the brother of Ian Copeland, singer Sting's drummer and is also the group's manager. However for a few years he has dedicated himself to producing and touring the world with the company "Belly Dance Super Star" that he himself has created, taking the best belly dancers from each country and bringing them together on stage. The show is spectacular, totally different from what we are used to seeing. And indeed it was, the technique of those dancers was the most modern in belly dance that I had ever seen, their abs were perfectly worked, the opposite of the traditional, which normally have no technique and even a little belly. Completely changing the concept of how popular it is seen in restaurants accepting dollars on the hip and in the bra. 

 

It was morning and the sun was shining like normal in LA, the office was located on the ground floor of a mansion embedded in a mountain and we had to climb a super steep and narrow hill, so I told Paul that leave me right there that I would go up alone. Among other things so that he wouldn't come in with me and start to feel jealous, which was already being noticed by everyone. Paul was the eternal lover and I seemed the bad girl in the movie for not reciprocating him. You cannot force anyone to love and the more I did, the badder I became. 

Before going to the meeting, I had entered the internet and the truth is that Miles Copeland was super attractive, just the way I like men, autumnal, with gray hair and clear eyes like the ocean. The legend that we daughters look for a man like our father may be true. 

To honor belly dance and not be too out of tune, I put on a beautiful long skirt, made of a super fine cotton almost transparent in lilac color, full of tiny flowers all over the hip and left my stomach flat in the open air, revealing the mole of birth that I have right in the center of my navel and that I had so many admirers. 

When I entered I did not expect to see such a large, super-lit loft, with different spaces and levels of height, full of windows of different sizes and that reminded me of my favorite decoration store, Anthropologie. I was greeted by one of the seven secretaries, each prettier, with ad bodies, of different nationalities, all of whom worked for Miles. So Miles was super used to being surrounded and traveling all the time with beautiful women. Including his wife who was a model, whom he barely saw and I don't know how she did it to get along. I would go crazy with jealousy. So my woman weapons wouldn't be necessary. Now more than ever I had to present a good product.  

 

I was open-mouthed looking at the photo of a huge framed gold record from The Police group, surrounded by all the tickets from a world tour with the sold out sign running through the record, when I hear a voice behind me saying; - What can I do for you? He reminded me of Humphrey Bogart in a scene from the movie The Eternal Dream and he made me smile, it was Miles Copeland who lived upstairs, I gave him two kisses, shaking hands seemed little to me, and he immediately and sneakily scanned me as he escorted me to his corner inviting me to sit in a perfect chair for me. It was like the throne of Snow White's stepmother, the seat of very dark noble wood and the very high back, all lined with somewhat used velvet in a wine color. Miles sat right in front of me and a wooden table about fifteen feet long separated us, completely filled with papers and DVDs, which made it difficult for me to see his face. The first thing I thought was that why he had so many secretaries who did not order him anything, and that I would not mind being the new secretary, the Spanish one. 

 

Then, already in my role, the Spanish vein came out and I got up, took all the folders out of the middle, put them one on top of the other and in order on one side of the table, I threw several glasses of Starbucks coffee into the wastebasket, I sat down again, but it was very hot and that's when the flamenco dancer took over and I made an Italian bow in two seconds with the first pen I saw. When I realized it, Miles was looking at me totally amazed, and that's when I gave him the DVD, he looked at it carefully, especially from behind, and asked me if I had all the rights to the image and music in the contract signed by the artists, I told him that of course, that it had cost a lot of money and that without that signature I would not have even considered that investment. I told him that one of the CDs was the three minute demo of the show and before I was done speaking, he had already put it on the huge TV screen next to him. He did not stop looking at the screen for a second, he noticed everything and as soon as it finished he congratulated me, he told me that I was not expected to be such a good dancer and actress, so beautiful on camera and with such force. And he asked me for the second time - What can I do for you? … — I am looking for a distributor to sell the DVD, I told him. He asked if I was a flamenco teacher, I brought him up to date by telling him about the school that I started out of nowhere and that I had been directing for two years and that I was teaching 7 hours of private lessons a day. 

He automatically put all the secretaries to work, one called UNIVERSAL Music to arrange a meeting to offer my DVD, another to Miami to organize a three-day flamenco course, another informed the Belly Dance Super Star who lived in LA, about my arrival from Spain and that in a few days I would teach a flamenco course for the company, another was in charge of contacting the tour promoter to see the possibility of me opening the act in the 56 states of America, another was preparing a photo session, another offered me coffee, tea, and sweets. I honestly would have preferred Champagne to celebrate everything wonderful that was happening to me and that was still part of my dream.  

 

I had already found a distributor! In Spain that is called, arriving and kissing the Saint. 

The contract was negotiated by a Mexican lawyer friend of Paul. I remember that he was very handsome and Paul avoided all the time that I would meet with him. Paul's unwarranted jealousy was already starting to bother me to the point that I no longer wanted him to come anywhere with me. Miles copeland, when he met Paul, as it was inevitable, he also realized the love - hate he felt towards me for not being reciprocated. But nobody can force a person to love , much less without having any intimate relationship. A Spanish actor friend from the Canary Islands who I went out with from time to time, called him the Air Traffic Controller, and he also warned me to be very careful because he was obsessed with me and living in the same house did not see it clearly. That made me accept Maria's invitation to move into her house.

 

For me, that contract was very important, but we were negotiating with an old industrial dog, the Alvin gypsy called him Jonás. They would have to make thousands of copies of the DVD, promotion, marketing, etc. Once everything was paid for, then even though it was all mine, I would only receive 50% of the profits from each DVD. In the initial contract I was only entitled to 30%. So we get something else. In the important moments I liked to listen to the opinion and follow the advice of my older brother who always looked further and was ahead of time. He clearly told me not to waste any more time trading because I would never see a dollar in my bank account. That it was impossible to count the copies and the profits, that copies of DVDs were already sold on the internet for half the price and that the sale of DVDs would end up disappearing from the stores. But what in LA unlike in Europe, the artists paid to have publicity and that this contract would be a bridge to open other doors for me. So we would continue looking for another way to pay the bank. 

 

As Miles copeland was traveling continuously, we had to meet at the Los Angeles airport to sign the contract as an intermediary with UNIVERSAL MUSIC.  

There was his assistant John Bevilacqua, a tiny Italian with a lot of temperament who reminded me of Anthony Corleone in the movie The Godfather. He was anxiously waiting to get the DVD master and I never imagined that this would be the last time I would see it. One of the clauses of the contract stated that once it had finished himself, the Master would be returned to the owner of it, but it never happened. I only received a reply from the Italian, "Spiacente, but we lost it in the office move." Of course, nobody believed it, but I didn't have the desire or time to fight with lawyers where in the end only they win. The master would continue to make copies of Flamenco Dreams and my brother's premonition was fulfilled. The Flamenco Dreams DVD has been sold all over America and Canada on Amazon and in the most famous Barnes & Noble bookstore in the United States for 15 years.