Twilight Zone (aka oversaturation)

This is something that happened to me a few months ago at a gig, and I posted about it on Bhuz.com. Someone just resurrected the post, which reminded me that I never blogged about this interesting event, so...here it is:

I was at a gig over the summer waiting to go on. It was at a big restaurant with two party rooms. I was standing outside my party room, ready to go, with my gold wings wrapped around me. I look down the hall to the other party room, and there is a bellydancer standing there, ready to go on, with her gold wings wrapped around her. My first thought was this was some cruel joke - I didn't realize there was another room and I thought the host was going to have us both come out together. Then, when I realized she was there for another party, I panicked that we were both at the right parties, that that maitre'd didn't just say to the hosts "the bellydancer is here" (not by name) and stick us in the wrong spots. We quickly introduced ourselves (she wasn't someone I knew and/or recognized - she said she was booked by an agency), and then my music started so I had to go.

But wow, in those first few seconds of seeing a bellydancer down the hall I was soooo confused. And really - is it so common to hire a bellydancer now that two out of two parties in the same place have one performing at the exact same time? I thought we were a special treat for the guests, because most people don't have much exposure to bellydance? Are we becoming trite or cliche? Have we oversaturated the market? Have we made ourselves un-special?

Anyone else have a twilight zone story to share?