By day, she’s Cynthia Cupach: a mild-mannered wife, mother, dance teacher and respected member of the art community. But by night, she’s Samuraa. She wears fangs. She dresses up in a belly-dancing outfit and dances to doom-and-gloom Gothic rock. Tattoos adorn her body, and she shakes them for tips. She balances an Egyptian sword over her damn head! Is this some kind of Belle du Jour midlife crisis thing going on?
Nah, she’s just doing her job.
Every Tuesday night, the amazingly youthful Cupach (she has a 25-year-old daughter) entertains the folks at the Mausoleum Coffee and Art Bar with the unlikely sounding combination of belly-dancing and Goth rock; occasionally, she’s joined by dancers Tanya Zieger and Nicki Markey.
The show began this summer after Mausoleum proprietress Marianna Miranya caught Cupach’s act with OrchestraX; the belly dancer was performing to classical music. Recalls Cupach, “She said, ‘Why don’t we do this with Gothic music?’ And I said, ‘Sure, let’s try it.’ “
Because Cupach and her troupe weren’t familiar with Goth rock’s dirges, consultant John Wooldridge helped her determine what’s Goth and what’s not. “I started naming some bands for her and kinda introduced her to some of the — well, what’s really Gothic,” .says. “A kind of requiem of punk. Where it started from. A lot of the old ’80s Gothic, really, like Siouxsie & the Banshees and Bauhaus — one of the bands that started it all. Not like what they call Gothic now, like Marilyn Manson, which isn’t really Gothic.”
Cupach’s act is not to be confused with the Mausoleum’s Monday-night Gothic striptease (now known as Gothic Fantasy Circus). “Stripping,” says Cupach, “is something very embarrassing, and it doesn’t take any real skill. It’s not dancing.”
— Craig D. Lindsey
Gothic belly-dancing shows begin at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Mausoleum Coffee and Art Bar, 411 Westheimer. Cover charge is $3. For info, call 526-4648.
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 1998.