Today we didn't have school. Again. Because Ausuncion was founded today and so that means everyone doesn't have to work. My family minus Paz and I went to the campo. I think this is because my host mother (kudos kudos!!) realized my campo aversion our previous excursion... also I told them I had two dance practices today. My first dance practice was at 2.00pm but we didn't end up starting until like 3.00pm. This is the dance I am doing with my class. I am not sure when, where and why but it is being taken very seriously because probably 2/3rds of my class showed up! Actually we have multiple dances that we are doing together but the one that we ended up practicing the most (baila ritmica) I don't enjoy as much because we're making up the moves as we go along. So it will be like, Flora, do this wiggly thing with your arms- no THIS WAY Flora, and then five minutes later it will be changed and I will be tsk-ed for not catching on faster. And I'm like, Sorry people I do not understand loud, rapid-fire Spanish. I prefer our Folk Dance that we are doing together because someone has already created all of the steps.
After I had Danza Paraguaya at my school, which is a lot of fun. There are so many people we have to be divided into two groups. Today my group went first... today we added in some new steps, including all of the girls getting lifted off of the ground. I tried to find a video on YouTube of the dance I'm learning but no such luck. I will try to explain it here... later I will film it because it really is very cool.
You start in four different groups, one group in each corner of the plaza. Then you kind of sashay yourself into the middle and mingle with the rest of the groups. Then somehow magically you are supposed form like three circles, a little circle in the middle and then a bigger circle around it and then the biggest circle and I think these circles are supposed to be gender dominated but so far we haven't gotten to that step in coordination. Then the music picks up and the boys start stomping and the girls do this kind of limp/trot (you have to drag one food and lightly bounce on the toes of the other) for around eight beats and then everyone starts doing this step right, step left, SPIN! Then you have to step in a triangle and do this other hop/drag foot thing and then you do the limp/trot to the left if you're a girl like me and a limp/trot to the right if you're a boy. Then the girls step to the right, spin, and get down on one knee. Then we do a filadora I think. You step so you're facing 90 degrees clockwise from the way you started. And then again. And then you make a "rhombo" which is like prancing in a square, and you step to the right first. And then you make an "S." And then you have to crouch down and make a 360 spin. And that is just the girl half, I don't really know what the boys do once we separate except I do know that they also have a crouch spin but their's also involves two hops.
AFTER all of that we make two lines, one with boys and one with girls. The first girl will run through and then a boy will go and then a girl will go, basically you are running through the spaces in the lines.. and there is a tendency for crashes in this part of the dance. The teacher gets mad when we crash. But it's hard and not all of us have perfect ballerina twinkle toes. And after that... well. I really can not explain it properly so I'll just say that is very pretty but very hard and also I'm thinking a little dangerous because of the speed of the music and the quantity of people darting in and out of each other. Sooo we're not a total SAR RAM BI SUR RO QUE (Guarani for disaster) but things could definitely be better.
That's it for now. CIAO. Except here they spell it CHAO which I didn't realize until like a week ago.
This is a really fun, Flora. I can just imagine the limp-drag part. What will you wear when you perform it?
ReplyDeleteGreat post!