International Evening

As you can see from the blackboard, International Evening was held on January 22 at the Orff Institut. We put together a multi-media extravaganza that featured song, dance and play from around the world. It was a lot of work, but the result was worth it.
Here's the program:

Thailand - Long Drum March: We started in darkness and Toey began with a call and response bringing everyone to the instruments. It was loud and exciting and a great way to begin!

China - New Year's Dance: Fabia told a story about how some of the New Year's traditions came to be and then there was a lovely dance with firecrackers!

Japan - Ochilocka Hoi and Nabe: Two traditional Japanese nursery rhymes. The audience participated.

"Let's Go Swimming!" : This is how we got from one continent to another. It's a great song. Here's a picture of us brushing our teeth. If I can figure out how to link the tune, I will!



Iran - An improvisation by Mastaneh on the santur, and an arrangement of a traditional piece "Majnoon Naboodom" by Mandana. I think this was an audience favorite with good reason!



Turkey - Arsevi led us in a traditional nursery rhyme, which I can't even begin to type. It was about a fisherman in a rowboat. She added drums and a hand jive for additional fun

Columbia - A lovely 4 part arrangement of Prende La Vela. We have three people in the Special Course from Columbia, and a fourth one who is in the Masters program. We sang this one in the dark with votive candles. It was very effective.

America - Since we are really fortunate to have a jazz bass player in the group, he jammed and I led the audience in an ostinato. It was fun!

Portugal - Rui sang a song that was the cornerstone of the people's revolution in 1974. Not a single shot was fired, instead the people placed red carnations in the barrels of the soldiers' rifles.

Catalunya - This was REALLY fun. Each city in Catalunya has its own day of celebration. There are parades and festivities of all kinds, and a feature of these festivals are the giants. Here's a picture of the real deal:



And here's a picture of Marta, Tresa and Cathy painting the head of our "giant." (I dusted off my 4-H skills and made a dress out of some Ikea sheets) I think our giant ended up looking a bit like Mr. Bill.



Spain - Tresa, Arsevi, Virginia and Marta did a traditional stick dance from Aragon while I tried desperately to keep up with Pedro in a recorder duet to accompany. It was great fun!

Italy - Virginia got to let all her inhibitions out in a rousing rendition of the "Tarantella."

The entire evening was a great success and we were happy with the result. Of course, we were all exhausted the next day....