For my culture event this week, I went to the Springville Dance Festival. It had groups of dancers from all over the world come to show their cultural dances. The first dance I saw was form the good old US of A. It was a stereotypical country dance, pretty much the spitting image of what you imagine when someone says “hoedown” There were several grizzled old men with grizzled old beards playing the music. There was a violinist and two guitarists. After they begun playing the dancers came on stage; ten guys in cowboys hats, and 10 cowgirls. First, they performed various line dances not uncommon at EFY. I was not impressed. But then, almost as if to prove something to me, they just started showing off. The guys began lifting and throwing the girls in the air! One cowboy even did the “helicopter move,” grabbing a girl by the legs and spinning her around until she was horizontal! To finish off, the cowboys all linked arms, forming a circle. Then the girls sat on their shoulders and they spun around a few times. It was a lot more impressive than I thought it would be, and was about as American as watching the Super Bowl on top of the Statue of Liberty while wearing a Second Amendment t-shirt. Or about as American as this picture.
Another dance I enjoyed was the Korean dance. Its beauty was in its simplicity; it was composed of 18 Korean men sitting on the ground playing drums. They didn’t move. Did I mention this went on for about 12 freaking minutes?!?! Calling that a dance was a stretch considering I’ve moved more writing this blog. I tried to get into the drumming at least, but it was extremely repetitive and boring. I’ve heard more interesting rhythms in middle school drum lines. And you might say, ”Well who says a dance has to have lots of movement, an interesting song, and cool dance moves? They were just trying to best display their culture.” To which I would reply, ”Shut up.” So in conclusion, while we may have a trillion dollar War in Iraq, a sagging economy, and a crumbling health care system, at least our cultural dance in Springville, Utah was better than Korea’s. And nobody can ever take that away from us.
USA! USA! USA!
I went to the Springville Dance Festival too. I went on a different night though because I didn't see either of the dances you described, but I really enjoyed all of the variety. I have to admit that the night I went my group wasn't as impressed with the American clogging as they were with the Chinese dance.
ReplyDeletethis event sounds like a lot of fun and i will be sure to go next time its around. i enjoy a good hoedown so i wish i could have seen it.
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