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Arrival to the Palace of Fine Arts for the 2001 Ethnic Dance Festival. Probably my last EDF performance! :-(
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With some of the African dancers...
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...and some of the Indian dancers. EDF has become a community in itself! It has always been one big party backstage. During the down time, sometimes we learn a little of other dance styles or just dance around as a group to the spontaneous live music by the other performers. You meet so many interesting people, many of whom you have seen before or will see again. The international dance community in the San Francisco Bay Area is amazing!
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Wan-Chao (Yvonne) is a make-up master.
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Nadia posing for Wan-Chao. |
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Outside before the performance...we performed "Ta Ge" (Stepping Song) in the rediscovered "ancient" (Tang Dynasty) style of Chinese dance, which we learned in the 1999/2000 trip to China. It was choreographed by Shi Lo Si, who was imprisoned in a Manchurian hard-labor concentration camp for 21 years when, during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960's, the Chinese government decided it didn't like his studied interpretation of traditional Chinese dance. He was finally released in the late 1980's, picked up his work again, and is now famous in the Chinese dance community. He came to the United States to help us with this dance and is probably the most fascinating person I have ever met!
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Me and Nadia in mountainous Miao girl costumes.
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Jenny in the infamous "Tibetan Drum" dance that we learned with So Lo Si...one of the most difficult and physically demanding dances we have done!
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Me performing the same dance. We're probably doing That Turning Part.
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The Fisherman dance in the Han ethnicity.
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Nadia performing "Wings of the Heart" with Wan-Chao. I think this is a Yi minority dance...
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Performing "Banana Leaf," a Han dance we learned in the 1995 China trip. |
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More shots from the same performance... |
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Wan-Chao, Nadia, and Mel in the New Year's dance.
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Jenny and Tammie in Yip Che Gulerng (my poor phonetics), another dance from the 1995 China trip.
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Jenny performing "Lotus Girl".
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Korean drum dance.
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Playing the pipa with the CFDA.
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Performing "Coconut Grove" from a minority Chinese island ethnicity.
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Classic picture from the Tahoe performance in the crazy golden days of "dai ban"...
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At a summer dance camp (I think in 1996) with So Lo Si, a fantastic dancer, teacher, and person who helped us greatly in the 1995 China trip.
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Too tired (or lazy) to dance standing up...I think this was supposed to be a Yi dance.
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The kids (back then) performing with bows in the Han sword dance style.
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We were "guest artists" for an Intel Pentium II commercial. I still have not figured out whether those guys in the cars were "bunny men" or "buddy men".
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Posing with the wushu team.
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Most of the day was spent just standing around and waiting. We couldn't even sit down because of the costumes!
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Performing a Han sewing dance with Linda and my mom.
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A blurry leap.
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A ribbon dance demo.
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Stacy and my mom in a Korean fan duet.
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Performing "Rice Pickers" back in younger days.
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The first Tibetan dance we learned.
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Before a performance with a Hong Kong actor whose name I have forgotten...
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Performing the Drum Dance...I'm the one with no head. A beautiful dance, but our poor backs!
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"Drumming" with Linda.
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A classic peacock dance.
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Performing Chen Lo Si's Mongolian chopsticks choreography.
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Playing with the CFDA's music division.
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If only I were that flexible now... |
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I still keep in touch with half of these people! |
