Nourishing the Senses with Folk Life Festival Fun
| on May 27, 2008 at 6:34 pm | filed under Empowered Awareness |
This weekend I attended the Seattle Folk Life Festival. Boy, what an amazing array of visual and auditory stimuli!! Such a rich opportunity to notice the liveliness of humanity and to nourish my senses with abundant color and sound and smells.
Picture in your mind a sea of people of all ages surrounded by foods stands streaming spice and grilled cooking scents evocative of all parts of the world. Add in a sprinkling of music and instrumental sounds coming from various corners of the huge outside park — deep thumping drums and African songs changing over to twangy bango strumming and down-from-the-mountain songs as we walked.
My husband and I, and another couple, decided we’d try the folk dancing. As soon as we entered the building I was struck by the community feel of the crowd. People in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Many looked like aged hippies: long haired, bearded men; attractive women with long gray hair and colorful skirts.
What especially caught my attention was how comfortable they looked with who they were and their place at this folk event. They looked happy and healthy. The atmosphere their combined energies generated was down-to-earth and friendly. Inviting. I found myself envious of the ease they projected. I couldn’t imagine them ever trying to be something other than exactly who they were. And, they seemed to be a group with much in common: from dress and attitude to lifestyle and cultural appreciations.
Many were obviously practiced in folk dancing. You could tell the real dancers from the dancer wannabes (like me) by their black dancing shoes. We had not a clue about how to folk square dance. My husband looked a little panicked when we did the walk through, complaining that he was getting dizzy. Yet, knowing how much I wanted to give it a whirl, he just went full force once the music started. What hilarity! The first dance was the Ph.D. of folk dances and our group was utter chaos. Cross here? No there? Your corner? The couple that knew the steps tried to keep the other 3 couples in step to little avail. We we tear-eye from laughing at ourselves and appreciated the patience of the lead couple. When the music stopped the woman promptly took off to find a less hectic foursome. I couldn’t blame her.
We stayed for one more dance. Not so complicated this time. We totally messed up certain parts, but got the hang of the meat of the dance. Sweaty and uplifted we departed.
It felt so rich, so good to try something new. I’m always starting new projects that I feel I have to excel at. I was keenly aware that this was a chance to try something new and be utterly horrible at it — and yet still be able to feel the utter joy of the activity. So necessary. So wonderfully freeing!
I love festivals! And the Bon Odori (Japanese street festival) and the Folk Life Festival are some of my favorite ones. Take Bon Odori Festival in Seattle. This year it will be on July 19-20. It’s such a cultural experience. Start with the Buddhist Temple where the monks would take the time to explain to you about the history of the temple. Japanese food all along blocks of streets – that simply put me in heaven! There is the Beergarten too, although I am not sure how did that get into the tradition of a Japanese street festival.
Then there is the Taiko drumming. Talk about energy. The drumming wakes up every cell in your body and that truly re-energize you no matter how tire a week or a month you may have had prior to coming to the festival.
The most spectacular event, of course, is the community dance on the street. It is the Japnese tradition to celebrat Bon Odori. You will find many video clips of this amazing street and community dance on YouTube. You don’t have to know how to do the dance. They have “teachers” to guide you. Every one on the street line up one after another and dance. I used to take my daughter there so that she would have an opportunity to wear her beautiful kimono that we got her as a birthdate gift. Now I go just because I want to be part of that community!
Festival is all about community. I went to Folk Life Festival for the first time last year, and that is yet another community. At first we thought we would check out a couple of performances, but my family and I ended up staying for almost the whole day. Like Melissa has described in her writing, it’s “wonderfully freeing”. We were trying something new. Something different! We were expecting to see Indian crafts and Nowthwest folk arts, but it was more diverse than that, which was a very pleasant surprise.
Every culture, whether it’s local or international, or a blend of different ethnics roots, has so much to teach us. When I am at a festival, I simply immerse my soul into the surroundings and let it soak up all the new stimuli, and allow myself to “notice” what’s happening around me and to me …. like Melissa always says, “What you notice Matters”!
June 18th, 2008 at 12:59 amOh Elaine, you’ve got me wanting to go to Bon Odori. Your vivid descriptions have painted a wonderful picture of this fun event. It’s on the calendar!
June 18th, 2008 at 11:55 am