Today was The International Festival at school. Every year, my very international school pays tribute to the many rich cultures that make up America. Each country of origin has a booth, and the kids bring food, artifacts, etc. to share with everyone. Then, students perform traditional cultural dances in the center of the gym while a crowd watches, happy to be out of class.
Israel and Palestine were on different sides of the gym. This year, South America had to split up into different booths, still close together, but distinct. In Japan, people can play that dance game where you have to step on the arrows, etc. Italy made a mural of Venice and took pictures of people in the painted scene. India, as usual, had the best outfits, and France had Brie! Yum.
Then the dancing started. There was Irish dancing with girls bouncing up and down like pogo sticks. The Indian dancers were graceful and poised. From Thailand came a beautiful traditional dance that looked like a flower being born or something? Palestine gave an amazing performance with veils and lots of hip shaking. The Greeks had a sort of mock chariot race, and Columbia, Venezuela, etc. had some great salsa dancing. Everyone clapped; everyone was laughing and smiling. The kids felt so validated, and it was fun.
The funny part is by the end of the day, all the kids were sitting at different booths. India was all mixed up with Turkey. Italy never really had one set of kids, and they sort of abandoned post to dance at Japan. China and Taiwan melded into one booth, and Israel and Palestine were comparing hummus.
Suddenly, there came over the DJs multicultural speakers "The Soulja Boy". (I guess this is sort of like my generation's Beastie Boys or Violent Femmes...just dirty enough to feel dangerous but not so bad that parents and teachers can really understand or complain). Have you seen the dance that goes with the song? One of my Public Speaking kids did her "how to" speech on it last semester, which is why I know ALL the moves. Half of the gym was in simultaneous motion. "Superman...". Song ends, start Macarena. Imagine the most bizarre and colorful wedding you could ever attend where everyone is 14-19 years old. They were all dancing, even the kids who get left behind, mostly.
What a world.
Maybe kids know better.
2 comments:
what a great post! did you take pictures?
you can see that on playgrounds,too. kids do know better. grownups have a lot to learn- or unlearn.
I'm going to ditto that...I think more "unlearn".
The day sounded absolutely wonderful and beautiful :)
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