Songs of Community

Here I am at a conference for ethnochoreology in Trondheim, Norway, next to 63 students and a handful of professors from all over Europe. We are the ones preserving dances, recording them, writing about them, and reviving them within our various disciplines of ethnomusicology, anthropology, folklore studies, and dance studies. Our common thread is the practice of ethnography as a research methodology. We are a weird and beautiful lot. Tonight in the hostel there is a group of Lithuanians singing in the kitchen, French are waltzing in the hallways, Greeks are playing their type of Ukele in the common room, and the sun is gazing at me through floor to ceiling windows in a 2 hours sunset of fuschia and turquiose. I am happy again. Today I danced the Hals from Eastern Turkey, observed the group dancing a Chezk round from the 1890's, and hotly debated notions of authenticiy and preservation. Yesterday I danced Norwegian round dances and sang old ritual chants from Lithuania. Tomorrow I will dance to Irish tunes and the next day something else. Spring into summer, the days are long, the rhythms are winding and circuitous, the energy is free and flowing. This is in direct conrast to the hard cold edges of winter, and I have never embodied such a stark contrast in relationship to the seasons before. At 10pm, with the last streaks of the sun finally giving way to deeper blues, I sing for the love of community and all of our songs with all of my being.
Peace,