FyA 44's Traditional Dance Festival

Last week we continued the celebrations of FyA 44's 20^th anniversary. Wednesday was the festival of traditional dances. Basically everyone danced. The students were divided by ciclos (grouped by 2 grades at a time) and about 20 students from each ciclo danced. The staffs of inicial, primaria and secundaria each danced separately. Finally the parents also performed dances by ciclos. The entire performance took 4 hours. It was scheduled for 2 and went till 7.*

The beauty of the event was how enthusiastic the participation was. At least among the primaria teachers, no one was dragging their feet about having to dance in front of their students. People of all ages participated. What especially struck me was the enthusiasm of the students. They were just as happy to dance to 500 year old music as their parents were. So many cultures exist only as relics and plaques in museums. But last Wednesday I got to see a culture that has outlived its creators and is very much alive today. No need to go to a museum to see these traditional costumes, just go watch the people put them on and dance.

NOTE: I've been assigned the the duty of taking pictures and video at all school events. For the festival of dances, I was given the school video camera and asked to film all the dances. So that means I didn't have my camera. Plenty of other people took pictures. When I get a few I'll post them up.

*If you're assuming there was a one hour intermission you're wrong. The event was scheduled for two, so it didn't get started until around 3.