More Rythms of India

Four men with the same group we saw in Bhangra in Seattle. This is the last video I have from this year's Folklife Festival. It ends abruptly as the camera ran out of memory. But I think it's a keeper anyway.

Rhythms of India, Fragment

What's This?

According to the program the second group performing at the Bhangra and Bollywood Show at Folklife this year was Taal. Taal is the generic term for the rhythms of classical Indian music, or rhythms period, or the name of a famous Indian movie that Roger Ebert gave excess thumbs up. The announcer told us it was not the name of this group. He said the correct name was something that sounded to me like Chunny Chunny. I have looked up everything I could think of that could be a spelling of a word sounding like chunny to me, and have not found these people. Hopefully I will get an answer to who they are soon, on YouTube.

Until then, here is an amazing performance of Indian dance by a group of young ladies of indeterminate ages.

Nalini at Folklife

I just discovered that I accidentally deleted all the videos I made of the Flamenco performances at Folklife Sunday. Rats. Well, there's always next year.

The good news: I still have 24 minutes of Bhangra and Bollywood dance to upload. Here's Nalini again, on the International Dance Stage, Folklife, May 25, 2008.

Nalini at Folklife

Bhangra in Seattle

Yesterday I got to see Bhangra live for the first time, courtesy of Rhythms of India and others performing at the Northwest Folklife Festival here in Seattle. I have to say, I really enjoy the challenge of filming this sort of thing. Trying to decide where to point the camera and how much to take in at every moment is a weird, geeky, rush. My favorite moments in this occur when the dancers at one side of the stage cross over to the dancers at the other side and I succeed in following one set through the cross-over. That is so cool.

Rhythms of India

Local Flamenco

Video Find of the Day

If you live in Seattle and spend a lot of time downtown, you probably spend it all on one or two avenues. That's been my observation down the years. When I was a teenager living on Beacon Hill, the bus from there to downtown ran up 4th then, and you caught it on 2nd to go home. So downtown was 4th and 2nd to me.

Now, I live in Pioneer Square and Real Change is in Belltown on 2nd, so my city is 2nd and 3rd Avenues. People for whom Seattle is 4th seem alien to me. Why would anyone go to 4th, I wonder. To me anything further east than 4th is beyond alien; it's the abode of the obscenely rich, or it's Capitol Hill.

Ana Montes teaches Flamenco dancing at her studio at 4th and Bell St, just a bit more than three blocks from Real Change, but I wouldn't know that because that's off the edge of my map. "There be dragons here."

Anyway, I went to the Northwest Folklife Festival tonight and tried to video the Flamenco shows. Montes and her students came out last, so naturally I had used up most of my recording time, because the preceding performances were great, too. I did manage to get a solo by her; we'll see if that's any good in a day or two, when I've had a chance to edit it.

Until then, here's someone else's video from Youtube that features not only her but some other performers I saw tonight. She dances right after the 4:30 mark.

Bulerias: Carmona Flamenco

More Shahrazad at Folklife

I had this all ready to upload yesterday, then accidentally deleted it. Fortunately I hadn't cleared the camera yet. You can hear both Anitra and me on this one. I'm the guy saying, "Oh man... I gotta get them all in this. Somehow." She's the one at the end hollering "yahoo."

Te Fare O Tamatoa

Several videos of Te Fare O Tamatoa performing at Folklife Festival, Seattle, 5/28/07. This first one explains what Te Fare O Tamatoa is.



The second one proves the first wasn't good by accident.



No Polynesian dance show is complete without the little ones. Here's a couple tamari'i dancing.



Two more dances by the little ones.

More Polynesian Dance

Tahitian dance by young man with group called Ke Liko A'e O Lei Lehua. This time I remembered the name of the group, with the help of Anitra. Seattle Folklife Festival, May 27, 2007. Hopefully the next day's videos won't be so washed out.



Same group. This time it's a young woman.

Anitra & Raging Grannies at Folklife

First, my ducky Anitra, jumping up and down and jiggling to parody "Oh, Dear, What Can The Matter Be" as a Raging Granny, Seattle Folklife Festival, May 27, 2007.



Next, "There's No Business Like War Business", and "Wasteful Military Spending":