Dance, magic dance - And run!

Saturday 1st.
Yeah - we finally did it!
I now have a graduation diploma from the School of Liberian Art and Dance.
I'll make a picture slideshow approach - And YOU! in the back! No sleeping!!


Well... Just to make the humiliation complete... No. That is not true, we did ok! But the program was a mixture of local dance classes and us. And these young boys were incredible (I did not actually see them that day, as I was behind the stage - But I know from their rehearsal that they rock).


The band! Mr Lavelah (No 2 from the right) is just absolutely great. The guy at the bass drums is his protégé - Samuel - who sometimes instructed us.


And here we are, playing drums. We only managed to make the Bassa-drumming presentable, but are still rehearsing other rythms - just for our own joy. For some mysterious reason they did not trust me a drum, so I ended up with the tsa-tsa (a shaker).


As well as the boys would do their dancing the girls also had to perform. As I hope it is indicated here, they were quite awesome as well...


We did manage to draw a crowd, which was great, as it is so much more fun to dance, when someone is cheering!


Like mentioned above I have the deepest respect for Mr Lavelah. Not only is he an excellent drummer and dancer - His teaching skills are also incredible.


And here are the girls. From left: Trine (SE/NO), Jessica/Jessie/Jess (AU), Tui (AU) & Michelle (US/D). Nice outfit, huh?


Yup. Here I am. I did three dances; one with the girls and two 'on my own'. GREAT fun - and very well recieved. I still meet people on the street who will say "Wauv! You a STRONG dancer!". They are so nice, aren't they?



An appropriate greet for a person with higher status than yourself. This too earned me some 'cheap points' from the crowd. "You learn our culuture, Whi-man!"


And that was - roughly - it. Videos will be posed on Youtube, and I have to admit; I did make several errors in my presentation. However I am sure people felt entertained and happy that the Whi-Man and Whi-Woman would perform their cultural dances and drummings.


I performed all my dances and drumming with some sort of flu running through my body, which did not really affect me, except from me being unable to party in the evening.
This morning I got beaten up at 5.30 (!!!!!!!) to take pictures from a fundraising Fun Run (I do not know why they call it that - It's neither fun to give out money or to run, but I suppose minus-minus gives a plus). The Fun Run is also on in Australia, and the money goes to the building of a toilet house at a high school.
It was a good experience except I got to borrow a Canon EOS 400D camera (however not the one that took these pictures) and am now completely in love with the thing... Well... Maybe when I some day get a work.