Friday, July 13, 2007

Mariel is on a Whirl


Well, just thought I'd post a bit of news about my budding young daughter:

Also check out the Amherst Bulletin

Mariel and I spent about 10 days in Canada - dancing, touring colleges, and hanging at the Montreal jazz festival.

We went to the Canada Day Lindy Exchange in Ottawa and you can see some photos here. There were 150 dancers mostly from Canada and many were friends we have grown from swing camps like Swing Out New Hampshire, Beantown and from other dance national /international dance events. We worked on our French accents and adding 'Eh' to our sentences.

Back in Montreal we stayed in my friend Susan's apartment that she bought for her daughter Ali who is going to McGill. They rent to students, but between summer subletters we were able to find some bed and couch space to crash. The location was fantastic in the McGill 'ghetto' area and near my favorite area 'The Plateau' and close to the Jazz fest. It also was close to Concordia which we checked out.

Our photos are here.

We met up with Carlos, his parents from Portugal, and his 10 year old son. We all would meet for dinner, or crepes and ice cream, some music, and entertainment at the festival, some bagels at the famous place on St. Viateur, and a visit to St. Joseph's Oratorio.

This was a highlight with an exhibit of over 200 nativity scenes, Crèches , made from materials that even ranged from dried fruit, chocolate, abalone shells, shells, various stones, wood, grass, and that encompassed many styles from numerous cultures around the world. If we could focus on creating and sharing more art (and music and dance) I think we would have peace and a richer heritage that all humans could share.

It was wonderful to play so much and take in the joy of the festival. I also got to tango at Mocha Jo's and Studio Tango in Old Montreal. We met up with my friend Phillip from Vt who is living there for the summer. It was good to dance again, including some hot salsa. Montréal est merveilleux!

I will also try to post and link to our videos soon.

The other wonderful part was enjoying a sense of being part of an extended family. Nurturing and joyful.


Now Mariel is off at a fabulous modern dance program - Summer Stages Dance - where she studied and performed last summer.

This year Mariel has a work/study scholarship and last evening I shot out to Concord to see the first performance of their summer series (and drop off misc items such as heating pads, ice packs, laundry detergent, room deoderizer, ace bandages, etc.) We both enjoyed the innovative and impressive dancing of Chris Elam and his company.

I got to hob nob with an old dance colleague Teri Weksler whom I hadn't seen in 30+ years. It was great to name drop and gossip- and feel warmer and less competitive in comparing our family experiences. There just wasn't enough time to catch up (or complain about our teens - and brag!)

Mariel will perform on Saturday July 28th as part of the young choreographers showcase.

I will be coming back from Portugal with Carlos on the 27th and will shoot out to see this of course and the final Summer Stages event.

Hope some will join us!

Love and warmth (ok- not too much) Stay cool!
Alison

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