Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Day 24: In With The New, Out With The Old

It's kinda cool that when you walk around the city, or the suburbs, you can often see people dancing in any chunk of flat paved service, where 1 or 2 or 3 people have lugged out a stereo system to pound out the beats.

Usually it's older couples doing some sort of waltz-y dance to traditional songs, though it's also common to hear 90's dance music, salsa, or even Indian bhangra.

Also, you can catch people doing very traditional sort of chinese line dancing, waving scarves or flags or pompoms or something in unison. Maybe 25 of 'em (98.4% women, i believe) will jilt around in symmetrical patterns as 3 old guys will bang on drums and play a horn. They often wear traditional costumes to do this, regardless of swiftly dropping temperatures. You may even be lucky enough to catch a guy in drag, as (similar to Elizabethan times) women didn't take to the stage.

Anyhow, as i was walking past with my bro last time, deciding i wasn't interested enough to stay and watch, i realized that these people are on the tail end of a dying art. Once they've passed on, hardly anyone will continue their tradition of social gathering and dance. That's a shame, since there's a richness in it, even if i don't feel like joining the line and dancing in the same circle for 15 minutes on end, as they do.

after that, i felt kind of sad about it. But i still walked away.

Oh well, cultures die and change. What else is new. Maybe people will continue on in the public spaces with the bhangra or something.

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