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atara and I have decided to take in 8-9 of the Folklorama pavilions again this year. Our first week (starting tonight) is going to have us seeing the Paraguay, Alpine, China and Australia/New Zealand pavilions. As you might have guessed from the title of this entry, we took in the Paraguay pavilion this evening. I have to admit that, aside from knowing that it is somewhere in South America, I knew very little about Paraguay when we entered there this evening. I still know nothing about the country, but at least I could point it out on a map now.
The first thing we did once we'd bought our tickets was make a beeline for the food counter. As is the case with most of the Folklorama venues, they had a fairly limited menu, so I chose the "main course" which consisted of barbecued beef and some side dishes.atara grabbed an assortment of side dishes. It all turned out to be good enough to warrant going back for more empanadas before the show started. Before he started the show, the emcee first came out and gave an empassioned plea for donations to help the families of the fire that they had down there earlier this week. atara had noticed a donation box as we were coming in, so we'd already dropped in a couple of dollars to help.
The show itself started slowly with the typical "boys in white shirts and baggy pants linking arms with girls in flowing dresses" folk dances. Is it just my imagination or does every single culture in the world have at least one traditional dance of that nature? The pace picked up from there until the hilight of the night, which was a harp solo by the harpist who they had brought in from Paraguay. She was amazing. I had never associated a harp with South American music - until now. They did a couple more dances, followed by a guitar solo. He was good, but no in the same league as the harpist.
The show finale was the bottle dancers, followed by the bottle! dancer. Bottle dancing consists of, um, girls putting bottles on their heads and dancing around. That's it, really.
I suspect that alcohol was a factor in the first incarnation of this dance form. "I'll bet you're too drunk to balance this bottle on your head and dance around." "Sez you!" "Ya, well how about TWO bottles woman?" It likely cascaded from there.
Anyway, the pavilion was really, really good. Usually I like to see what I figure is going to be the best pavilion later in the week, but this one is going to be tough to beat. We were really surprised by the quality of some of the pavilions when we went a couple of years ago, and this one has held up that tradition.
( Images behind cut text )
atara and I have decided to take in 8-9 of the Folklorama pavilions again this year. Our first week (starting tonight) is going to have us seeing the Paraguay, Alpine, China and Australia/New Zealand pavilions. As you might have guessed from the title of this entry, we took in the Paraguay pavilion this evening. I have to admit that, aside from knowing that it is somewhere in South America, I knew very little about Paraguay when we entered there this evening. I still know nothing about the country, but at least I could point it out on a map now.The first thing we did once we'd bought our tickets was make a beeline for the food counter. As is the case with most of the Folklorama venues, they had a fairly limited menu, so I chose the "main course" which consisted of barbecued beef and some side dishes.
atara grabbed an assortment of side dishes. It all turned out to be good enough to warrant going back for more empanadas before the show started. Before he started the show, the emcee first came out and gave an empassioned plea for donations to help the families of the fire that they had down there earlier this week. atara had noticed a donation box as we were coming in, so we'd already dropped in a couple of dollars to help.The show itself started slowly with the typical "boys in white shirts and baggy pants linking arms with girls in flowing dresses" folk dances. Is it just my imagination or does every single culture in the world have at least one traditional dance of that nature? The pace picked up from there until the hilight of the night, which was a harp solo by the harpist who they had brought in from Paraguay. She was amazing. I had never associated a harp with South American music - until now. They did a couple more dances, followed by a guitar solo. He was good, but no in the same league as the harpist.
The show finale was the bottle dancers, followed by the bottle! dancer. Bottle dancing consists of, um, girls putting bottles on their heads and dancing around. That's it, really.
I suspect that alcohol was a factor in the first incarnation of this dance form. "I'll bet you're too drunk to balance this bottle on your head and dance around." "Sez you!" "Ya, well how about TWO bottles woman?" It likely cascaded from there.
Anyway, the pavilion was really, really good. Usually I like to see what I figure is going to be the best pavilion later in the week, but this one is going to be tough to beat. We were really surprised by the quality of some of the pavilions when we went a couple of years ago, and this one has held up that tradition.
( Images behind cut text )
