Creative Wanderings

Welcome to Turkey! So I got out of chronological order a little bit, but that doesn’t matter. This is my blog and I can write in whatever order suits my fancy, right? And sometimes different stories are just more compelling. Remember last time how I talked about the awesome humanitarian work we did? This is nothing like that. At our first meal with the festival in Turkey, we learned a few things. (This was a late lunch, served some hours after we arrived at 6 am at Adela Hotel.)  In Turkey, two popular drinks are Cola Turka and Yedigun. Not being a fan of soda pop, I actually didn’t sample these. But they sure look cool! We had some time to wander our nearby “neighborhood.” Istanbul really feels like one gigantic metropolis from the airport area, where we were at, all the way to downtown, which was about 30 miles Read more…

So this post was actually written on July 1, 2010 but for whatever reason I didn’t actually post it. Enjoy!I got a job! Just in case I didn’t already have some for Fall… (aka teaching and most likely being a TA as well). In addition to those, I will be staying on at my current job. They had to make some arrangements for me to be able to work more than 20 hours a week. Andrea said she was really impressed with me.. well -rounded, interesting life. That was a cool comment. I felt like it validated my educational pursuits and my lifelong foray with dance. 

One of my favorite moments on tour this year was the day we did our humanitarian work (July 16th). Part of what we do as Clog America, besides representing the United States of America at international folk dance festivals, is we select a humanitarian project for a country we visit. This year we actually did projects in both Greece and Turkey, but in Turkey we got to interact much more with the children we were helping. We showed up in costume at a school for children with disabilities and there was this huge sign welcoming us! That was pretty cool. We went inside the school to set up all our stuff. We had SO many things to give away.  This is one of the girls from the school. She was super sweet! We performed a few dances and then had the kids come up and dance with us. It’s so Read more…

… waiting for the bus to come. The next phase of our tour involved getting from Athens, Greece to Istanbul, Turkey. It doesn’t sound that difficult, right? To forestall any Greek transit strikes, our bus was coming for us from Turkey. Word on the street was that the bus ride would be about 14 hours, or 12 hours, or 18 hours… so we tried not to worry about how long we’d be cooped up in the bus. Instead, we got our bags packed and lined up outside our hostel by 7 am. Did I mention that I hauled them down 4 floors? Yeah, well… I did. And if you ever want to see some challenging “spiral” stairs, visit Europe. Anyways, we got our luggage ready for the bus.    And waited… Looking longingly for the bus… … which finally came around 11 am. We loaded up pretty quickly, but we Read more…

Tourists, let it be known that on the day of July 8, 2010, you were out-walked, out-pictured, and out-toured! Joni, Nikki, Sarah and I powered through Athens from morning till night, visiting everything from the Acropolis, the Theater of Dionysus, the museum, and local vendors to the ancient Agora, the tomb of the unknown soldier, and Hadrian’s library. But don’t let me bore you with words… here’s some pictures! Sarah and I were twinners for the day! It was kind of planned… I saw Sarah wearing her shirt and decided it would be fun to wear mine to match. Thankfully, she didn’t mind.  Theater of Herod Atticus. It’s been modified and is still used for various classical music and ballet and dance performances. I just love how modern Athens abuts the ancient sites, too.  Joining the throngs of people headed up the Acropolis. We slept in and got there around Read more…

We have this dance we do called “El Cumbanchero.” We don’t very much like it, so we decided to add some enthusiasm to our performance of it by dubbing it the “My Hat is AWESOME!” dance. It helps. We did this dance a few times on tour, once in Athens and at least once, maybe twice in Istanbul.  What you see below is the final pose from our Athens show. What you do not see in this picture is how bad the dance was! Our band, much as we love them, never once played this song correctly on tour. Here at our Athens show I could tell the music was getting off and subsequently it threw off my dancing. Having only learned this dance last year, I tend to cue off the music for certain parts. Not being able to do so resulted in some extremely mushy footwork on my part, most Read more…

I got back on Tuesday from my wonderful trip to Athens and Istanbul, and now it is picture time! I took over 1000 pictures, although some have gotten tossed because of bad lighting or being fuzzy. There are so many beautiful sights over there, and I’ll try and share as many as possible without boring you. And I’ll try to fill in the stories with the pictures too. But really, you kind of had to be there because it was AWESOME! Fliers at the LDS church building advertising our Athens show Theater of Herod Atticus and Parthenon on the Acropolis Standing on Aeropagus (Mars Hill) with the Acropolis in the background. The building hidden in scaffolding is the Temple of Athena Nike and the one on the far left is the Erecthion Sarah and I on the ferry to Aegina Island With the local delicacy: octopus. No, I did not Read more…

CLOG AMERICA, the International Festival Ensemble from South Jordan, Utah, has received an invitation to represent the USA at two prestigious folklore festivals in Istanbul, Turkey designated as the “2010 European Capital of Culture”. The group’s 22 dancers and 8 musicians will participate in the “5th International Kucukcekmece Lake Festival” from July 8-17 and the “10th International Yesilkoy folk Dance Festival” from July 15-20, 2010. CLOG AMERICA will join 19 other international ensembles from around the world for festival celebrations viewed by audiences estimated to be over 65,000 people with extensive press and media coverage. Prior to arriving in Turkey, CLOG AMERICA will travel to Athens, Greece for additional performances and cultural activities. The Utah group has represented the USA in 55 International Festivals throughout the world since 1991 and was designated by the Utah State Legislature as “Utah’s Ambassadors of Peace and Friendship to the World.” Official Press Release

A few weeks ago Ananda and I went to SLC for an international festival being held there. As opposed to the ones I’ll be going to in less than two weeks, this one fit onto one city block. They had several stages set up and we spent some time just wandering the grounds around the city courthouse and taking pictures. Ananda taught me a few tricks with my camera, and I got some fun results! Rather than work on my class preparation (which I have no clue where to begin) I decided to share some pretty pictures. And fold laundry. Enjoy!

Within six hours this evening, I had two very different messages conveyed to me regarding myself. That sounds weird, but it’s late and I’m tired and just want to put the stories somewhere before I forget them. 1. Near the end of my girls’ dance recital tonight, all the teachers were brought on stage and given flowers. Lynne named the teachers and what they taught. Until she got to me. Then she looked at me and realized she didn’t know me and (microphone in hand and audience listening) asked me my name and then told everyone that she’d only seen me once. Thanks, Lynne. I’ve been to at least two meetings at your house before and introduced myself there. And she saw me during the show, right before my girls went on stage. And asked me then who I was. Yup. I’m glad I was wearing a cute outfit. I kept Read more…