Sunday, June 15, 2008

My 'SPECTACLE' weekend

SPECTACLE in French is a show or performance. Which is exactly what I did this weekend! Cannelle (my sister-in law you might say) and I joined a dance club about 6 months ago. And since then we met up every Monday evening with 10 other women and well, danced. We performed an Indian dance and a modern jazz like dance. I like Cannelle because she is creative. Normally there were two other older women (with sewing experience) who crafted all of our dresses for the jazz dance. But Cannelle decided 'heck why not try and make our own also, I'll go to Paris and buy us some material.' Cannelle nor I know much about a sewing machine, but with a little advice from her mom we successfully made our dresses. I'm so amazed how much clothing is produced every day! It took a good 4 hours from ONE dress! And it's not like the first time you put it together it's perfect. You have got to trace, pin, sew, snip, sew again and on and on. Which is not to say it isn't quite enjoyable. Especially on a cloudy gray day!
Oh yeah! About the performance. In CO I had done a couple years of dance as a teenager (WOW can I really say I'm not a teenager anymore.) I found that every year the performances were pretty serious. In the way that the parents and grandparents were prohibited to use flash photography, everyone remained seated quietly, no food or beverages allowed, and the dancers were to remain behind stage until the end. Well if there is one thing that I love about France (actually there are many things I love about France but you know) it's being in a spectacle! Everyone was everywhere but still had their eyes fixed on the performers. It was rambuncious, energetic, and much more nonchalant. We the performers were even aloud to go into the audience to watch the other dancers. And the best part we ate cake and celebrated with a bottle of wine! So French!! And sure, maybe it's just that the people of Chamonix are not serious people. But I can definitely say that anywhere in France a bottle of wine or champagne is shared after for celebration.



One more important note. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

1 comment:

LindaLoo said...

Trust you to make a SPECTACLE of yerself!