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Participants were: David, Dan, Barbara, Kelly, Jeremy, Linda, Kathy, Don, Diana, Atlanta and Roger.
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The “MIFDA Dancers” Perform Nov. 26 and Dec. 8, 2005
by Jeremy Hull
A number of MIFDA members performed a few dances for the Hunger Banquet and Dance on Nov. 26. We performed Kara Uzum (Turkish), Am Sgula (Israeli) and Sitno Zensko Horo (Bulgaria), and apart from a shaky start to Kara Uzum we did well and were well received by the audience. The event was very successful with more than 100 participants and the report is that it raised more than $2,000 for the Uganda Orphan Fund. There were many dance performances including Morris, English Country, Ukrainian, Ugandan and participatory dancing including Irish (led by Jeremy), Israeli, Klezmer (led by David), Contra (led by Dan), English, Ukrainian, and possibly the highlight of the evening, Ugandan dancing. The women leading the Ugandan dancing were impressed, I think, by the willingness of the crowd to jump into this, trying to move our body parts in unaccustomed ways, but having fun doing it. The Nov. 26 participants were David, Dan, Barbara, Kelly, Jeremy, Linda, Kathy, Don, Diana, Atlanta and Roger.
The following week we were contacted by Mary Kosta, who saw us dance on Nov. 26, and invited to perform at the Immigrant Women’s Counselling Service’s Winter Feast on Dec. 8. After a flurry of emails and phone calls and discussion on Friday night we decided we could muster a group for the event. The feast was put on for more than 100 women and children and included Spanish and Nicaraguan dancers and some lovely Portuguese Fado singing. In the end ten MIFDA members were able to come out for this performance, wearing our MIFDA T-shirts in various colours in lieu of costumes. We had to adapt to a fairly tight dancing space with a slippery floor, but it worked out well. We had a little discussion before the performance and ended up doing Alunelul, Am Sgula, and Djurdjevica (the “pink panther” dance), which was perfect for the space and is a good stage dance and a good last dance, with a bow at the end. We were well received and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, dancers included. Several people from the audience expressed an interest in MIFDA and picked up brochures. Dec. 8 participants in this event were Ann, Roger, Don, Kathy, David, Diana, Kathleen, Roger, Linda, Jeremy and Lynn.
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