INTERNATIONAL+FESTIVAL

KC Hlordsz International Festival December 9, 2015 IRISH DANCING

The international festival had Irish dancers. Some of them in some sort of green color and others were wearing different shades of blue. They were all wearing fancy clothing that had some sort of design made of different colors. The Irish dancers were, Heather Morris Dancers. All the performers looked focus and hopped up and down pointing their toes to the floor. You could hear the music in the background as the Irish dancers hopped in some sort of a line. One of the dancers would come first and dance, the other dancers would wait until it was their time to join the dancing. They would hop and skip having a pattern. All the dancers would follow the rhythm of the music. The ones that were dancing we're not going as fast as the ones coming into the dance. The Irish dancers were moving their feet criss cross, up and down, and side to side. The music that was played was going fast than slow, this was changing the speed of the Irish dancer’s.

While I was watching the Irish dancer’s, it was enjoyable and interesting. It was how the dancers moved their feet to the music in the background. The Irish dancers were moving while hopping and doing some kicks in the air. And how the dancers were coming on the stage then coming off and soon joining again. There were some leaps now and then, all of the seem very flexible. There were both male and female dancing. I thought the music that is played for Irish dancing fits perfectly on the dancing and all the movements. I did not see anyone join to dancing, but lot’s of people were watching it and seemed interested in the dancing. I heard others clapping to have a steady beat. The shoes that the girls are wearing are thin shaped ballet shoe with zigzag going across or shoes that would tap or make sound that includes a heel. I found the dancing very nice and fit very well with everything. The dancing made me feel good inside happy/joyful.

The instruments that are used in Irish Dancing music are: fiddle, tin whistle, flute and Uilleann pipes. I learned that the instruments like the, button accordion and concertina made their aspect in traditional music late in the 19 century. The Irish dancers do not move their arms it’s all based on the footwork. There are 2 different types of shoes, soft shoes are for reels and slip jigs (based on tempo of the music). Hard shoes are worn for hornpipes. For jigs it really depends on the music to either wear soft shoes or hard shoes. Competition clothing is more fancier and flashy than the uniforms. Irish dancing is originated in Ireland hundreds of years ago.

PARTICIPATORY DRUM CIRCLE

At the international festival I watched the Participatory Drum Circle. This was by the SaraGail Benjamin band. There were mostly elders on stage & they all had the same shirt, but different colors on it. It was the elders on stage with a bunch of drums of all shapes and sizes. Some of the drummers used mallets to hit the drum with. Others would use their hand to hit the drum, the drums would sound different. A smaller drum would have high sound and the other drums that were big had a low sound. They all had a symbol on their shirt all in colors, green, white, and purple. There was a person standing in front of the stage using a small drum, maybe making sure that everyone has the right tempo and is following along. All of them looked happy and looked like it was enjoyable. The elders that were playing the drums had a steady beat/good tempo. Overall it was really nice to see everyone up there and happy.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the band. It was cool & some others said it was amazing. I seen lot’s of people play the drums and this was different. This drum circle had did different things, like they all had a different type of drum and usually what I seen is that in a drum circle is that most drums should be some-what alike. I don’t remember seeing something like this in awhile at least. I don’t have any connection, but I have seen people play the drums almost to what theses elders did. This made me feel good everyone seemed to like it. It was just interesting and creative how they came up with the idea. Some of the elders did not have a drum they had different instruments that I could not see from afar, but I did see some of the elders have tambourines & some instruments I have never seen before!

A drum circle is when a group of people play any percussion instruments, such as drum. These are hand drums that they are using. Some examples of percussion instruments are: bells & cymbals created by the vibration of the instrument itself. I did not know that drum circles are a popular form of music therapy. Drumming has been a human activity since forever, but it has been an integral part of tribal culture on all the continents from Native Americans, to the Africans etc. Drum Circles: An Ancient Methodology for a Modern World. I also searched up and found out that Drum Circles help build teams and how it’s a great percussion instrument. This is what I think and some things I learned.