I left around 10:00 and was delayed by some construction on my way to the festival. I'm glad I gave myself a fudge factor so that I didn't arrive late for the first event I wanted to attend. The metro stop I got off at today was Saint Laurent. According to the STM site, there are not many "points of interest" nearby. Mostly there are UQAM buildings and the Cégep du Vieux- Montréal. When I exited the metro, the environs didn't seem particularly interesting just like the site indicated. So I am confidant I saw the only really interesting sight from that metro station and am therefore glad to count the Saint Laurent metro as done, not seeing the necessity of returning to see anything else.
I was glad to find there was only one exit for the metro because I have been known to pick the wrong one. I pulled out my hand-drawn map (a tool I nearly always bring with me when I'm going somewhere I have not yet been on the island) which does not always save me from going in the wrong direction. I only vaguely glanced at it because I could see the road was closed off for the festival. It was a very convenient and easy distance from the metro, so I put my map away and set off.
I was about ten minutes early when I got to the Parterre du Quartier des Spectacles and found the Scène Loto Québec. I did a quick survey of what was around. The stage was used for animation and performances. Just below it was a small floor put down in the grass for those who wished to participate in the dance workshops. The rest was grass with tents on the perimeter, mostly selling drinks or cold treats like ice cream. I noticed some stray chairs that seemed to belong under the tents (these all had logos and seemed reserved for some group in particular such as TV5 or TD Bank). The only other seating was a couple of graduated rows of what looked like bus seats that had been placed directly on the grass. I sat down for a few minutes there, waiting for the first workshop to begin.
I wanted to be there for 11:00 for the Brasilian Samba workshop. I went up to the floor when they called for participants and saw that the group was being lead from there as opposed to the stage. I had to listen carefully because the lady leading the dancing did not have a microphone. The first movements were for warm up purposes, so I was not too worried about accuracy. I had wished, though, that the lady would've given more instructions for us to do the steps. It seemed mostly to be a "watch me and do as I do" sort of exercise. Since I have never taken dance classes, I felt lost without further guidance. Then another lady picked up the next bit of choreography and she showed a step with a count of three, so I felt encouraged. It was a step back with the left foot, a step or lean onto the right without displacing it, then a hop from the left while lifting the right leg up (bent at the knee). 1 left back, 2 right 3 hop lift. I could follow that. Then we sped it up. That's when I couldn't produce the step. Afterwards again there was less instruction and I very quickly fell behind. I stopped after 15 minutes because I felt I could get little out of it. "Oh well, at least I tried!" I told myself.
There was no place to sit in the shade and watch the dancers. This was the downside of the festival: there were a couple of pidly trees which cast almost no shade. The rest was an open space with grass. The only real shade was under tents, which seemed again reserved. Instead I decided to cross the street and see the vendor tents which I had just noticed. There were beautiful handcrafted items from clothing to jewellery to musical instruments to books. I spoke with a couple of the vendors about their wares and procured a nice pair of handmade feather earrings and a handcarved leather book with a Celtic love knot on the cover (sadly not an African design, but of all the international designs and symbols, that is the one that I liked best).
I headed back to the Parterre about 20 minutes before the next workshop was set to begin. I sat again in the bus seats in the grass in the full sun. I reapplied some sunscreen because I burn really easily. The sun was so strong I became uncomfortable and thought to leave, but managed to convince myself to stay for the African dance workshop. Boy was I glad I did!
This workshop was very different from the Samba one and more in line with what I had hoped. The animator Oumar N'diaye Martinos was in costume, up on stage and with a microphone. He had very simple steps that anyone could follow without too much trouble and guided us through them with ample demonstration and instruction. Under his guidance, we all turned out a good performance. He checked several times to make sure we were following: "Ça va?". And he would make sure the response of "Oui" was plenty loud and enthousiastic. He asked us to smile and so we did.
He taught us a few interesting things about African dance. At one point when taking a break from dancing, he had us echo back to him a few words from an African language (I don't know which) and I don't know how faithfully we repeated them! Another interesting thing we learned was the importance of the dialogue between musician and dancer. He explained that the drums could invite us to take part and dance along. Our little sequence was prompted by a precise rythym from the drummer on the far left. That was always our cue to begin. We repeated the sequence before learning the next move. With this repetition, we got through a sizeable segment of choreography and we got through it credibly.
Once we had it down, he asked us to clear a row down the middle of the dance floor. He told us that the group on the left was North Africa and that the group on the right (which included me) was South Africa. He asked us to face one another and share our dance together. It worked out perfectly as we would move towards each other when we advanced and so on.
At about this time, I figured we were nearing the conclusion. Not so! He began to show yet more steps. By this time, however, I was getting quite hot and tired. I had been dancing just over 30 minutes and it was nearing 1:00, so I was getting hungry too. Though the workshop was not quite finished, I slipped myself out of the maze of dancers (it was then I saw how many people had joined in). I got myself onto Saint Catherine and looking for somewhere cool to have lunch. I saw Place des Arts after about a block and thought that was an ideal place to stop (the festival was between the Saint Laurent and Place des arts metros, just a bit closer to Saint Laurent). I opened the door and stepped into the relief of the air conditionning. I popped down to the metro level and seated myself in the food court with a panini and salad for lunch.
I was glad to be out of the heat and eating lunch. This also afforded me the opportunity to rest. I grew more and more tired as I sat resting. I know the heat can make me rather tired, so I had to evaluate at that point whether I was able to go back to the festival. I checked the schedule again for the next activity I wanted to see. I was interested in the story-telling activity with "grandmother's tales" at 3:40. That meant waiting two hours for a twenty minute segment and getting home probably about 6:00. The waiting didn't bother me so much because I could do that in the air conditioning rather than at the festival itself. It was more that it would be so much longer a day just for the sake of a 20 minute activity. That is what decided me, so I headed back home.
I didn't get to see much of the festival, but enjoyed what I did see. The African Dance workshop was announced as one of the most popular activities of the entire festival and one of the activities it is known for. It is put on every year and is largely considered a highlight. It was certainly a highlight for me! It was worth going if only to be at that workshop. I liked it so much, it made me want to go back. Who knows, I might just clear my calendar again tomorrow! The weather is supposed to be much more reasonable, so it might just tire me less and be much more manageable (I did have to rest for the remainder of the day after my adventures at the festival).
67 metros, 40 days...
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| African Dance workshop as shown on the festival site: http://www.festivalnuitsdafrique.com/ (my camera died, so I didn't get a single picture!) |
