Where do I begin to describe last nights's Colegio Ingles' winter festival? I can't use the word "Christmas-y" cause it wasn't; won't use the word "religious" cause its wasn't, and really don't want to refer to it as a concert cause it was much different than what we are used to. Being a former student, guidance counsellor and social worker and now a mother of two school aged kids, I have been to a lot of Christmas concerts ... this was an all Spanish production put on by eleven classes of 1st to 6th graders all telling the story of "Mexico".
The evening started out with what I learned today was the Spaniards defeating the Mexicans ... there were head-dresses, sword fighting, a priest and lots of beautiful dancers wearing colorful dresses. We weren't sure of the details pertaining to each character but got the strong message that Mexico was taken over by someone or something.
There were numbers representing Mexico's pica de gillo (otherwise known as Mexican salsa) where first graders were dressed as either tomatoes, cilantro or white onions; famous artists, dancers, singers and political leaders; certain states within the country (Hunter's class performed a well known dance from the Vera Cruz area); Mexican traditions such as small Sunday afternoon carnivals held in small towns, and how the revolution and independance took place.
For the past two or three weeks I had received different comments, concerns and stories from Hunt's teachers. At first his Spanish teacher was concerned how she was going to communicate the dance steps to him. Then a week or so in she was frustrated because he was not participating in the practices like he should and he actually fell asleep on the bench during one of them (so...she took him to the English co-ordinator to help her translate and he quickly thought he was in trouble!) and then the teachers couldn't believe how good he could do the quick steps. I had the principal say to me "this is my boy ... we can't believe this Canadian kid is outdancing the Mexicans!"
When I picked up the costume the day of the show I assumed he would NOT be happy wearing it! It had a long sleeved white dress shirt, white polyester pants and a straw hat (which was too small for his head) and white dress shoes. He put it on without hesitation and was actually quite proud when he came down to model it for us! When it was his turn to hit the stage he was nothing but grins and despite all the teasing from his sister he didn't even balk at putting his arm around a GIRL!!
I cannot tell you how over the top the costumes were and that some classes had 22 different costumes! The detail, the colors and the representations were simply amazing. And I also found out that each parent was responsible for their child's costume whether it was sewing it, shopping for it or paying the school seamstress to make it for you (we obviously chose the latter option and to give you an idea for Hunter's Vera Cruz white pants, shirt, red bandana and straw hat it was $400 pesos...plus the white shoes which we had to buy). I will tell you that every child participated in the evening and every child donned a creative costume!
After the eleven numbers the entire student body gathered on the stage and sang a catchy tune that we had heard previously at the posada and revolution celebrations ... I am not sure of the name but after speaking to a coordinator I learned that it was a song written and performed by a Mexican for the 100th anniversary of the Revolution. It would be similar to that of Nikki Yanofsky's I Believe written for the 2010 Olympic games.
Like the previous evening's festival, families gathered for food following the show and we left about 8pm. We were so happy to experience Mexico's history even though it was all wrapped up in two hours! This country has a tremendous amount of history, traditions and culture that I now feel an obligation to learn about.
No comments:
Post a Comment