So the whole thing started at 9 AM, but I decided that I would rather go in the afternoon because the dancing was the Premier and Intermediate dancers and not kids and novices. I knew I wasn't going to stay all day, so afternoon it was! I slept in a bit and then left just before noon. As I was walking down the street, I heard a whole bunch of drums. I knew that the Atlantic Jazz Festival was in town this week, but I didn't realize that there was a parade. Good timing, Lindsay (pats self on back)! I decided to delay my trip to the games and stay and watch the parade.
It was a little bit of a bizarre parade. There was very little jazz. It seems that it was just a whole bunch of people that decided they wanted to be in a parade.
The parade opened with a weird clown and then a band of drummers. Not jazz drummers, mind you. They were more like spanish drummers? I have no idea.
They beat on ribboned drums with sticks.
Clowns and chinese yoyos and hula hoops. Real jazz.
puppet thingies?
Win a canoe. At the jazz festival (?)
Bird-fairy things. There were about 3 of them along with gigantic puppets of faces and suns and moons and stuff. The bird-fairy things were kinda annoying to be honest. They would come right up to you and "CAW!"
Now, where is the Jazz in all of this Jazz parade business? I was wondering that myself. In the whole parade there was 1 jazz ensemble (the guys below) and one jazz-ish group. These guys were followed up by break dancers. I know what you're thinking and I agree.
After that 20 minute very confusing intermission, I ate some lunch at the fry truck by the Halifax library. I've always wanted to stop and never did. I had fish and chips and boy were they tasty. Underneath the truck there was a little bucket of water for dogs to drink out of with a sign that said "Free drinks. Pets only. Straws extra." I took a picture, but forgot to upload it.
I walked down to the waterfront and took the ferry over to the Dartmouth side of the harbour. The Games were in the Dartmouth Commons. I didn't know exactly where it was, but I figured I would be able to start hearing bagpipes if I kept heading North. I walked for a bit and then turned in the wrong direction when I was beckoned by the call of bagpipes. I would say it was like the Scottish version of the Pied Piper, but that would make me a rat, so we'll end that analogy. After a few HUGE hills, I made it! I knew that the cost was supposed to be $10, but i guess I snuck in the back because I didn't have to pay anything. It was only later that I noticed a big yellow sign on the opposite end of the Grounds from where I was that said "ENTER HERE." Oh well.
It was a beautiful day and one of the first sunny days we've had in a long time. Friday was bright and sunny too. I read somewhere that Friday was the first sunny day we've had in 22 straight days. I don't know if that's true because I seem to remember some sun, but I guess it's the first day where it's been sunny ALL day. Usually it's sunny in the morning and foggy in the afternoon or vice versa. I don't mind at all really. It's better than being in 100 degree Georgia. Plus, there is zero humidity. When the sun comes out, though, everyone takes to the streets in Halifax. It's awesome. People just come out of the woodwork. This is a really out-doorsy city to begin with and people love to be outside, but the whole city comes alive when it's sunny. Everyone hangs out or barbeques or just sits on their front stoop offering passer-bys drinks or food. I love it here.
Back to the Games. As I walked up the hill, I was greeted by these guys:
Notice the cute girl under the trees to the right. She was twirling to the pipers.
Just standing under the trees and practicing! There were band competitions all day. I missed the morning with kids and the individual competitions, but I still got to see a few bands in the afternoon competitions. They gathered under the trees to practice and then marched up the hill through where I came in and then gathered in a circle to play.
The guy in the blue and green is the judge. It was actually fairly neat. I had no idea these competitions even existed or that there were so many people interested in piping that there were this many bands! I can't tell the difference between good bands and bad bands, so I lost interest pretty quickly.
Then I wandered over to watch some dancers. Competitions were going all day and I walked back and forth between the Heavyweight competitions and the dancing competitions.
I don't know how I feel about Highland dancing. I think it's because I don't understand how it's scored, so it all looks the same to me. I liked these traditional sets, but to me they all looked the same and it was difficult for me to tell who was really good. I could definitely pick out the bad ones, but I have no idea what makes someone great. Also, they all do pretty much the exact same steps. In Irish dance, everyone has different dances for the most part. Also, it's easy to tell the championship dancers from the novice based on how complicated the dances are and generally how high they leap off the ground. I think that part of the way that Highland dancers are scored is based on how crisp the movements are, so it makes it harder to look graceful. There are also no leaps like there are in Irish dance. It just seems less show-y. I'm not saying that it's not difficult or cool, I just think I prefer Irish dancing. I'm biased though.
UPDATE: This article is pretty good about explaining a little bit about the differences. Highland dancing is more technical and mechanical with the vast majority of the scoring going to technique, whereas Irish dancing is more of an art and dance number. There's also is far fewer dances than Irish dancing, which I suspected. It's actually an interesting article.
Highland dancing is also very literal and there are tons of costume changes. Irish dancers use a single costume for every dance that they compete in. This may be because the costumes are just so expensive! Novice/Beginner costumes start at $600 new and Champion dresses can be up to $2000. I poked around the Highland dance costume shop and they seem to be around $150-$200 for the one pictured above and less for some of the other dresses. I have no idea though.
Highland dancing also seems to be literal in some respects to the name of the dance. For instance, in the Sailor's Hornpipe, the dancers dress up in sailor costumes. The movements are also based on sailing. They "pull" lines (rope), and look out for land and salute. Irish dance has a hornpipe as well, but it's just another dance. There's no costume change and the steps aren't a representation of anything sailor-y. The title of dances mostly has to do with the meter of the dance. I was really excited about the Irish Jig and wanted to see exactly what that was all about.
(sigh) It was not to be. There was a lot of stomping and "putting up your dukes" and angry faces. And they changed into green and red outfits with green and red shoes. The heels are wooden so they make loud bangs.
Best I can tell, this is what they were going for:
Curiouser and curiouser.
This little girl was adorable. She stood right in front of the stage and watched the whole dance, even trying out steps. She was stomping her feet in this one:
Now onto the more exciting part. THE HEAVYWEIGHT COMPETITIONS. Part of me wishes I got there earlier at 10 AM and watched all the events, but then I would have missed the break dancing jazz parade, and we wouldn't want that, would we? So, I caught a few events.
The Hammer Toss
They spun around and hurled the hammer as far as they could. Some went about 65-85 feet, but some of these guys got the hammer 107 feet (!!!) away. VERY cool.
But, really, I know you're interested in the famous caber toss. It's what everyone knows about. For those of you who don't know, the caber toss is an event in which the athletes toss a large wooden pole kinda like a telephone pole. There's a ton of technique since the poles are not always straight and the field isn't perfectly level, so you have to choose where you run very carefully and also how you orient the caber. The event is unique because the caber isn't tossed for distance or for height, but rather accuracy. The object is to toss the caber 180 degrees directly in front of you, which is considerable challenging since the cabers weigh over 100 pounds and are about 22 feet tall (it varies from competition to competition). It's scored on an imaginary clock. A judge will run directly behind the competitors to see how it's tossed. A perfect toss is 12:00 (12:30 in Newfoundland). A little to the right might be 1:00. There's also a side judge in the even that that caber isn't turned which happens a lot. They judge the degree that the caber gets in the air, 70 degrees, 80 degrees, etc.
Another competitor will walk the pole up to you so that it is standing vertical. Then the competitors interlace their fingers and slowly move down to the bottom of the caber. Then they press into the caber and toss it into the air, catching it on their palms. Do you know how ridiculously hard it is to do that with a 22 foot pole that weighs 100 pounds? It's also important to do it cleanly and smoothly, because it has to be balanced. If you wobble it, it may fall and then you get a bad score.
The trick is that once you get it kinda balanced, you have to keep moving forward in order for inertia to keep the caber against your shoulder, similar in a way to walking on stilts. The trick is to do it very smoothly.
Running also gives you a bit of momentum for when you end up tossing the caber to get it to spin in the air.
I was surprised how nice the competitors were to each other. They were all having a good time and ribbing one another and also encouraging one another. There was no animosity at all and they seemed to genuinely like each other. They were also giving each other tips when they say something wrong.
After you toss the caber, you have to help the next guy set up. So you help him take it where he wants to begin from and then help get the caber vertical.
Really fun. My favourite even, though, was the weight for height competition. The object of that is to toss a 52 pound weight over a bar. You get 3 tries to pass the bar. You can enter the competition at any time. They start the bar at 11 feet, but you don't have to try at 11 feet if you think that you can definitely make it at the higher bars and you don't want to exhaust yourself. So at 11 feet there were only 3 competitors. More entered at 12 and 13 feet. Some of those guys easily passed the bar, but they were just working up a rhythm. I really liked this competition because they let you onto the field and you could sit pretty close and watch the action.
It looked ridiculously hard. The current Canadian record is 17 feet. And some of the LARGEST men on the field couldn't even pass it. Even the 2nd best Canadian didn't pass it. There's a fair amount of technique involved, so although it helps to be strong, some people are just good at it. It also helps to be taller. The shorter guys have a hard time getting it those extra 6 inches.
At 17 feet, there were 3 competitors left. None of them got it after their 3rd attempt, but one guy came pretty darn close. At that point, they all get one last try. The first two didn't make it, but the final guy, Matt Doherty was probably the best hope. He's also the second youngest competitor at 24 and by far not the tallest or biggest. He got really ramped up with all that testosteron flowing and took of his shirt (yes, please. I've got more pictures for the ladies if they desire them. I am now a strong supporter of men in kilts). This is him passing 17 feet:
Matt, if you're googling yourself and want a copy of this picture, let me know and I'll send it on over to you.
I took a picture with him.
And this is this is the second best Heavyweight in Canada. He was also really funny and him along with another competitor did most of the announcing. They were hysterical and did a fantastic job educating the crowd telling them how things were scored, what to look for, and techniques.
This kid is a future champion:
He even had cute shoes!
He was adorable and curious and massive. He's a Scottish Deer Hound and just kept sniffing and getting into things. Soooo many people asked me what kind of dog he was, but I had no idea. I was just holding the leash! There was another cute little dog, but he just lay down and hung out in my shadow.On the way back on the ferry I chit chatted with a girl. The Paul McCartney concert was that night. I didn't go because I couldn't afford the $125 tickets. Part of me wishes that I went and just stood outside the gate because apparently they had fences up but you could still hear and see everything. They had all the roads closed off, so people were literally dancing in the streets and on the lawns of the houses facing the Halifax Commons. I do a lot of things by myself, but concerts are not too fun alone. Oh well.
And that was my Saturday! I know you're all really jealous.
Interesting view on highland dancing. I am highland dancer and I would have to agree that it can be boring to watch when you don't know what to look for. Highland is based entirely on technique and "sharpness" - since most are warrior dances there is no grace involved. The women's dances are graceful and add to the dancer's repertoire, though typically only about 7-10 dances are done in competition, but we learn many more than that.
ReplyDeleteWe do some choreographies but those are restricted to chorography compatitions or else shows.
The Sailor's Hornpipe and the Irish Jig are our two "character" dances. They both have stories behind. For example, the Irish Jig is supposively about a peasant women who is angry with her husband for coming home late and drunk. She is chasing him around the kitchen (some say she is chasing him with a rolling pin).
I'd love to know where you saw those cheap costumes!!! I could use a new one. My highland costume new would be approx: $150 for the socks, $150 for the vest/blouse and $400-700 for the kilt.
Anyways, I enjoyed your commentary "from the other side"
Have fun in Nova Scotia!