Hello Dancers,

	Kalispell International Folk Dancing will take place Saturday April 23 (tonight!) from 7 to 10 p.m.
	at the Salvation Army gym, 110 Bountiful Drive (a block east of Hwy 93 and a block south of
	the hospital and hospice). A donation of $3 is requested to pay the rent.

	We will also dance next Saturday, April 30, same time & place, but international dancing will be 
	cancelled on May 7 in favor of the memorial celebration in
	remembrance of Marvin Black. That event begins at 2 p.m. at the Smith Valley Grange
	Hall, on U.S. Hwy 2, about 4 miles west of Kalispell. It will conclude with a potluck and
	contra dance. Note that the grange hall has no cooking facilities, so plan your potluck
	entrees accordingly. Our usual Salvation Army dance venue is not available on May 7,
	because the Salvation Army is hosting its annual Spring Fling swing dance and fundraiser
	auction, starting at 7 p.m.

	Thanks to Roger, who has posted a link on our web site to a beautiful tribute photo page
        that he has designed for Marvin.Memorial for Marvin Black
 
        From Butte, Max & Eva report that the Duquesne University Tamburitzans dance troupe
        will give performances on Tuesday May 10 at the Great Falls Civic Center, and on Thursday
        May 12 at the Washoe Theater in Anaconda. Both shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Folks who
        have seen the Tamburitzans say they are brilliant. For ticket info go to
        ticketing.greatfallsmt.net in Great Falls, or call Stanley Blaz in Anaconda (406-563-6859).
        For more on the Tamburitzans, follow this link:
	http://www.duq.edu/tamburitzans/index.cfm        

        Butte IFD, Sunday, May 1. The Butte international dancers will host a folk dance party,
        from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., in the Arts Chateau ballroom at the corner of Broadway and Washington.
        Enter by the west side door and follow signs to the ballroom (or you can yell for help in a loud voice)
        There will be request dancing and treats.

        Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, May 27-30, 2011
	http://www.nwfolklifefestival.org/
        
        Stamp and Camp in Kalispell is coming soon at the end of June.

        Montana Folk Festival, July 8-10 in Butte, will include a Saturday Morning Folk Dance Party,
        9-noon at St. John's Episcopal, Butte.

        Helene Eriksen will teach dances of the Middle East, Northern Africa and Eastern
        Europe on July 30, in Butte.

        For more information on international dancing and links to events, free music and other
        information, visit the Kalispell International Folk Dancers web site, where you can also
        find playlists from past dances:
        http://montanafolkdance.org/flathead/

        Jackie V re-joined us after their exciting family trip to China, where their son plays in the symphony in
        Beijing.  She has written a brief trip narrrative and asked me to forward it, so it is attached.
	You can read Jackie's China Narrative - at the end of this dance report.

        And here's another link to a youtube view of Lijiang (her favorite spot) and a snippet of Naxi folk
        dancing in the square.
	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re01LTqFmBM
                

        We are looking forward to a talk from her about their adventure, maybe during Stamp and Camp, or maybe sooner...

        DANCES 04-23-11

        Schottisch-Boarischer           German
        Bannielou Lambaol               France
        Setnja                          Serbia
        Savila Se Bela Loza             Serbia
        Ya da kalinushku lomala         Russia
        Ma Navu                         Israel
        Tzadik Katamar                  Israel
        Siriul                          Romania
        Stella di maggio                Swiss-Italian
        Zensko za raka                  Macedonia
        Dance Of Ikaria                 Greece
        Jiana                           Romania
        Opinca                          Romania
        Mom Bar                         Armenia
        Alunelul                        Romania
        Gustaf's Skoal                  Sweden
        Nine Pin Reel                   Scotland
        Lesnoto Oro (Oj Ti Pile)        Bulgaria
        Gori More                       Macedonia
        Alunelul de la Urzica           Romania
        Dedo mili dedo                  Macedonia
        Gavotte d'Honneur               Brittany
        Pe Batute                       Romania
        Be'er Basadeh                   Israel
        Road To The Isles               Ireland
        Godecki Cacak                   Serbia
        Troika                          Russia
        Tervelska Raka                  Bulgaria
        Tervelska Tropanka              Bulgaria
        Schioapa                        Romania
        Hampparin humppa                Finland

        DANCERS 04-23-11
        1. Rose
        2. Don
        3. Tina
        4. Aurora
        5. Roger
        6. Jackie van
        7. Kathy
        8. Jackie Z
        9. Connie
        10. Jon

        Happy dancing!

        Don
--------------------------------------------------

China Narrative

Traveling to Beijing

Elsa, Ben and I got up at 4:00 Am on March 7, 2011 to begin our trip to China. It would be 31 hours before we were "horizontal"again! We had an all day layover in Seattle, so we took advantage of the time and went by Light rail to Pike Street Market. That was a fun way to begin the trip. Once back at the airport, we made it through security and were all settled on the airplane only to be told there was a mechanical problem warranting our deplaning for 3 hours while it was repaired. The trip overseas was long and tiring. Once in Beijing, we collected our huge hoard of luggage – some carrying products for a friend of Jonas. We had a long wait until Jonas and his girlfriend Minna picked us up – with no way to contact them to know what was going on. After a short visit at their home, we finally got settled into bed at @ 2AM!

1st week in and around Beijing

7:56 AM 8/3/2013Once we got up our first day, we hit the ground running! Jonas took us to many wonderful markets, restaurants and tourist places. We started by climbing the hill in Jingshan Park. This is a man-made hill, the highest place in Beijing, and from it a person can have a 360-degree view of the entire city. It was once part of the Forbidden City, which is in the center of Beijing, and was made from the material removed to make the moat around the city. The air was clean and clear the first few days in Beijing due to a political convention going on at Tian’anmen Square – good press. We were amazed to see the stars at night in Beijing. Jonas’ comment was "Well I hope you get to experience when you cannot see the sun in the day!" We did. Some other things we saw were a street bazaar, a huge "Antique"market, a couple different popular shopping areas, a Hutong (sort of a Chinese Ghetto) from the seat of a rickshaw pulled by a bicyclist, and parks where men flew kites, did Tai Chi or hung their pet caged birds up to "socialize" with each other. We saw an amazing Acrobatic Show, an opera at NCPA, with Jonas performing, a "Chinese variety show"at a restaurant. We experienced subways, Chinese toilets, a ride in a Bumbar, many hair raising taxi rides, and street food everywhere. And of course, we saw Tian’anmen Square itself, the Forbidden City and the Lamma Temple. We began our feast of Chinese food as well on the 1st day, with Peking Duck and the "trimmings". Every meal was some new amazing dish – some very fancy, some very simple. All the vegetables are cooked fresh and it is nothing like American Chinese food. Some restaurants were elegant and one we entered through a heavy blanket for a door. I would have not known it was even something to go into. For our anniversary, we also had Peking Duck in Jonas’ favorite restaurant for this dish. This restaurant had a fairly large sized room that was an aquarium. In it were all the live sea animals a person might choose for his or her dinner. We had a fish prepared in sweet sour sauce, but the live fish was brought to us for inspection before being prepared. Elsa chose a different food on her 21st birthday – a dinner of Sushi, followed by a party at a sort of bar/restaurant called "Stone Age". In this place a person can get meat on a stick – anything imaginable. Ben actually ate bugs. The most adventurous I got was squid.

10 Day Trip South

After a week of Beijing, we packed for our trip to the Changxi and Yunan province in Southwest China. It was a 3½ - hour flight from Beijing to Guilin in the heart of China’s Karst Mountains. But the first adventure we had was to hop into a small van and drive another 2 hours north and up into the mountains. The hairpin turns made those in Glacier Park look like child’s play. Eventually we were dropped off at a wide uphill walkway. Jonas and Elsa packed Ben and my bags for us. We walked quite a way, being haggled by many street vendors, until we came to a covered bridge. Once we crossed that, we began our REAL trek. The walkway narrowed to slate steps that wound up and up – in actuality probably 30 stories – to our hotel in the village or Ping’An in the Longshen Rice Terraces. The weather was unseasonably cold for this time of year – in the 40’s and rainy – but there was no heat in the hotel itself except our rooms. We were bundled up but still really enjoyed our evening meal. This area of China is inhabited by numerous minority people - groups. Many of the costumes were beautiful. In this village (I think this group is called Zhuang) the older women wore a hat that sort of looked like a towel folded and wrapped on their head. But many of the old women were so bent over, nearly 90 degrees, from working the rice terraces. Another group in this area was noted for their very long black hair, which they wrapped around their head in an unusual way. Their costumes were very colorful. We spent our time in Ping’An hiking around the village looking at all the ways people here lived out their lives, working hard, carrying heavy loads, and gardening up and down the mountain. One day we hiked up to the top of the mountain and enjoyed hearing Jonas play alphorn calls on his horn. The weather was pretty cool but tolerable. We stayed here 2 nights. The evening of our last day, we made the long decent back down to the parking area and drove about 3 hours to the south of Guilin to a town called Yangshuo. We arrived in Yangshuo at night and to our surprise and wonder, the Karst Mountains in town had various colors of floodlights shining on them. Our hotel looked out at them and the town in a distance. It was a beautiful peaceful retreat. By the next morning, Ben and Elsa were getting sick, from all the cold wet weather. I took off early and walked through many beautiful farming areas. The scenery was stunningly beautiful. Later we all but Ben walked to the Li River, where we took an old sort of ferry across to town. The town has a noted shopping area where we spent much time, but we also the next day took a 3-hour trip on the river on a bamboo raft. The weather continued to be cold and rainy so we all were soaked by the time we returned. None of us had brought enough warm weather clothing. We moved to a hotel in town and constructed a "Chinese Laundry"in our room to try to get dry. Our last night in this area we went to a fabulous show on the water with the Karst mountains as the backdrop. The same man who directed the Olympic Games opening ceremony put on this show. We were awestruck by the costumes and 700 plus people involved in the show. It was still cold and rainy so we rented old army coats – so thick and heavy it would take a month to get any moisture through! What a sight we were. The next day we took a bus ride back to Guilin where we boarded sleeper car in an all night train ride to Kunming in the Yunan Province. Most of the trip was during the night, but what we could see was just beautiful. We had a reservation for a hotel but it turned our to be truly a "dive" Chinese hotel. Ben was sick and by this time my leg was in a lot of pain so we did not do much in our short stay here. We were not impressed with the town. We flew out the next morning for LiJinag. When we flew into LiJiang, I thought I saw a palm tree and I was NOT imagining things. The weather here was very pleasant and such a blessing after all the cold rain. It was nearly an hour taxi ride to the Old Town of LiJiang where we were staying. Then we had a long walk on narrow streets of cobblestones to our hotel. But what a treat it was! This Old Town of LiJiang was sort of a mix of Venice and China. The architecture was old Chinese (@800 years old) but it has a system of canals that runs through it. The water is beautiful crystal clear because it has as its source the tail end of the Himalayas. The climate here is spring @240 days and a cool rainy summer. It is about 10,000 feet with the Jade Dragon Snow mountain in the distance at at 18,000 feet. We spent 4 days in this paradise. We were sad to leave the LiJiang area and head back to Beijing. Back in Beijing we just had 3 days left of our trip. Ben continued to be very sick so we ended up with a visit to a Chinese hospital. He was not well enough to go the Dunshau Wind ensemble concert in the Forbidden City Concert Hall and experience being lost inside the walls at night in a car driven by a Chinese musician after the concert! But we were able to get Ben to the Great Wall – a wonderful climax to our most amazing trip to China.