This afternoon at Hebin Park in Guiyang, Guizhou, I recorded a man expressively dancing to music. A small crowd had gathered and several others captured the performance as well. After the music ended, the man approached me and initiated a conversation in English. He told me he hoped I could share the video with my friends. He has traveled to Europe before but never the U.S. He was curious to know whether Americans would appreciate him dancing in a park there.
The video not only captured the dancing but some of the audience — including one small child who briefly tried dancing too — and passersby. As an added bonus, it concludes with a child eating an ice cream bar.
The video not only captured the dancing but some of the audience — including one small child who briefly tried dancing too — and passersby. As an added bonus, it concludes with a child eating an ice cream bar.
Sylvia came to watch when she heard the music playing from my computer. Her thoughts: "Oh, I wish it was cherry blossoms. ... What is he doing? ... How is he doing that? That's easy stuff - some people do really hard stuff. But sometimes the easy stuff is hard for me. How is he doing that easy stuff?"
ReplyDeleteAs for whether Americans would appreciate his dancing in a park here, what did you tell him? I've seen similar dancing at a park in Chinatown in NYC, but otherwise I'm not sure that this music would translate to American parks easily.
Tamara
Great Sylvia recognizes that what can look so easy, especially if done well, can be so hard.
DeleteI think the wording I used in my reply was an optimistically said "they could". I figured park culture and rules vary from place to place in the U.S.