Tuesday 11 May 2010

Love & Friendship, Chinese Style

I am a frequent volunteer at our local small Centre for Arts and Entertainment. This weekend I was handing out programs and seeing guests to their seats for "Love and Friendship", the 2010 Chinese Dance Recital.

The Canadian Chinese Folk Dance Group has been in existence in neighbouring Markham since 1989 and promotes Chinese heritage and culture to the many children of Chinese ethnicity who have been adopted by non-Chinese Canadian families. I got involved with this event as my Tai Chi instructor is one of the dance teachers.

Little Dai Peacocks dance. Some of the little girls are as young as 3 and 4.

Above... the Dai Water Festival dance.
And below.... Ice Fairies. So sweet.


I lost track of the names of the dances, but I think this might be the Prosperity Dance.

During the next dance, one of the tiniest dancers accidently caught sight of Mummy in the audience and her little face crumpled into tears. "Mummyyyy!" she wailed and dashed into the audience to sit on her mother's knee. The other little dancers carried on with their routine as though nothing unusual had occurred. What troupers!

Below... the Mongolian Prairie Horse Riders dance consisted mostly of vigourous galloping around the stage.

And lastly a Celebration of Love and Friendship and a Tribute to Mothers. It was Mother's Day. And there were a lot of very proud mothers, fathers and grandparents in the audience.


As a finale, each little dancer each was given a pink rose from this gorgeous display and ran into the audience to present the rose to her mother.

What a great way to spend Mother's Day!

16 comments:

  1. A wonderful post. Thanks for sharing those photos and the experience.

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  2. This must have been absolutely delightful to see. Sweet young faces and such beautiful colors. Great pictures Shammy.
    Just a side note, we saw the scrolls at the museum in Jerusalem too. We felt so fortunate to see them. Its hard to believe it was a whole 10 years ago for us.

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  3. How sweet are these little ones. I'll bet a few Mums shed tears too.

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  4. Wow.. how sweet they are. Look at those beautiful faces! You must have totally enjoyed this colourful show.

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  5. What a GREAT GREAT Day! You can see how poised all these young dancers are---even in the pictures you showed us...Very Very Impressive. I would love to have seen this afternoon-evening of Dance. LOVED that they all took a Rose and brought it to their Mothers in honor of the day...!
    A Sweet Day, Indeed!

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  6. What a fun event to be a volunteer for!

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  7. I would really enjoy watching a show like this. In Atlanta there is a large Asian community but unless you live near it, it’s hard to find out about the events – I guess the city is too large. Your pictures show how pretty the dancers were and what a lovely show it must have been.

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  8. What a great photo story of what looks like a wonderful recital. I agree....that was a great Mother's Day.

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  9. a great way to spend mother's day!

    I do love the 4th photo

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  10. What a beautiful post! Looks a wonderful dance!

    Thanks for the congratulations to my first grandson!
    Have a nice Sunday.

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  11. Beautiful photos of a beautiful event! That's just awesome!

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  12. Priceless, Sham! You were able to get some fabulous pictures, which I bet they all would love to have! I'm always inspired by all the things you do to keep your life so full.

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  13. Such a wonderful post, Fenella!
    The atmosphere must have been strong of feelings there and so beautiful!

    We have had 25 -27 degrees Celsius last week and it will continue also this week, quite unusual in May here, but I don`t complain :)
    Kiki does`s not like it, too hot for her.

    I wish all the best for you!
    I am going again to see my grandchildren all of them.

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  14. Sounds like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon! Very cute kids.

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