Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Dance The Day Away

Dear friends,

A while ago I was invited by my good friend Magda - who was my witness at my civil wedding - to go with her to see her mum dancing to period music. Immediately I have imagined people dancing as in the scenes from Pride and Prejudice and I jumped in to say yes. On the 25th of January this year, me and my lovely polish friend jumped into a bus and took off for Nowy Targ, where the dancing was about to take place. Nowy Targ is aproximately a hour and a half away from Krakow and we had beautiful scenery to look at as it goes through the hills and mountains and it was freshly covered with snow. We got there in a nick of time - although her mum performed once in the morning we catched her in the afternoon reprise too. But what I was was something totally different than I have expected!
I had just landed into the middle of the 39th Prof. Marian Wieczysty Cup - The National Dance Competition, gathering pairs from all over Poland!
Let me quote from a presentation I found online for you ;)
"The numbers speak for themselves: over 600 pairs take part in the Prof. Marian Wieczysty Cup National Dance Competition. The event, for over a quarter of a century held in January to commemorate the anniversary of the death of its founder (21 January 1987), enjoys unabated popularity.
The competition’s originator, a dancer and outstanding educator, created the competition’s formula back in the 1970s, basing it around football tournaments. After his passing, the event has been run by artistic director Andrzej Golonka; it features dancers split into age groups: juniors (14-15 years old) and 15 and over. They face one another in standard dances (English waltz, Viennese waltz, tango, foxtrot and quickstep) and Latin American dances (samba, rumba, chacha, pasodoble and jive).
The main event is accompanied by the National Polish Dance Competition and meetings for teachers, instructors and anyone fascinated by dance. Nowy Targ hosts the Prof. M. Wieczysty Cup National Polish Dance Competition in the Hobby and Senior categories."
We got there around 1-2 PM and we stayed until around 7-8 PM and I still cannot figure out when the time passed by... It was lovely! I remember being little and watching people dance and sometimes being envious for that as it seems to me that I have 2 left legs - I cannot dance in pairs unless I am leading, which truly disturbes me and my awesome other half...
As you will figure out quick, this was my fav pair - maybe also due to her dress...
“Youve gotta dance like theres nobody watching,
Love like youll never be hurt,
Sing like theres nobody listening,
And live like its heaven on earth.”
William W. Purkey
“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
Voltaire
“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. 
She just did it backwards and in high heels.”
  Ann Richards
“Dance is the hidden language of the soul”
  Martha Graham

“Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.”
Oprah Winfrey
“Nobody cares if you cant dance well. Just get up and dance. 
 Great dancers are great because of their passion.”
Martha Graham

“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.”
W.B. Yeats, The Land of Hearts Desire

“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.”
Mikhail Baryshnikov
“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. ”
Martha Graham
“People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose.
 I was chosen to be a dancer, and with that, you live all your life. ”
Martha Graham, Blood Memory
“Dance for yourself. If someone understands, good. If not, no matter.
Go right on doing what interests you, and do it until it stops interesting you.”
Louis Horst
The Photographer VS. The Photograph
“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair...”
Susan Polis Schutz
Dancing the Polish traditional dance: Mazura :)
“There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.
 And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.”
Martha Graham
This lady really knew how to move, even though the lad was really creepy...
All in all I must admit I was pleasantly surprised and I have danced the day away with my friend :) Thank you so much again Magda for taking me there and giving me the oportunity to see all these lovely and talented people dancing. I loved the dresses - I think you already figured out, by watching the pictures, which was my personal fav :) - I loved the music - the brilliant remixes - I loved seeing Magdas mum in action, dancing the standard dances... It was a day well spend! I am just sorry it took me a while to go through all the pictures from that day in order to do these collages, but you will forgive that of me, will you not?! :)

** I was not payed in any way to do this post but I did it with all my heart and I believe everyone should watch live at least once in their life a dancing contest - it made me think of Dirty Dancing ;)))  in a odd way... **

Yours truly,
A LadyBug that loves music & dances
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