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Nathan and Marion wearing traditional Breton hats and
carrying the Gwen Ha Du, the Breton flag. |
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These students worried that Noëmie was sad,
so they bought her some flowers. |
Friday
night was la danse bretonne, traditional Breton dancing. One of our on-site
coordinators, Jean-Paul, and one of our host moms, Fabienne, teach us this form
of dance each year. The music is amazing and the dancing beautiful (maybe not
so much when we do it). But it is so much fun! The students enjoy it so much.
This year, as usual, we didn’t have enough boys to pair with girls, so some
girls had to play the role of the boy and lead.
In
conservative Brittany of 200 years ago, men and women were not permitted to
pair off, much less date. So in this form of dancing, men and women dance
together. But when they dance in pairs, the dance requires them to change
partners frequently. This works for us, in that we all dance with everyone.
Everyone is friends with everyone in la danse bretonne.
We
danced (well, they, since I have a bum knee) for over two hours. At the end,
everyone was spent, but happy.
la danse bretonne (Click here for a long video of the Breton dancing.)
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| Un, deux, trois...un, deux, trois... |
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| Fabienne and Jean-Paul give instruction. |
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| You guys can do this! |
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| What are we supposed to do? |
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| Who's leading? |
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| Un, deux, trois...un, deux, trois... |
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| They matched half the uniform... |
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| Alisa, just do it like this... |
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Did YOU understand what we are
supposed to do? |
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| Even the host parents get into it! |
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| This takes more skill that it appears. |
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Mason doe not have two left feet. He can even dance on the side of one
left foot! |
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| Shivani and Emily with the youngest dancer. |
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| Marlene takes a break between dances. |
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| Miranda has all kinds of energy. |
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| Same team, different dance. |
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| Hat? What hat? |
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| Don't try this at home. |
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| Avance, recule, avance, recule |
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| How is this supposed to work? |
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| Non, non, non... |
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| Now everyone... |
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| We've got this! |
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| This is Québecois Breton dancing. |
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| Jack doesn't look like he's leading |
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| No Maria, right foot! |
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No matter what you think,
this is NOT the blind leading the blind. |
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