I'm not sure if words and pictures can really serve to give you a sense of last night's electric performance with the Mafumani Secondary School Choir , but I'll give it a shot:
Prelude:
As you will know if you read yesterday's post, I was in pain, with limited mobility, and really hoping it wouldn't put a crimp in my evening but y'know, sometimes you just have to soldier on, and deal with any consequences later. Right ?? Right!!
Okay, so:
high on adrenalin, covered in heat gel, and bolstered by many more anti-inflams and heavy duty painkillers than was really advisable, I drove into town, parked close and was able to walk in relatively normally, albeit carefully. Flat shoes helped.
We weren't allowed into the Theatre proper for a while, so there was general milling in the foyer, chatting, hugging and cheek kissing, and checking out of everyone's costume
Eventually though we did get in and despite some buggerising around with sound checks and trying to work out how to fit us onto the small stage of the
Theatre Royal, it all kicked off albeit about half an hour later than planned
guess who had snagged her seat in the front row?
The sheer exuberance of the performances was exhilarating.
...the singing, mostly in a 'call and response' format, was enhanced by frenzied, uninhibited, joyous dancing, clapping, and whistling by the 5 young men and 6 young women in traditional garb - over board shorts, sneakers and Chicago Bulls sports socks - and you wouldn't believe the torrent of sound produced by such a small number. Musical backing was provided by these gentlemen
augmented occasionally by James Rigby on guitar
Now being a Secondary School choir, I was expecting 'children' - which these young people absolutely weren't - but discovered from reading the cover notes on the CD that I bought as a blogiversary prize [ more on that tomorrow ] that because these people come from one of the poorest areas in South Africa, children frequently start school quite late by western standards and are often still in school well into their twenties. I'm a little surprised at that statement, because I would have thought that the labour of an adult would be of more benefit to the family unit than that of a small child.
anyway
we had a ball!!!!!!!!!!!!
To keep the spirit of the evening, and to complement the African music we had so painstakingly learnt and the fabulous Limpopo T-shirts worn by the Millennium Chorus, the dress code for the rest of us was black tops and colourful bottoms [!!] with many improvising ingenious 'African style headwraps.
I was intending to do something along those lines but in the end I made myself a perky little hat instead
... beret-ish but with less 'poof' at the top and a much deeper band... a red angora muffin - to match my red skirt and shoes... and as Castlemaine is the home of 'interesting' winter head gear, I do intend to wear it again ... although perhaps not on the zero degree mornings - it won't do a lot for keeping the ears warm
I'll probably blog about the genesis of the hat sometime this week [ note to self - overhead fluro kitchen lighting
SO not flattering ]
postscript to the evening: while I'm not exactly moving normally today, I'm certainly better than I expected to be, so all those good thoughts and long-distance healing vibes may just have worked :]
along with the wonders of modern pharmacology and music-fueled endorphins
is what happens when you try to clean a beige carpet after a certain someone has discovered and disembowelled a blue biro.
After staying up to a ridiculous hour watching the Olympics, sock #1 and I staggered across the finish line at lunchtime yesterday, in a personal best time that was good enough to get through to the final ... so sock #2 was immediately cast on.
as the medalists crossed the line
was the scene at 5 pm
FW did
and the cause of all the excitement?
augmented occasionally by James Rigby on guitar
... beret-ish but with less 'poof' at the top and a much deeper band... a red angora muffin - to match my red skirt and shoes... and as Castlemaine is the home of 'interesting' winter head gear, I do intend to wear it again ... although perhaps not on the zero degree mornings - it won't do a lot for keeping the ears warm
This Friday evening, the historic Theatre Royal in Castlemaine will play host to several local choirs: the Chat Warblers, the Melbourne Millenium Chorus, and the Arcafellas, as we support these wonderful African school children - the Mafumani Choir.
