Friday, August 13, 2010

Cascavel


Cascavel

August 11, 2010

We had an early morning wake-up call in Iguassu this morning, as we packed up our luggage and prepared to set out for Cascaval. We had a show scheduled for this evening, and a couple hours of traveling to do beforehand. However, before we could even set out, our tour operators insisted on re-tagging ALL of our luggage, including back packs and carry-ons. Just in case we were pulled over by the police. The tagging process was lengthy and turned into a joke among the travelers, “Has your toe been tagged?”.

Finally we were all tagged and loaded onto the busses, and could set off. It may have been the quietest bus ride so far on this tour, as almost everyone was fast asleep in no time.

When we arrived at our hotel in Cascaval, confusion ensued as we realized the doors would remain locked. We needed a key to get in, or get out, of our rooms. More than one dancer was left locked in their room by their unadvised room-mate.

After figuring out how to work the doors, the performers packed up and we headed off to the theatre for load-in and tech rehearsal. During our tech, a local tv crew interviewed Les about our show and took shots of the dancers and choir during rehearsal.


Finally, after a very long and tiring day, it was showtime! Everyone was nervous and excited to perform for another sold out crowd.

The show began, and our opening numbers came out strong and were very well received. Suddenly during our spring section BOOM! POW! CRASH! Sparks and glass flying everywhere! The lights exploded and came crashing down! Flames engulfed the stage!

Just kidding.

But we did blow a breaker, and the stage was plunged into darkness for a few minutes while the tech crew tried to solve the problem. Sergio did a very good job keeping the crowd settled while we waited for the lights to come back on, and Johnnie our stage manager did a wonderful job keeping everything under control. Kudos to him!


When the lights did come back, we finished the show with even more energy than before. We finished our hopak to a roar of applause and another standing ovation.

The crowds here are so appreciative of our group, it is almost overwhelming. After our show we were invited to a reception at the Ukrainian Community with their local dance group “Sonechko”. We were treated to wonderful food and made new friends. Some of our dancers even learned how to do some “Brazilian dancing”. Later on, the two groups faced off in a kolomeyka – with maybe a bit too much obertas… Afterwards Sonechko surprised us by performing their Hopak for us, and another dance “Povzunets” which they invited our Viter boys to come up and join them. It was so much fun and so wonderful to see our two groups performing together.

We said our goodbyes soon after that, and headed back to ur hotel to pack up and get ready for the next day of traveling. Off to Prudentopolis!

1 comment:

  1. Blowing a breaker on stage...well that's a new one for Viter! The show must have been REALLY good;)
    Tasha

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