Fiesta!

Hay una fiesta! Yes, after two months of being in a Latino country, we threw a dance party. Of course, we had to throw in some 90’s and Swing, but the Salsa and Bachata were flowing, to say the least. The “inspiration” for our little dance was twofold;  first: Kandra, the sister I’ve mentioned before from Portland, is leaving this week and we had wanted to throw a dance before her departure. Second: we wanted to give Tonya a proper welcome, and what better way than a full on Spanish dance party? So in preparation for the big day we rented a building, called all our friends (English and Spanish alike) and made out a playlist. Turns out Olivia has the whole 90’s genre covered (including my favorite, ‘Play that funky music white boy’… and yes, it speaks to me as a true “whitey.”) We also included traditional Latino music such as Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, and the Panamanian dance of Typico. Since being down here, we’ve already been able to attend a few dances, so we’ve had plenty of practice at trying to imitate the smooth, hip-swinging Panamanian brothers and sisters. And while we always have a blast trying new stuff, how can you have a dance without some good old Swing music? Of course, I’m not the best example in this regard (usually I just let the guy spin me around) but we all had fun trying to teach some of the local friends dance moves common to our culture, if you could call it that.

The building we had rented was perfect for dancing with a large wooden dance floor surrounded by chairs and a small snack station in the corner. Combine the good location with a good sound system (on loan from a local brother, Jorge Lopez…and yes, that is his real name) and you’ve got yourself a full on dance party. Well, and of course add some snacks…I never forget the food. J Jorge manned the music in between teaching us “gringas” dance moves that even we couldn’t mess up and as the night went on we all seemed to improve from our “lesson.” It was really refreshing to mesh our two worlds of Bugaba and Volcan; having a mixture from English, Spanish, and Panamanian Sign Language mingling and conversing all in one place. We even had ASL represented by three brothers from Ohio who are visiting for five weeks to help support the local Sign Language congregation in Volcan. Although hesitant to dance at first, we were eventually able to drag them onto the dance floor with the Cupid Shuffle (which is really fun, by the way!) and they loosened up for dancing the rest of the night.

 

One essential song that I know all of you will laugh at (but we found essential, non-the-less) was the summation of our current situation: “Single Ladies.” Yes, all four of us led the dancing on that one, although Dale Russell wasn’t at all ashamed to join the girls as well. He’s pretty fearless that way. J In fact, Dale and Beverly seemed to set the example the whole night, dancing to just about every song that played and leaving the rest of us in the dust, so to speak. By the end of the night, we had danced all we could and felt satisfied with our first party as hosts. But I’m sure that this won’t be the last you hear of our “fiestas…” Until next time. J