Cadansa - final round

Last day of CaDansa... like in every other festival, the last day is always the most demanding. Not because of being the last, but the accumulation of tiredness can be so much that even making a simple step could demand a lot more than usual. And there's of course the big small detail that is saying farewell to the whole family.

The sun came out sunny and bright, making us fell terribly happy to have the opportunity to see sun in the flat lands. Less bright was the fact that we woke up rather late, thus late that we missed pretty much the entire first concert of the day, which would last until dinner time.

The emotion was in the air, people were a bit nostalgic, despite the smiles, tiredness and spinnings around - they wouldn't stop until the very end - but we had bands that made us move, move enough to hold and dance the very last compass.

Also, we had offerings from Santa Claus, who gave some surprises to the ones that decided to leave their shoe behind at CaDansa. I didn't left mine because of the uncomfortableness of cycling back on the midst, but Eva, who had a broken feet, offered to share her shoes and let me use one of hers hence having gotten from him the most diverse christmassy biscuits and a pin, that I know keep safe as one of the many memories of this festival.

Music went on, and on; and we followed it, dancing and running and spinning, and talking and massaging our crying legs, or backs, or just relaxing, with our eyes closed, enjoying the purity and melody of the tunes played by the most amazing folk musicians.

Still, the cloak room started to be emptied out, and the first people started to leave the halls, to make their journey back home. At this point, music almost stopped and everyone got envolved, hugging and saying a few last words, making sure contact wouldn't be lost, nor the people forgotten.

It is odd to think how much this moment meant to me... I felt almost like I was leaving a big, broad family, made of everyone there: the organisers, volunteers, musicians, dancers... everyone got, one way or another, connected by the magic of these three days we spent at Utrecht, moved by the music announced. Many friends were discovered, others maybe something more than that (who knows?), but anyhow, seeing everyone getting ready to get back to their daily lives made me feel rather sad, but with a smile on the face.

Because I know that, even though countries might separate most of us apart, we all have folk music in our hearts, and we need just another event like this to get the family back again together. To see that look in the eyes, the shiver that runs you down at the first blow of that tune that you love so much; the wildness of those bourrées, the intimacy of that mazurka... the cheerfulness of those cercles. 

Give me just another change, and we'll be together again very, very soon.

And for now, we stay here.

Cadansa - first round

The night was short, and the rest little. It was around 10 a.m when we were woken up by Eva, for a gourmet breakfast. A breakfast like this is something I didn't experienced in a very long time: delicious and vast, enough to fill a whole CaDansa group of people. And we needed it, even though we had no appetite for more than just the necessary. This was going to be a very long day so, we decided to take it very slowly and calm.

No of us portuguese people staying at Eva's had booked any workshop - out of 10, seven were portuguese! - hence giving us room to rest a bit more, if needed, talk, play the piano, which of the morning, was indeed the nicest thing we did, until everyone was awake, fresh and alive, ready for a very looong day.

Even though we could have had straight to the ball, we found clever to visit the centre first. Also because Tatiana needed an elastic wrist and Ana was looking for some Stroopwafels, a two large flat waffle cookie, with caramel in the middle, from a specific vending stall in the market, indicated to her to be one of the best to have in Utrecht. Though short, our ride to the centre (always on bicycle), we were yet able to have a good impression of it. Very simple, small flats displayed in a very organised, clean city, filled with bicycles in every corner of the city, with a grand, old tower of a cathedral, rising to the top at the very center of the city, to see and be seen from every spot around the city. Quite magnificent Dom Tower is. Biggest church tower in the whole of the flat lands and marks the very point from which the city began to expand, since around 2000 years; gothic in style.

As the day turned into night, we look at our interpretations of time and cycled back to the ball, were magic would be made. And my guess wasn't wrong.

Batteries recharged, mind set and mood on the right spot. Still, I was many times surprised for what I was witnessing... simpleness and beauty. I think the beauty of those two words can describe what I lived during this time. And because word miss me to fully tell you what I've seen, let photographs explain you the rest...

It was around 3.00 a.m when the official ball ended. And tiredness was the look on everyone's faces. Happy, but tired. Despite the time though, the jam session was still coming, with a game right before it. This game was more of a chalenge for the musicians rather than the dancers. It was called Battle Mazurka. In this game, the musicians playing had to play any music they liked, that not a mazurka and, after the end of it, play that same song, as a mazurka. A funny game to relax and enjoy transit from the heath of the ball to the peacefulness of the jam.

At the end of it, the few remaining dancers helped cleaning and making the hall tidy again for the incoming sessions and workshops of the last day of what was being so far the right place to be.

And for now, we stay here.

CaDansa - On my way!

My, oh my! I am going to Netherlands! It's been a while since I went to a new country - around 8 months - and I was thrilled! This time, I wanted to have time to do everything right. No need to rush, no running around... just plenty of time to do it all. But I believe that they didn't wanted that to happen. I got to the coach on time; but when I got to the airport... that's when it all started. First, the South Terminal of Gatwick Airport wasn't the one my flight was gonna leave from, thus making me put the whole trip to the Low Lands in risk. 

Yet, after a few diggings, I manage to swift my flight to one departing from the North Terminal of this same airport. Despite all the trouble and worries, I moved up and waited, for about four hours on the airport, after all the resolutions, before I was able to see a gate designated for the flight I was about to take from. A mere 45 minutes flight journey, if you're travelling from Amsterdam from London but doing the other journey around, it expands. Time shifts and it become an one hour, forty-five minutes flight. Courtesy of Ryanair!

Yet, at around tea o'clock, I was leaving british ground to land around 2 hours after at Schipol Airport, in Amsterdam which, considering it to be the second largest airport in Europe, only surpassed by Heathrow Airport in London, the waiting time for the plain to station and the walk to the exit seemed to have no end! Still, I managed my way out, but not yet as the rail station itself had connection in the same building, to buy my train ticket to go towards Utrecht. After a fail to get my ticket at the vending machine - it was asking me to pay 239€ for a one way fare - I got my student ticket to Utrecht for 8,9€.

There I landed; there I stayed; from there I left. 

Not yet to truly see you, Amsterdam.

Already after dinner time, I was received by Enrich at his place. A brief introduction and a quick unload of the "house", and I left again to the already started CaDansa, on a bicycle because we are indeed in Netherlands, the lands of the bicycles. I didn't took any photographs of this first night, so happy I was being there, with the folk family again; all the music and dance, joyfulness and happiness. The smiles and care on people's faces is something to be astonished by. And because of that, because of the reason why I did all this way here, I didn't take any photographs. Not because I didn't wanted to take any, no. The reason why I went there was to feel this again, and not to take photographs. Photography comes as a tool to paint the light on.

And this is what happened tonight, thou more is to come!

And for now, we stay here.