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.

The mushrooms still dance

Later on, a while after the sun had set and before our feet got loose on the floor, we had a last dinner with everyone. Many people had came from far off; next day was going to be of travelling for most of them, thus making everyone wonder what time or by which way everyone was gonna go to. Despite the board with requests and offers for lifts, most of the people at the festival were friends already; ones that you don't see everyday. This makes the following night become way more emotional that the rest of them. It is like this sort of magic and melancholia around the act of dancing until the end of night. 

Many smiles and laughs, but already a feeling of close separation. Everyone was giving all to make this festival last, and be memorable. Like the food still was! It's something that we can never expect. It gets always better and better. It is almost unbelievable.

With warm, cosy and happy bellies, absorbing the magic food, we waited for the music to begin and set pace to the night. With Portuguese Traditional Music, Morison, Catalonian, French, Breton, and Scandi Folk (sorry if I missed out any), we danced up to our hearts content. People were wild, intense and beautiful. It made me see why I went there and why I still carry on going to folk festivals! 

The night went on and one, and we danced and danced. After the arrangements had finished, we gave room for jam sessions and until around five in the morning we danced, and danced, and smile, and gazed, and saw wonderful things happening; not only music, not only dance, but love. There was plenty to give and share.

Because there is no skint without sharing.

And for now, we stay here.