Thursday, February 7, 2008

I Danced in Baalback

It wasn’t truly an intricate dance, but it was dabke. And it wasn’t around the Baalback ruins, or the temples that usually house great performances. Wasn’t exactly in front of the grand pillars that served as the backdrop of our annual dabke performances in school.

But it was in Baalback. And it was dabke. If you haven’t already guessed, the two go hand in hand in these parts.

And there was someone from the Hamieh family in attendance, which is coincidentally the same family as our late dabke teacher / trainer / wonderful man. I’m not sure why I found the incident so special, but I did. I suspect it was for the reasons that I’ve just rambled off, but I think also that the occasion was my momentary crashing of a dabke class in which a group of lovely women of all ages (and I mean ALL ages) were diligently learning their first steps. To find them there after emerging from a depressing meeting that was weighed down with a continuous series of miserable, hard facts about the impoverished situation of their region was … uplifting!

I can’t thank them enough for letting me partake…

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