Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

In case you didn't know, May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.  But it's also the month of about sixty or so other things, including Sweet Vidalia Onions, Osteoporosis Prevention, Artisian Gelato (yum!), and Borderline Personality Disorder Month.  Apparently there are a lot of causes and products out there that need to be remembered.  Still, it seems as if Asian-Pacific Heritage is the main one, right?

In April Madison told us that she'd signed up to be a part of the community Asian-Pacific Heritage celebration.  She's signed up to be a dancer for some of the traditional dances that were to be performed at the celebration.  Let me just be totally honest here; I was more than a little worried about how the whole thing would turn out. First, Madison is not of Asian or Pacific descent.  Her heritage is from another island in a different ocean.  Second, Madison is not the most coordinated person in the world.  Playing percussion helps her with feeling the rhythm of the music, but that's the not the same as being coordinated.

The day of the big celebration finally came and Natalie and I drove out to the base theater to watch the performance.  The entire high school student body was there as well as military and community leaders.  We were lucky enough to find two seats in the second row and settled in to watch the show.  Madison performed in two dances.  The Soran Bushi is a Japanese fishing dance with moves that reminded me of waves and sailors pulling on ropes and hauling in nets full of fish.  She also did an Indian dance, the Bhangra which was fun, fast, and loud.

As far as my concerns go. . . I was both right and wrong.  Madison did sort of stand out up there on the stage.  Most of the other performers had some actual asian or pacific heritage and Madison's flaming red hair and pale freckled skin reminded me of the Sesame Street song "One of These Things is Not Like the Others."  However, I was wrong to be worried about her coordination or dancing skills - she rocked!  Besides nailing the moves, she just looked so happy up there.  She had a smile on her face the entire time and it was easy to see that she was having a great time.  I love that Madison isn't afraid to get up and perform!


In case you can't tell, she's the redheaded beauty on the right!

Comments

  1. Megan PasseyMay 20, 2013 at 11:35 PM

    Thanks for sharing! Taft and kaela enjoyed watching their cousin Madison. Tafton kept asking for me to get him closer to her

    ReplyDelete

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