Small people are angry

August 7, 2007

We went dancing! I learned to Chechen dance! The little girls really wanted to teach us to dance and show us some of their dances, so they arranged for us to come to the common room at 8 (kind of funny thinking about little kids wandering around teaching dance lessons after 8 pm when most kids their age elsewhere in the world should be in bed, but oh well). They turned on some Chechen music, which was techno. Okay, so I don’t know if the techno was really Chechen, but they did have some on a cd that they threw on that did have some Chechen music on it as well. As the kids were showing us how to dance, the older boys came into the room, and of course started showing off and inciting us to dance. So how to describe Chechen dancing? Well, in Chechen culture, because it is Muslim, the man and woman may not touch, and the woman may not look the man in the eyes. Everyone else forms a circle around the room, and the man invites a woman to dance with him, he dances about the room, kind of stomping and moving his arms from side to side, (oh I am not doing this justice at all!) the woman takes small little steps and waves her arms as well—kind of like in hula. The man directs the woman with his arms, and it is kind of a chase dance, where they never touch, but the couple dance together and it ends up looking rather sensual. This one guy, Ramzan, invited all of us to dance. I loved it! I ended up dancing quite a bit, since Maja and I were the only ones willing to dance, and I was actually pretty good, if I do say so myself. Granted, it wasn’t such a difficult dance, with the woman doing small moves and the man doing the wild stomping, and then showing off for his friends. While we were dancing with the grown boys, Ania was talking to the little girls. She came back and reported—the small people are angry. The kids were all so upset because the older people had taken over with the dancing and forbade us to dance, so we tried to include them a bit more. It was so much fun… until the men kicked out all of the children and women, and wanted to have a European dance. Now, I don’t even know what that means, but when the Chechen women and children left, I left too. I was not about to stick around in a room full of men who thought I had different standards and were expecting a lesser one from me. The little girls told us that Ramzan, the one who had been dancing with us the most, and the one with the beard who had been a Chechen fighter, were really bad and tried to live in a European way. You know, I really don’t mind dancing, and I wouldn’t have even really minded dancing in a European way (waltz style) had everyone been allowed to stay—I would’ve gladly shown people. But the fact of the matter was, the men were attempting a double standard and wanted to take advantage of us girls.
Day 2 of teaching went well. I brought out the cameras and had a short photography lesson with them and it was really fun to have them take the cameras and observe things around them to take pictures and to try taking pictures from different angles to change perspective. I think that the camera thing may be a success after all. Classes otherwise were really fun—I had like 5 little “maimas’ or monkeys hanging onto me—these totally adorable little girls who would not let go of my hands. There is this one that is like the most adorable thing I have ever seen, who will hold my hand and just look up at me with her beautiful big brown eyes and give me this smile. I have to get a picture of her doing it. But I want her as my own little Chechen child. I may have to steal her.