The Dancers

Nepal!

I was standing there in a packed hall inside a Tibetan refugee camp.
My first evening
Looking at weathered faces, myriads of children and beautiful teens.
There were 500-600 people inside the hall and many more people outside peering through the windows.
No foreigners had come as artists before in their 50 year history.
The show was about to begin.
	I was abit nervous and excited wondering what are these Tibetans like? Will they enjoy and understand our show? We didn't have the glitzy lights and computerized backdrops, just our costumes, props and our dances. Dance is the medium of the soul and the soul transcends every language barrier, any culture.
	My thoughts ran to the power outages that happen every day, lasting from 4 to 6 hours. Would this happen in the middle of the performance?
	You could feel the curiosity & electricity in the air.
	Into our 2nd dance - DARKNESS & NO MUSIC! The only people that were stressed about this, was us North Americans! The Tibetans waited patiently and quietly until the generator eventually kicked in.
Their gratefulness, their simplicity, taught me so much.
The evening was amazing! I felt so honored to be there!
by Gloria Perrier