Schooling the Gadzé

Life is full of rich coincidences. I just recently finished reading Zoli, and an anthropologist-friend I hadn't heard from since the 90s showed up in Portland for the Festival Romani being held here. It was a small, sweet little festival lasting from 10 a.m. till 8 p.m., and when I was exhausted and had to leave, at 5 p.m., the Romani bands were just about to start. All day the music had been performed by Gadzé (non-Romani, most of them of Northern European extraction) who have studied the music and culture and love it. I really wanted to hear the Romani, but I just couldn't go on.

I did, however, take about 400 pictures, and I'll process them tomorrow. This one is pretty much the essence of the event, as I saw it. A few very generous, talented, gifted Romani teachers offered as much of their culture as the Gadzé could absorb, and their eager students, aware of their own awkwardness and clumsiness, made up for what they lacked in eagerness. This is Luis de la Tota. I didn't get the name of his student.

It reminded me of the "Teach me to dance" sequence from Zorba the Greek, for those of you who may have seen that wonderful film. A few more pictures of these two men are here, and I'll process and post some of the remaining 390 pictures, including some of gorgeous women dancing in spectacular costumes, an audience of eager Gadzé, and a number of musicians performing on a perfect day in a gorgeous little park by the river, in the next day or so.