We've now seen one-half of the 112 dancers who are the competitors of the USA International Ballet Competition. It is an honor just to be a competitor since the selection is so rigorous. This experience was a 20 year dream, and I was initially worried that we would have built up such high anticipation that the actual competition would be a let-down. Happily, it's been just the opposite. So far this has been more fun than the anticipation. In addition to seeing wonderful dancers, we are developing a little mezzanine community of people who, like us, have the time and desire to come to ALL the performances including the 'two a days' we are doing now.
We go to see dance performance at 2 pm and 7 pm EVERY day. That doesn't leave a lot of time for anything else. We leave at 1 pm and get back to our home away from home (extended stay hotel) about 10 pm. We are eating in some really new interesting restaurants. One surprise is that there was a pretty substantial group of Lebanese who settled here, and you can see their stamp in the restaurants here. We ate at a terrific place (Aladdin's) yesterday. Today we went to the Mayflower Cafe - a downtown landmark for over 75 years. I think it opened in the 1920's.
Everyone (whether black or white) has been extremely friendly and welcoming as only the Deep South is. Good news is that there seems to be a lot less racial tension than there was 20 years ago. These people also have the most amazing accent. It's so thick at times that we have to pay really close attention to understand them! We are sitting right across from a couple form Cleveland, Mississippi - deep in the heart of the Delta - (exactly what they said!) They are taking a pause and going home on Thursday, so the husband can "check in on his recliner" - no lie, that's what she (the wife) said. The four of us are rating the dancers, and we keep joking that we'll be glad to send our consensus down to the judges. It will be interesting to see how well we do when the competitors are judged. The couple sitting next to us are native Jacksonians who rattled off 10 restaurants to try when we asked for recommendations.
This is really a lot of fun. We have seen some amazing young dancers from as far away as Mongolia! (The one competitor from Mongolia wore the same costume for both of his solos today. I got the feeling from his response to the audience that he's never performed before so many people before.) Overall, the Japanese competitors are extremely well trained and a joy to watch. There are also a large number of wonderful American dancers of all different ethnicities. Next week starts Round II which Drake estimates will be only 3/8ths of the total competitors. That's about 40 dancers that will move on.
On a sad note. Jackson is filled with wonderful architecture, and should be a delightful place to live. However, we went to the main downtown public library today, and it was really sad. Obviously, they are seriously underfunded. The Bastrop, Texas library was more up to date and better funded per capita than this library. For instance, their audio book collection is ALL beat up cassettes - almost no CD books, and no MP3 books. Their "new book" section was just pathetic. Apparently, race is still dictating. There's 'white flight' going on - moving out to the suburbs, leaving Jackson economically strapped - then along comes the recession. I've talked to several people, and everywhere else in the country people are moving back to their city - here, whites are still fleeing a wonderfully livable city because they might have to live by black people. On the positive note, there is some racial mixing that I never saw 20 years ago. So even Mississippi is changing.
The weather is dreadful. Just as hot, humid and miserable as I expected. Washington is going to feel great after this climate. Stay tuned for more dancing updates - I'm sure you'all just can't wait.
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