Folkmoot 2007 at Haywood Comm Coll

The word “Folkmoot” means a meeting of the folks, or a meeting of the people and it come from the English (British) language. A doctor from Waynesville was fascinated with Folkmoot performances he saw while on trips to Europe and after several years was able to create a Foolkmoot in his own home town.

This is the 24th year of the Waynesville Folkmoot, and the 15th that JoAnn and I have attended. We always try to see International Day, the last Saturday, held in the main street of Waynesville and usually catch one of the other 20+ performances in various cities in the WNC area.

This year we went to the Haywood Community College (HCC) venue in Waynesville. It turned out to be the best we have seen. The secret to parking there is to find the parking lot behind the auditorium, enter the second floor of the building, walk down a flight of stairs and you are at the doors to the theater. Seats are good and they have reserved seats.

The first show was from Hawaii. It was a “Firedance” and was so stunning I felt it should have saved for the climax of the performance. Turned out there were better shows to come. In the movie I plan to make of Folkmoot 2007, I will probably put the Hawaii performance last though because it will make a better transition to the second part of the movie which will be about International Day.

The best performance - by far - was the South Korean ladies in their long flowing robes and their dance that evolked the feeling of underwater life, I could feel the fish, seaweed and other underwater beings and inhabitants as they swayed and we were all mesmerized and quickly the entire audience began swaying and became part of their graceful rhythm. A different group of ladies from South Korea then sang and danced their “Dance of Joy”. They were as good as the first group but should have come first.

The performance I liked best of all though was by some gals from Peru along with guys dressed like sailors who wore great false faces. The dance was a wild combination of unbounded joy and outlandish frivolity. The women were clearly flirting - with somebody (me, probably) - and the sailors were all wooden faced middle-management type bozos and the two groups danced two very different dances but to the same tune and it all fit together in some kind of a happy, fun-filled fling of abandon. Must have been like “singing a round” except these guys were “dancing a round”.

The Russians were back again and they are always a great hit with the audience. They have attended more Waynesville Folkmoots than any other country except Mexico. This year's performance at HCC included a totally amazing rendition of the famous Cossak dancers which actually take your breath away.

All of these pictures were made with my camcorder while seated in the auditorium and some of them will enlarge if clicked upon.