Sunday, August 16, 2009

Ethiopian Dinner & Dancing

This evening our friend, Tsion, took us to an amazing Ethiopian restaurant with great food and great dancing. It helps to have a local, knowledgeable guide--it was the perfect place to go.

The kids loved the hand washing.













The dances were from all these different parts of Ethiopia. In the northern areas, there are all these amazingly fast and complex shoulder movements. In the southern parts, it's more about moving the hips.





I kept kicking myself that I didn't have the video camera with me!

The guys move SOOO fast. And Nebiyu is amazing. He can tell exactly what the music is going to do and dances accordingly. Even music not from his area. I want to get some dance CDs if I can find them. All of the songs were in the various tribal languages, but we didn't stay long enough to get to his, and he was saying he wished they would sing in Woliattian.

Zion really got into it too--I wonder if we should have her in dance classes instead of gymnastics. Nebu also wants to dance and do gymnastics, but karate was the first thing he mentioned. He can already do round offs and cartwheels perfectly, and flips from a stand still. Nebiyu is also SOOOO physically talented.

This shot of the guy in the air - well, he fell and hurt himself doing a dance off with another guy. But, then it turned out to be fake - just part of the act. He really got me.

My favorite was Garage, though i'm not sure how to spell it. Awesome dancing. I only spent $320 birr on everything, including tips. For three adults and four kids.

We had a GREAT, GREAT evening!