Events around and about Dartmouth College and Hanover, New Hampshire
This was an unusual outdoor event. The dancers started from the roof, and “danced” on the side of the building as if it was the floor. The rope attachment allowed some spectacular jumps and swings.
The next act was on the wall of the Visual Arts Center to swing music. It started with a stray newspaper, and ended up with a lovely pas de deux on the glass wall.
What a treat to have this and Telluride all at the same time!
Guys and Dolls by the Hanover High School Footlighters
A fun and light musical comedy set in 1950’s Broadway. The leading roles were not given to seniors in this concert, which is a bit unusual, given that this would be their final concert. Except for Lulu, who was well cast in her role.
This was an unusual performance in 
Loews Theater, with the classic silent movie Nanook of the North playing on the movie screen, accompanied by Tanya Tagaq and band in the front.
From the talk afterwards, we learned that the performance is improvised as they follow the movie on monitors. Known as a throat singer, I expected Tanya to be following that tradition. However, a too much of the “singing” seemed like incoherent screaming and muttering. A lot of it was really loud and unpleasant, particularly with the storm scenes in the movie.
The film itself has a checkered past. The filmmaker Robert Flaherty did make the film in the Arctic, living and working up there for a number of years. There is controversy about how things were staged, with the Inuit using harpoons in the movie, while they were actually using rifles at the time. But I suppose the point is that at that time, they still remembered how to use harpoons. Among other interesting points, Flaherty’s mistress is shown as one of Nanook’s “wives” in the movie, and Flaherty also abandoned a son Josephie, the subject of a book The Long Exile.
The discussion afterward was very interesting, as Tanya is a passionate and committed advocate for Inuit and First Nation issues, in particular the many missing women in Canada (No More Stolen Sisters).
I was unfamiliar with this concept, but apparently the baccalaureate is a traditional celebration of high school graduation. The one in Hanover has been happening for 30 or 40 years. This year’s program had a mix of song, poetry and inspirational talks.
We were greeted by Ethan’s polished Chopin, which he plays easily from memory. This was followed by an appropriate song “May I Suggest” by Eleanor, Anjali and Grace, three of the stars of the high school choral program. The selected hymns were familiar, which was a nice change. The short talks, especially by Mark, Denise, Anant and Margaret’s “Namaste”, were effective. I’m not so sure about Rob’s religion theme, but I did chuckle at his “None” / “Nun” joke (referring to choice of religion at college).
The last song was the parent choir, which included a mix of experienced and (trembling) neophyte singers.
The ceremony ended with a lighting of the candles. Two teachers started with lit candles, on each side of the hall, with students lining the wall. The teachers each lit the candle of the next student in line, passing on the light of knowledge, and this proceeded until all candles were lit. The students then walked outside with their candles lit.