A Missed Opportunity
Every time we had visited Williamsburg, my mother had always wanted to see the famous Fife and Drum Corps. Dressed in full costume of red coats and tri-corner hats, these re-enactors parade down the Duke of Gloucester Street playing their instruments in a “call to arms” of the town’s militia. These men have always been one of the main attractions of Williamsburg and one of the symbols of the colonial area. They perform only once or twice a week and by either bad luck or fate, my mother has never actually seen them march. The single time that she did wait for their performance to start, it was cancelled due to bad weather.
It was the second day of our family’s annual three-day trip to Colonial Williamsburg. We had spent the majority of the day strolling about the colonial area, and tensions were getting high. My brother, as the middle child, always picked the most inopportune times to annoy my sister, the youngest. After several near fights, my parents thought that a little separation was in order, at least until dinner. My mother suggested that we go see a program entitled “Dance: Our Dearest Diversion”. Of course, she knew that neither one of us would care to go see the show, being as uninterested in colonial dancing as a cat is of swimming.
Per tradition, my brother and I had earlier in the day bought colonial styled games. He had chosen a handsome set of Fox and Geese, while I had decided on the more exotic and unknown Mancala. All the game consisted of was a flat board with fourteen pits on it, two of the pits being slightly larger than the rest. The bigger pits were at the ends of the board, and the other twelve were in two rows between them. Those pits had four stones (or flattened marbles) in them, and the object of the game was to capture the most stones. According to the little pamphlet that came with the game, Mancala required more mathematical reasoning than sheer luck.
We had sat under the shade of one of the numerous trees that lined the main street of the colonial section, to try out my newly bought game and to rest my tired feet. The cool breeze soothed my scorched my neck as I contemplated my next move.
Going to the powwow I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. After our performance, a few of us decided to come back, and we were surprised by many of the sights and sounds. When we arrived, there was a group of men known as bird singers who were chanting and singing traditional songs. Some of the older women were doing simple dances
Her mother would spend hours “torturing that wild hair” (8-9), and berating her to “sit with [her] knees together” (12). Her mother forced her to adopt these mannerisms and beauty ideals so that she would not be treated differently by others around her. However, the speaker felt conflicted in her identity as a Native person by the want to be closer to her mother, but her mother pushing away. When she played as a child she personified her desire to be accepting of her culture by referring to herself as “the savage” (29).
Dorothea Dix and her two brothers ended up moving to Boston to live with their grandmother on their father’s side Dorothea Lynde, who was the wife of Dr Elijah Dix.2 Dix helped with the rearing of her brothers as she had done in her parents’ home. The grandmother tried to instill her Puritan ways of Boston’s wealthy into Dix’s mind. Grandmother Dix tried to turn young Dorothea into a nice proper girl from Boston, but that wasn’t in the cards for young Dix. The grandmother had given her dancing lessons and even her own private seamstress. Dix was not into this style of life and she would give some of her clothes away, and food to the poor; which had infuriated her grandmother. This angered the grandmother enough to send youn...
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. “Silent Dancing.” Encounters: Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. 2nd ed. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 145-51.
JAPAN: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications , "Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme". Council of Local Authorities for International Relations. 2009 .
Disney’s intentions were more than to captivate young children. They were ultimately to retell the original story of Pocahontas and the settlers and to address social issues of lifestyle and acceptance depending on race and the way they are being treated, proving that marriage isn’t all that important and addressing familial gender roles in society based on having a mother figure. Since 1995, the story of Pocahontas serves to entertain the young minds of children, but none the less the messages for seen in the movie, are mentioned to stress the issues of a series of systems in which maintain the imbalance of power among society’s social organization.
This year, our Marching Band received the chance to visit to Nashville, Tennessee, where we encountered the different musical culture they developed. Starting the trip, the band attended The Grand Ole Opry, a concert where several talented country musicians performed live in a giant hall. A fascinating experience, we learned about the musician’s lives through their music and what they consider everyday aspects of their lives that people don’t have farther up north. Moreover, one of the band members won the opportunity to participate in a dance-off onstage during one of the breaks, something the entire band celebrated in camaraderie. Next, a holistic museum of country music, “Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum” held all kinds of pieces from
In her younger years, Jane shows that girls do not need to follow society’s normalities through the defiance of her aunt, Mrs. Reed. As a young orphan, Jane lives with her aunt and her three children, and due to Jane’s “plain looks” and “quiet yet passionate character,” she is disliked among the entire Reed family (Gao). Her cousin, John, constantly reminds her of her social standing, calling her a “dependent” who should not “live with gentlemen’s children” like her cousins (Bronte 10). Rather than acting in accordance with her cousin, Jane, in rage of how she is treated with “miserable cruelty” (Bronte 36), Jane compares him to a “murderer...a slave driver...like the Roman emperors” (Bronte 10). Because of her refusal to submit to John Reed’s aggressiveness and accept that she is lesser than him and his family, Jane is punished for the night by her Aunt Reed. Mrs. Reed’s punishment of Jane demonstrates her part in the oppression ‘machine.’ Mrs. Reed should have understood Jane’s refusal to be docile, being a woman herself, but ...
By looking at Boy Willie and Bernice’s relationship with their parents the reader is able to see the obligation to the men and women in their life who shaped their belief on what should be done with the piano.
However, in this ballet concert, the choreographer had designed the scenes to be more like a comedy. The movement of the sisters are more amusing than cruel. For example, when they pulled each other for being eager to dance with the prince, or when they tried to hurt and bully the Cinderella, these movements are not that cruel but amusing. Even the stepmother was drunk and danced comically in the prom scene. Moreover, the movements of all the girls who wanted their feet to fit in to the ballet shoe which Cinderella had dropped in the prom are also very funny. These kinds of design successfully made the audience laugh out loud and without hurting the hearts of the little girls who went to see the performance with their
Imagine going off to college and one attending a party instead of studying and of all the events that could follow with the choices made at that party. Ella is a girl who is attending her freshman year of college, at University of Central Florida. Her best friend Meg convince her to attend a college party one more time before they part ways. Meg wants her to be the center of attention with her but Ella is worried how it will turn out. The Night We Said Yes is a novel that the Puritans would loathe due to the self-expressing clothing, disrespected authority, and sinful acts. The Puritans would oppose the novel The Night We Said Yes because of the self-expressing clothes. Jake is attending a college party held by Meg’s older sibling. He is meeting with his best friends, since grade school, Ella and Meg. Then he is off to find his boyfriend with the pizza for the party. Jake is wearing brown corduroy pants and an Oingo Boingo thrift store T-shirt. Another example of provocative dressing is Matt’s attire. He just returned to the area and is attending the same college party as Jake. The party is held at the University of
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Artificial Insemination is one of the newer forms of human reproductive technology that helps infertile couples to conceive a baby. The Artificial Insemination Technique creates a broad avenue to pregnancy for couples diagnosed with male or female infertility that have been trying to conceive a baby in a natural way. Nowadays, due to this new procedure, doctors can treat infertility problems. These advances have raised many controversies, bioethical, moral, and religious issues. However, Artificial Insemination had become a miracle for those couples, and brought a lot of benefits because: first, it offers the chance to start a family and second, sperm banks are options for infertile
It was a calm, overcast day, and I found myself resting at the side of a large oak tree, admiring the beauty of the woods that surrounded me.