Hello from Barcelos!

The past two days have been very busy!

During the first show (two days ago) we arrived to a beautiful stage that was built over the main river of Tregosa. This town is outside of Barcelos where we are staying. We went to a very fancy dinner with the other groups that were dancing in the show with us (Portugal and Taiwan). We danced the show with Taiwan, they were beautiful, and we were able to meet them and talk with them. We both ADMIRED each other’s dancing so much!  The closing ceremony was incredible too. We were pulled up onto the stage by the Portugal group and were able to learn one of their dances and perform it with them! Also, all of the dancers went into the audience where we all got balloons and set them free to celebrate a great show followed by confetti.

The second show was KILLER!!!! We performed in another town outside of Barcelos called Esposende. The festival provided another wonderful dinner for us where there was cake served to celebrate the 20^th century of the festival. We really connected with Taiwan and talked a lot about our different dancing styles.  There was a small parade of all the dancers where we walked through the town before each group was introduced on stage. Last night we shared the stage with Taiwan, Portugal and Mexico.  It was spectacular to be able to see Mexico perform for the first time. Tawain’s dances are very traditional, and it was truly eye-opening to see the different forms of dances.  During our performance we really interacted with the audience and got our biggest applause! It was our best show so far and we will strive to only build on it!

BY: MADDIE AND SHEILA