I dance, therefore I am…
How folklore shaped who I am today – what made me human…
Listen, don’t judge, open your heart, feel the person next to you…embrace humanity in its entirety!
This is what folklore taught me, but precisely, these are the seeds that John Kuo planted through his teachings and I have finally harvested the fruits… it is only great teachers that create an unforgettable learning experience that rewards your entire life, but it is only when you step back and reflect that you assimilate their immense impact on your humanity!
About six years ago I made my first steps through the door of Balkanske Igre. Before me… a Chinese guy in a chaotic array of old folklore cassettes. I recall that sometime between his introduction to me and the beginning of a lengthy rehearsal speech, he played “Kamunite Padat” as if mockingly yet curious choice… followed by a self-recorded piece from Serbian village in the 70s… and so the music sporadically changed while his feet never repeated a single step. His feet must’ve raced through all of the Balkans, uniting them through rhythm and spirit… however small, unappreciative and divided they are…
… I finally came to my senses and then realised that THIS John Kuo is our ensemble director. Yes, I tell you, him, John – a Chinese American… (this has made many Bulgarians pop their eyes at me in an utter fascination as if only Bulgarians have the ‘divine skill’ to make out the complexity of the dance steps…)
So, John (whose biography I will later attempt to share) – a Chinese American, a senior employee at IBM, a graduate from University of Chicago, an honorary musicologist, historian, humanist, musician … and most of all a folklorist and a dance pedagogue! Speaking to John is like Googling information but put in multimedia chronological context. A typical conversation with John can morph from ‘five-paragraph historical’ emails sent at 3am, to regular chit-chat aiming at the mathematical explanation behind ‘shopska ruchenica’ (fast dance from Shop region), or an attempt at applied physics to assimilate how weight shifts between legs during ‘natrisane’ (specific vibration sequence in dance).
Reblogged this on Plamenarium.