Festival dance 4: Hufflepuff: Vietnamese New Year Festival

::The stage is empty except for a white couch in the center and a TV in front of it. A young girl lounges on the couch as she pops her gum repeatedly. Jen, in an old woman costume, steps onto the stage. Her usual straight black hair was now streaked white and gray and pulled into a bun. She leaned heavily onto her cane and looks down at her grandchild watch TV. “Dear, our Vietnamese New Year is approaching. Aren’t you excited?”

::The girl shifts and everyone sees that it’s Ginny. She looks up at Jen.::

“New Years passed ages ago grandma. Why should we celebrate it now in February? That’s not the New Year. Everybody knows that the new year starts on January 1st. Those are more fun anyways with the fireworks, countdowns, balls dropping, and kisses at midnight!” ::the now black haired girl sighed dreamily.::

"It's sooo romantic."

::Jen laughs a bit and recovers quickly. She looks down at Ginny in mock disapproval.::

“And just who have you been kissing at midnight young lady? Should I tell your mother to keep a closer eye on you from now on?”

“Er, no one grandma, of course, no one,”

::Ginny replied nervously, her face flushing slightly in the glow the lights provided. She cleared her throat a bit and continued.::

“But who ever heard of a new year in Februrary? And why does it keep changing dates every year? It should always stay on the first of the first month! That makes more sense than ours. Our new year makes no sense and is no fun, not everybody will understand.”

::Jen puts her arm around Ginny and leads her off the couch. She shakes her index finger at the young girl.::

“I think it’s time that I taught you exactly what the New Year is about. For one, our New Year is celebrated on THREE days, not merely one night. And of those three days there is no cleaning, cooking, arguing, or fighting because we believe that what we do these past three days will reflect on our entire year. We believe that the first person to walk through our door on Tet, besides family, will bring about the fortune we will receive. It is usually thought long and hard about who should receive that honor. We choose the happiest, richest, and luckiest person so their good fortune will spread onto us.”

“But Grandma,” ::Ginny replied in confusion, stepping away from her grandmother in protest::

“You ALWAYS make ME clean during New Years. I thought you said that wasn’t allowed during Tet.” ::she pouted.::

"This is all very very contradictory."

Jen gave a loud sigh. “That’s because I had hoped that if YOU clean during these three days then you would clean the entire year. So far it hasn’t worked. Now where was I? Right, but the last day of the three days is the most exciting because this is the day that everyone gathers around to enjoy the outside festival in the village square. This is usually where various girls would put together dances to bring about joy, good luck, and prosperity to the entire village. Now these weren’t those awful hip hop popping dances that you kids like to do nowadays. These dances were filled with grace, elegance, and poise.”

::She lead Ginny off the stage.::

The stage started to quickly fill with yellow smoke and lights. As the smoke cleared, it revealed the stage as a festival boat village gathering. There were boats and straw houses surrounding the square. In the center were four girls dressed in fancy Vietnamese outfits called ao dai. The yellow and black shimmered off their outfits as they stood in a semicircle on the stage with their left leg pointed back until the tips of their toes touched the ground behind them. Their right arm held a wide white feathered fan to gently cover their faces.

The stage (from Jen’s own program last year)




Outfits


White feathered fans

Music
http://h1.badwaresite.www/jenniferwilliams/04-AudioTrack04.mp3

::As the music started, the four girls slowly raised their right hands holding the fan up over their heads and brought it slowly down to their sides. The four girls revealed to be Jen, Ginny, Flisan, and Marie from right to left, all smiling widely. They tucked their feathered fans into the waistband of their costumes and twirled into their new position. Now forming a diamond shape, each girl took five delicate steps to the right. Each step was soft as though stepping on a rose petal. Leaning a bit to the left side, they raised up their hands one in front of the other to make a hand movement like a waves going down. Suddenly two ribbons appeared on each girl’s wrist. The golden and black ribbons danced with each movement their hands made::

::Jen’s voice still in the old woman accent filled the auditorium. “Elegant hand movements and delicate footwork is what make a traditional Vietnamese dance professional. Each step is carefully planned to bring out the best results. They also pride themselves on many different formations of positions to create different shapes. They twirl gracefully in every direction to prepare their next move.”

(Dancer)
Jen, as the dancer, smiles at the audience raised her arms wide and twirled body toward Ginny, and Ginny did vice versa. For a brief moment, their backs touched as they switched position. One by one they swept their arms to the left to create a domino effect of ribbons fluttering in one direction. They held that position for a moment before twirling into their next position.::

::Now forming a straight line with Ginny in the front, they prepared for the next movement. The line was Ginny, Flisan, Marie, and Jen bringing up the back. She brought her palms and the ribbons together as the others did the same. The once again red head had a bright smile on her face throughout the whole dance. Ginny threw her arms out wide and sat down gracefully. Flisan did the same after wards and knelt down. Marie did the move and crouched a bit.::

Okay, relax...::Ginny whispered to herself in her mind. Each girl could be seen in the straight line with their arms outstretched and ribbons dangling.::

::As the chorus started up again, as one Ginny and Marie leaned to the right with both arms splayed to the left. Jen and Flisan leaned to the left with their arms outstretched to the right. Together their wrists moved in a circle making the ribbons sparkle and glow in the light.::

::Suddenly they separate into two lines and a large table alter appeared in the middle of them. This alter was filled with offerings to the gods from the Hufflepuff family. This included different types of fruit, especially watermelon because they are considered lucky because of their fleshy red color. There was also plates of pork, chicken, sweets, and wine avalible to honor the gods. One particular dish was a rice cake called banh chung, otherwise known as the tet cake. This cake is present in every household as it is merely made of sjimple rice and beans, symbolizing the simple life of each person. One by one each each dancer approached the alter with an incense stick and bowed to the Gods three times before placing it in the pot of dust in the center::

"Usually, during the three days is when each family goes to their elders and their family to provide them with gifts and well wishes. They spend this time to relax and catch up on news that they were too busy to do in their daily life." The loud voice continued as each girl showed her respect. ":However the first day is always used to honor the Gods and their ancestors and to ask them to keep watch over the family."

::The dancers once again form a triangle with both Flisan and Ginny sitting in the middle back to back. Their legs draped gracefully to the left side. They once again hold up their hands in a similar Egyptian position with the back of their hands facing each other. In a smooth elegant movement, they each leaned to the left as their right hand twirls on their wrist in a circle and reaches out in the right direction. Since they were sitting back to back they seemed to be mirror images of each other. They go back to the original center position and perform the same move on the right. This continues four times completing the last four beats of the chorus.::

::While they complete their move, Marie and Jen stands in the other two corners of the triangle. In their hands are the their feather fans as well as Flisan’s and Ginny’s. At the same time, they snap their fans close and grasp the string on the end of the fan. In one swift movement, they swung the fans by their strings in a circle creating a blur of delicate white feathers. Their technique is quite similar to the technique of a flame thrower. With a slight twist of their wrist they managed to change the shape of the motion from a circle to two circle forming a figure 8. This delicate simple move requires constant movement and firm motion of their hands. Slowing down even the slightest or moving in the wrong direction would ruin the entire figure. Luckily the Hufflepuffs practiced long and hard in the commonroom for this moment. After many weeks of whacking each other and breaking various delicate furniture in the house (sorry elfie), they finally perfected the delicate move.::

::Everyone got up and approached each other to form a circle. In unison, they lifted up their right arms with the ribbons and placed it inside the circle high in the air. Ginny waved out her fan and gracefully opened it with a flick of her wrist. The others did the same. Together they dipped slightly to the ground with the knees bouncing a bit before standing back up straight. With their left hand, they waved the feathered fans in and out of the circle toward their right ribbon clad hands. As they performed this move several times, they slowly moved forward in the circle. Suddenly, with a flip of their fans, they twirled together to face the opposite direction and performed the same move again.::

And don't trip don't trip don't trip... ::Ginny chanted to herself in her head as she repeated the step.::

:: A dancer from each side of the stage appeared and joined the circle to make it a larger group. Tonks and Eirbear joined the circle in identical outfits. Suddenly, once again, the girls twirled to the right and ended in a circle facing toward the audience with their backs toward each other. They shifted their fans and slightly outstretched their arms so that they touched each other. Between each girl’s hands as a feather fan with ribbons dangling down. They slowly moved in a circle as their arms, holding the ribbons, moved up and down. They now formed a revolving circle.::

::As the circle progressed, Jen fluttered her fan slightly for 5 seconds and stopped. Next to her Ginny did the same and stopped. Every girl performed the delicate move, making it seem as though there was a ripple going through the feathery swirling circle.

Jen delicately stepped her left foot over her right as they turned. The tips of her toes touched the ground lightly before moving again. She took a deep breath and nodded at the others. The end of their dance was about to arrive.::

::Suddenly as the chorus ended, the circle broke free and they formed two lines. The front, Tonks, Ginny, and Flisan gently sat down with their legs all shifted to the left. They leaned back and gave their partners (Jen, Marie, and Eirbear) their fans. Sitting upright once again, Tonks and the two other girls put their hands in front of their laps and started to gracefully move them up and down as though they are drumming with their hands. In a unison, they moved their hands up and down three times and tossed their right arm up over their shoulders, causing the ribbons to drift over their shoulders in a glittering toss. They did the move again and tossed their left hands over their left shoulder. They perform this move five times. This move represents the collection of the crops during a good harvest.::

::While this is being done by the dancers on the ground, Eirbear, Marie, and Jen hold a fan in each hand. They hold the end of the fans in both hands facing each other. They now held a circle of feathers in their hands. Keeping the fans steady, they move the circle to the left, then to the right, back to the left ending with a twirl around. They complete this move five times.

With the last beats of the song starting to fade out, everybody gets up as a group and twirls toward the center. They hold out the fans in different angles, yet barely touching, forming a large white feathery heart with all the girls in the center. The shimmering ribbons dangled from each hand holding their fans as the song ended and applause fills the auditorium.::

::The formation breaks and two girls go to each side of the stage to pick up a large banner on the ground. It is a large 5 foot red banner with the words ‘Happy New Year’ spread across. Running, slithering, and flying around the banner are the Hogwarts mascots for each house. A upbeat song started to fill the auditorium and was suddenly cut of with a loud screech.::

“Ginny!” Jen’s voice filled the room with a trace of irritation in it. “Have you been messing with my collection of asian music again? This is NOT the music for the dragon dance!”

Music http://h1.badwaresite.www/jenniferwilliams/B.O.K-FunkyJockey.mp3

“Er, well, I may have, just a tad, mistakenly…you know how…things happen like that Grandma, and there's sometimes nothing you can do about...it..”

::Ginny stammered as her voice grew smaller under her grandmother’s yelling. She looked quite fierce when she wanted to.::

“Okay, okay, I think I may have, possibly, sorta, not meaning to....accidentally taped over your music with Charmed. But it was the last episode grandma!!! Piper and Leo had to be together! And I had to see if Phoebe and Paige were okay!! I mean, I had no clue if Billie and Christy were going to win, and besides Amber wanted to see the part with Drew Fuller-that's Chris- in it, and then Marie came over to watch Wes Ramsey-that's older Wyatt...." ::She smiled embarassedly, but then handed her grandmother a CD::

"But this music I got to replace it isn’t so bad…it’s still asian music…some Korean group called BOK I think…it sounds cool to me.”

“Fine, Fine let’s just get on with the show.” Jen said with a loud defeated sigh.

As the beat of the new song started to fill the room, the audience notices something push against the banner from the back. With a loud crack, two brightly colored costumes of dragons burst through the banner and lifted its head up as though it was yawning. Behind the two magnificent dragons, was a person dressed as a monkey and fanning itself with a large red fan.



“Dragons are considered quite powerful and the sign of prosperity. They are also worshipped for their powers and ability to be graceful yet still powerful. In myths, there are always a picture of a mother and a young dragon with a monkey in the background. The monkey represents man trying to get closer to these awe inspiring graceful creatures. (Just then one of the dragons on stage tripped on her own feet) Now this isn’t right. Let’s see if we could improve this a bit shall we?” Jen’s voice said with a chuckle as the music stopped and there was a loud explosion as smoke started to fill the stage. When the smoke cleared, the audience gasped as the two dragon clad costumes turned into two REAL dragons that pranced around the stage. “I’m not the Transfiguration Professor for nothing you know.”

:Marie, who was now the mother dragon, took a pose and then started dancing and jumping majestically around the stage, before turning and looking at her baby dragon:

::Ginny moved behind her "mother" dragon (aka Marie) and nudged her with her large dragon head. She bounded across the stage, and very carefully, lept into the air and spun around. She kicked gracefully, and jumped towards the monkey::

(monkey)

::with a loud shriek flisan, dressed as a crazy monkey, jumped to the front fron behind ginny, her knees bent, slapping the floor of the stage with her hands repeatedly, while turning around herself, as if catching her monkey tail. Then she hopped to the right side of the stage, turned around and did three summersaults, shaking her head when she was finished. She got up and jumped sideways around the other dancers, waving her arms, still shrieking, and when she reached the front of the stage again, she did a cartwheel, with her legs bent low, so she toppled over about halfway through it and sat on the ground, shaking her head again, before she crawled back to her starting place on all four limbs:

(Dragon mama ^^)

:Marie looked at the monkey before she started dancing again, this time with her baby dragon. They were both moving gracefully - or at least as gracefully as possible - around the stage, but then...:

"Oww! Ginny, that's was my tail!" she cried.

:She jumped as she realized that the only thing coming out from her mouth was a big roar.:

(Dragon Baby-Grrrr lol)

::Ginny hopped backwards, having been startled by Flissy's crazy antics as well as Marie's rather fearsome roar.::

"Easy there!" ::she growled-quite literally, her voice came out as a growl. Ginny flicked her tail back and forth, and danced around slowly to the beat. She then ascended onto her hind legs, and plopped down on the stage, causing some of the decorations to shake. Oops, better be careful, if I break this Jenn will never forgive me...

(monkey)

:shrieking loudly, flisan made her way to the front again, jumping and kicking her legs, her monkey tail swinging crazily in her back. squinting and squatting low, she crawled towards ginny quietly, giggling to herself, before she jumped up and pulled ginny's hair forcefully. then, when ginny turned around, she ran away, shrieking and slapping her hands onto the floor while turning around herself quickly, and off the stage.:

:Marie started jumping and dancing around the stage once more until she felt almost dizzy. She went to the middle of the stage and sat, looking at her baby, before opening her mouth, from which fire came out - not burning anything, of course ^^.:

::Ginny roared as Flissy pulled her tail. She began plodding after the monkey, but the stern look her "mother" was giving her made her stop. She then opened her mouth and tried to breathe fire, but all that came out was a little puff of smoke. The audience laughed. Ginny then sneezed, and a huge fireball escape her mouth, incinerating an empty chair in the audience. As the fire was put out, she began bopping up and down and yelling out in loud roars as if to say::

"Laugh at ME will ya!!" ::Ginny turned around and roared once more, excitement now coursing through her. She waved one of her arms at the audience.::

(monkey)

:Flisan peered in from the side of the stage, waving at the audience, before pulling her had back out of side. ginny had looked over at her. Then she crawled onto stage carefully, as to not make any sound, and with another summersault, she landed on the spot she started from, scratching her head and shaking it slowly, before yawning and sat down on her spot in the back of the stage.:

::Two long red firecracker strings appeared on either side of the stage and started popping. A voice boomed across the intercom.::

"Dragons are also used because of their loud noise. People believe that dragons and firecrackers loud noises can scare away the bad spirits. The monkey would generally tease and make the dragons louder for this reason. Therefore is it usual for every house and store to have red firecracker debris in front to chase away the bad spirits. It may be a hassle to clean it up...but the good luck throughout the year is worth it. This dance is usually performed by boys and men but since the Hufflepuff house seems to be lacking in that. This was the best we could do. Usually when a dragon dances in front of a store, the owner would reward it with a head of lettace which it would violently tear apart in the air. Why you might ask? Because inside would have some lucky money that the store owner would reward to the 'dragons' for their help with chasing away the spirits. The dance usually ends with the dragons (and monkey) curling up together to rest after their long day of chasing away spirits.::