Brooke and I went to Arts in the Heart yesterday after the fitting for my bridesmaid dress. This year’s host country was India, so there were several India tents, plenty of Indian food, and lots of Indian-style dance performances. As you might expect, I took pictures.
We arrived sometime around or after 4 p.m. and spent some time exploring everything the event had to offer. We walked around the Common, where all the food vendors and the Global Stage were set up, and then back to the field where the arts and crafts were being sold. I saw a few people with Asian-style paper umbrellas, but I never figured out where they got them. I also saw this, which cracked me up:
Towards 6 p.m. Mari’s bellydancers started arriving, and Brooke went to hang out with them for awhile. I took my own solitary stroll around the grounds, this time heading out the gates and up onto the tall Riverwalk walkway to get some aerial shots.
Then I headed back to the Global Stage for the bellydance performances. At first I was sitting off to the side, so I couldn’t really get a good angle, but after the Indian dancing started wrapped up, a few spaces opened up out front, so Brooke and I met up and wormed our way in, and Kelly joined us in the same area.
We watched three guys do a very energetic Indian dance (here’s a movie), and then it was time for Alchemy, Savannah Winds, and their guest bellydance troupes from all around Georgia and South Carolina to take the stage. You can find pictures and videos here.
Some little girls danced, and they were so cute:
You can see a video of them here.
After the performance we went to congratulate the dancers and say happy birthday to Mari. Then we went to grab some food from the India tent.
This is my meal, the Maharajah Platter. It consisted of rice, puri (deep fried whole wheat bread), chole (garbanzo beans in mildly spiced gravy), samosa (lightly spiced vegetables and potatoes wrapped in flour and deep fried), masala dosa (crepe made of lentil and rice), and karanji (pastry filled with shredded coconut, nuts, and raisins). I didn’t really care for the masala dosa, for whatever reason, but everything else was fantastic. I’d love to learn how to make karanji.
Once we were finished eating, we took one last circuit around the darkened grounds, and I bought some hand-etched lacquerware boxes from Linda Tong. I used to have one, which I purchased from her at Christmas Made in the South, but it was lost in the fire. Now I have two: a round box and a box shaped like an egg. She wrote “Arts in the Heart of Augusta 2006” inside each one in her delicate, beautiful script for me :) If you’re interested in her stuff, here’s her website.
It was a really fun night! Great food, beautiful performances, and wonderful things to look at.
And I was so happy to spend a day with my best friend. I haven’t done that nearly enough lately. Thanks, Brookie :)