All About the XII Latvian Song & Dance Festival In Indianapolis (read post before watching videos)

So I took part in another major event celebrating my heritage. Every 5 years there is a Latvian Song & Dance Festival in the United States and this time around it happened to be held in my hometown of Indy. The really big one is in Latvia next summer. Canada also has a Latvian Song & Dance Festival every so many years (next one is in 2009). We left here on Wednesday and spent the next 5 days listening to about 7000 people speak and sing in Latvian. It's just incredible. It's actually kind of funny because the 2 major events the Dance Program & the Choir Program were held on consecutive nights at Conseco Fieldhouse (where the Pacers play basketball) and from the hotel it's about 5 block walk. A lot of the participants in their traditional Latvian folk costumes trekked the 5 blocks between the 2 places and on the night of the choir concert there was a group walking towards Conseco wearing their folk costumes and a group of teenagers were somewhere in the vicinity and as the group was walking by, my SIL's aunt who was following the group heard several of the teenagers say, "What the hell???" Kind of funny.

I didn't want the festivities to end. The 5 days of celebrating being Latvian and all our culture is rich in - the song, the dance, the costumes was just awesome. Plus I got to see so many people I haven't seen in a few years. And you just pick up like time never elapsed since the last time you saw one another. We stayed out way too late most nights and the final night didn't roll in until about 3 am.

I hope you enjoy the slideshow and the YouTube videos I found. I'm waiting for the person who's posting them to post more since there were some dances I loved more than the ones I'm posting. But this will give you a taste of what a Latvian Song & Dance Festival is all about. BTW, in the video of the 'Vidzemes Polka' there are a total of 12 groups dancing. If you look at all the groups from the top of the screen at either the beginning of the video or the end of the video the 2nd one from the top in the middle is my hometown crew. Lane and I will be dancing with them in 4 years. Granted they need Lane more than they need me. Also you'll see in the first video the girls look like they're holding something in their hands - they are. It's a Latvian instrument called a Trejdeksnis. It has all these little metal chimes that hang off of it (I'll see if I can find a photo on the internet somewhere). When you shake it, the chimes hit one another and make noise. I could hear it from where I was sitting watching the performance but in the video I don't think you can. Side note: Latvian folk dancing is the greatest cardiac workout you can get.