As part of their Mayfest, St. John's Lansdowne Cresent had organised a Filipino evening - probably because the Filipino community use the church for their services and there is a Filipino priest based there.
Nearly all the audience were Filipino, and the vast majority of them young girls - there were a few English people there, but most seemed to be men with Filipino girls.
The programme was supposed to start at 7.00 p.m., but it was rather later before anything happened. But it was well worth waiting for.
The dancers were wonderful; I was particularly fascinated by the ones where the girls danced with glasses of wine balanced on their heads, and also glasses with candles in them. I was assured they were not stuck on in any way, and certainly they didn't appear to be stuck when the girls liften them off.
Everything was energetic and enthusiastic, the constumes were beautiful and the music they danced to was the sort to make you want to get up and join in - if you had the necessary energy! They twirled and swirled, making it all look so effortless, but you couldn't help but admire the skills involved.
One thing, though, which was slightly offputting, was the way people wandered round taking photos on their mobile phones, in addition to what I assumed was the official photographer. They didn't seem concerned at all if they were blocking your view, but just carried on regardless.
The dancing lasted about an hour, and after that there was food. Unfortunately, nearly all of it was meat, so all I had was a savoury egg and some sort of sweet, whcih was very nice, although I haven't a clue what it was.
Would I go and watch Filipino dancing again? Definitely!
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