Tallinn Tales: Fire and Ice-the Ice Sculpture competition and other activities......

It is Sunday evening here after a busy weekend. I will try to write a briefer entry, since I have alot of photos that I want to include....but so much has been happening since the last entry.

First I am delightedly getting know some of the people in the department as well as one of the other Fulbrighter's here (and this includes some very sweet children as well...). I am finding my way around and yes, it continues to snow every day...I keep feeling as if I have gone through the wardrobe in the Prisoner of Narnia...and have entered the world of eternal winter...except there is something lovely about having large soft snowflakes in the air.

This weekend was a busy one. First, a local Estonian dancer has finished training as a Body Mind Centering (BMC) practitioner and was offering a workshop for local dancers. So, having studied BMC in the past, I joined it. We met in a many-roomed dance studio below a nearby shopping center and next to our workshop space was a class of small girls in pink tights and leotards with bows in their hair marching to music and a group of young adults practicing national folk dances for this summer's folk music competition. Our workshop was a bit different and mainly crawling, scooting and creeping on the floor as we practiced early infant developmental movement sequences. It was fun, although I had a harder and harder time understanding what was being said, as the other participants used more and more Estonian. But a wonderful way to meet some of the people who I will, hopefully be teaching.

I also went to the final competition of the First International Fire Sculpture competition which was held outside the old town of Tallinn. I went with a fellow Fulbrighter, her incredibly precocious son and we were joined by many more Estonians. The event was .....well....spectacular....in the most glitzy, dynamic and moving sense of that term.

The point of a fire sculpture competition, for the uninitiated is to create something that can be lit on fire (duhh) so that the fire itself is the work of art. Judging is based on the shape of the flame as well as the technical complexity of the piece. Teams were from all over the world and they have one day to build their sculpture.

We arrived in the twilight to see the teams finishing the building process of what, at that point, looked like large strangely shaped wooden structures covered with hay. The finalist were teams from Korea, the US, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia and Norway. Preceding the burning, was an ice skating performance, complete with torches and 5 couples of little children performing ice dancing routines. The ice skating concluded with fire works shooting out from several different locations around the stage..to the accompanying oohs and ahhs of the crowd.

Next were several speeches and the entry of two drummers who keep a rhythmic beat going through out the burning process. When it was dark, the competition began. Each sculpture was lit individually as judges with red forehead flashlight marked on sheets of paper. It was 'spectacular' (there goes that word again...), we all crowed forward in the snow, all of us including small children and older Russian grandmas in their fur coats and hats. Somehow the cold snow beneath our feet and the cold air around our heads didn't seem to matter. I am not going to describe each art work, but some were pretty basic and others were incredibly complex. Russia went first and their work looked like a large iconic angel with wings (I later found out, the real inspiration was the Russian team's response to the 'beauty of Estonian women'. While Estonian women are incredibly beautiful, what that meant as they lit their art work on fire...well do what you want with the implications of what that could mean).

The most impressive work (not the US, by the way) was Lithuania. Their tall sculpture, shaped in traditional Lithuanian folk designs, glowed from the inside when lit. In addition, it was crowned by a boat form that began to sway forward and backward as the fire burned. And in the front was a large windmill that whirled around with the heat. It was amazing and we all decided that it should definitely win. (I dont know yet who DID win, since the website hasnt listed anything yet...but I will check tomorrow) From there we went to eat at a local Italian restaurant and then home to sleep. Quite a full day but also wonderful to experience the raw power of fire in such an artful manner.

Next week I begin to meet with my department and need to write my syllabi (which might mean less writing on the blog and less time to explore...) but here are some photos of the Ice and Fire competition: