My new favorite spot at Gallery Walk is the courtyard outside the Hooker-Dunham building. I've always loved the spot. It seems so European to me, like a village square in an old German or Italian town or something like that. It conjures up evocative, romantic feelings of travel or traveling back in time.
Lately, it has become a place to find fun at Gallery Walk. Last month, we enjoyed listening to the young drummers of Roach's Youth Percussion Ensemble. Last Friday, my two girls, ages 2 and 7, my wife and I found belly dancers. How cool.
After watching these dancing goddesses for a minute or two, both girls started to get into the groove. For my 2-year-old, that meant lifting her shirt a bit to expose her navel (like the women she was watching) and wiggling her hips as best she could. Funny. My oldest got really into it and was given a veil a to work with while she was out there dancing.
I appreciated how welcome they were made, how inclusive this dancing was. It wasn't a performance; it was a communal groove. The organizers billed the event as a call for "Goddesses" to dance. I remember thinking: It's never too early to be a goddess. It also sent me scrambling to my books on mythology to find out what fate has in store for the fathers of goddesses.