I belong, then I so do not belong.

Yesterday more Norooz celebrations, both in the village - another picnicy get together and more dancing which was nice as I was greeted so warmly and as a local, then more horse riding battles at the Hippodrome. Sadly the day was soured by two requests for money - which has never happened here before and given that I am just earning a local "salary" but unlike the locals do not have land, cows, or horses, their insult was badly targetted. Then to Bishkek for their "tawdry" events in the square, which had obviously gone on all day which is amazing really, in a country of only 5 million half seemed to be on stage at some point in the day and even though I did not arrive till about 6.30 in the evening lots of people were out still enjoying themselves and a couple of the dance numbers were good and one of the pop acts - a bit like a BBC road show but much much longer (i watched some of the day time footage later on TV) And more dance today. I had a 3rd row seat which was great, I was able to see faces everything. for a ballet I have never heard of before, but which I really enjoyed called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountain_of_Bakhchisarai_(ballet).  However so close up I spotted a bottom that did not seem to belong to a dancer, his thin legs did not seem capable of dance moves and I have not idea what was going on but if he was a dancer he had no idea of the steps so was having to follow the others and kept buggering it up. The look on his partner's face as he messed up the last bit was a real picture. Sadly I forgot my camera otherwise I would have captured it for posterity. He played characters after that on stage, and apart from that the standard of the production was good but it is funny how things can be so bad in a production.  Here because there is no room at the Ashu it is so popular this Norooz weekend.