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In East Timor, a celebration is not considered a celebration
if there is no dancing. If there is a birthday party,
wedding, christmas celebration or any festival, there will be a time
for dancing after the dinner. And the dancing can go on and on till after
midnight. The guy will hold the girl's right hand
and his left hand on her waist. I have no idea what dance it is. It's
something like waltz but with shorter strides and depending on the guy,
the dance steps may include many turns or hardly any turns at all. You
can invite anyone for a dance; whether your partner is younger or
older than you does not matter.
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Most of the time, everyone will change
partners for the next song and they will invite you if you looked like
you're 'left out'. (especially if you are a 'malai'(foreigner in tetun)) Some of them will dance line dance.
This is different from what we
see in Singapore.(you don't wear cowboy hats and boots) It is faster
and have more movements and steps. When done together, it looks really
nice but this dance is for certain songs only(not exactly true but
for certain songs, they stopped the slow-dance-type of dance and everyone
just come together for this). |