Visit by Yerevan TenSing

Sunday the 11th of October Yerevan tensing came to Vanadzor for a gathering. The girls in Vanadzor tensing were excited and had been planning the day for about two weeks. We met an hour early and made the last preparations and rehearsed our dances one last time. When they arrived we greeted them with a cake and each of us gave each of them some flowers and a stone with “TS” glued on top. When everyone had received their gift we gathered in a circle so everyone could introduce themselves. As an ice breaker we played a game, which involved throwing a teddy bear around the circle and when everyone had received it once we did it over again, but you had to receive it from the same person and give to the same person. It ended in chaos..

Then we moved over to something more relevant, some exercises to warm up our voices. When we were warm enough we thought them the song “Give it up” and an Armenian song. When our guests got a hang of the songs we moved over to dancing. First two professionals from Vanadzor YMCA danced and then we all danced cha cha cha and salsa. To cool down after the dances we played a polish game that Emilia and Martin led. When we were finished playing two boys from Yerevan played traditional Armenian songs on clarinet and drums. Many of the girls danced. After some songs we had a break, with lots of nice food. I don’t think anyone was hungry after all that food.

When we gathered after the break we danced a traditional Armenian dance and a dance that a couple of our girls learned from some Norwegians on a camp for our guests. They bravely tried to follow, but most gave up during the dances. To let everybody join we put on random music so everyone could dance freely. After a while we settled down, and Anna had devotion. To end such a wonderful day we all drew a picture together kind of to describe our day. And as a final goodbye we all hugged and kissed. As our guests were leaving, some of us stood in front of their bus to prevent them from leaving, eventually they had to give in and let them go. All in all it was a great day! We hope that in not to long we from Vanadzor TenSing can go to Yerevan and visit them like they visited us.