Dancing Queens! Poe Street Band! The Ball!

First, you tap your feet and then you move in your chair and finally you walk to the dancing floor to let the music get the best of you!!! You are turning, shaking, bobbing, bending twirling!; just what we hoped for. Poe Street Band is glad that many dancing feet found its way to Balboa Park. Thank you!! Life is beautiful when we embellish it with dancing and shaking and smiling and mingling!

We met in the Hall of Nation in Balboa Park and it is quite a special place! The building was built 1915 as one of the pavilions for the California-Panama exposition celebrating the completion of Panama Canal. The pavilion (a copy of a 1700's Mission building in Oceanside) was to be torn down after the exhibition along with all of the beautiful buildings we admire today in the heart of Balboa Park, but Sandiegans decided by petition to keep them. In 1935 there was another expo in Balboa Park and Mr. Drugan, one of the organizers, decided to built an international village where 13 minorities living in San Diego may have a cottage displaying the culture of their nation.

What a wonderful truly American idea. (He had to fight some fierce resistance of those who felt there is no need to celebrate heritage of immigrants, but he prevailed.) His mission was to establish a sense of respect for each other's culture and traditions and celebrate it. He viewed it as a path toward peace as the more we know about each other, the better we understand each other. Today we have 33 nations displaying their heritage in Balboa Park.....and the Hall of Nation as the name reveals, where we had our dance, is for anyone who wants to share with public national traditions. And that is what we did! We offered traditional meal of pork, sourkraut and dumplings, sweet kolache, traditional wedding cake, crumble fruit cake and, the pride of Czechs, tapped Czech Pilsner Urquell, and of course traditional music and also music everyone knows!

And here is gorgeous rich rich raffle, and here are the polkas, waltzes, disco and rock, and here are the games, and, believe or not even quizzes from geography, history and such! But all in a good " tongue in a cheek" manner, and with lots of rewards, like the music!

And here the children at play!

What made the evening eventful was of course the wonderful Poe Street Band. The Band plays about four years, consists of friends of Czech, Slovak and American heritage and meets often at Poe Street in Point Loma, hence the fit name. The Band plays many genres, from folk to bluegrass to Czech, Slovak and American pop songs. Poe Street Band loves the audience who has nothing but positive support for the musicians who diligently try to bring some good music to their fans!

Pavel Chvistek banjo, Ambroz Kruty drums, Tomas Majek Guitar&vocal,, Vladislav Hanc guitar, Lou Schlotte base, Marketa Hancova vocals & trouble.

But the hit of the evening must be delivered by women! I mean beautiful women! I mean gorgeous dancey young women, the Queens, the Dancing Queens!

They are mothers, they are keepers, they are professionals, but they are also dancers!

They meet at night with beautiful ballerina Claire who knows how to make these Czech and Slovak women move! And yes, did they move!!! Thank you, Queens!!

Claire Torres, choreography, Edita Semiginovska, Eva Lovecka Fisher, Veronika Pazdirkova Alliamus, Daniela Olszova, Katka Čapková, Hilda Bájová, Adélka Hančová, Markéta Hančová.

And so, we danced, we laughed, we ate, we drank, we competed, we talked and laughed some more.

And we appreciate all who helped the evening run smoothly! Cashier Tana, chefs Marjenka and Jana, barman Honza, raffle keeper Adelka!

And I? I was one happy woman. Having my family around, having my close friends around, seeing friends I like but do not see very often on the dancing floor smiling.... that all made me smile back!!!

Life is beautiful, but life is also tricky and we need to know how to scare away the dark clouds and this evening was that very effort by Poe Street Band and the Queens: to offer others an opportunity to have some nice moments. Keep that dancing in your life, and love your Poe Street Band and Dancing Queens!!