Freedom Celebrated in Great Style!
Dancing Queens: Misa Moran, Daniela Olszova, Petra Leheckova, Adelka Hancova, Claire Torres, Marketa Hancova, Hilda Bajova, Veronika Pazdirkova-Alliamus, Misa Dotson
The elegance of the party represented the Queens!
The wish was to make people happy, the occasion stood for a celebration of 30 years of freedom from the Communists in Europe. And that we celebrated with vigor!
Everyone found a place to shine this evening! Those small and big shined in contests, adults with knowledge in the popular history quizzes (this year all about 1945 - 1989), the Band shined when played, Queens when they danced, guests on the dancing floor or perhaps when their number was the lucky one to win one of the beautiful raffle baskets!
There is not enough opportunity to remind ourselves how lucky we are to live in a free world, a world privy only to about half of the globe. In the opening welcome note we dedicated our party to those who were targets of Communist angst, we honored those brave ones helping
us to gain freedom. And then we celebrated freedom with music and dance. And what music!! The Poe Street Band opened the program with hits that everyone enjoys, from Czech covers to Americana to folklore songs. Our thanks to Lou Scholtte, Ambrož Kruty, Alex Skultety, Pavel Chvístek and Vladislav Hanč! It is an honor to sing with these great guys! And then — we loved, loved to listen to Christiaan Nazarian, a regular guest singer and a guitar player of the Poe Street Band. His voice carried all over the Park and made everyone want to dance and sing along!
And then, ladies and gentlemen, the only ones, the beautiful, the irresitable Queens stormed the floor in their can can elegant outfits, and with the help of Offenbach famous tune danced can can! Legs high up, twirls, smiles, pivots! When the audience thought it is the end of the performance, the Queens transitioned into a hip hop song Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera that allowed for a steamy dance! The crowd loved it and the Queens repeated the whole number again later in the evening! Those nine Queens were the spirit of the party, putting time and money into the prep under the baton of a former ballerina, sweet talented amazing Claire Torres!
With the help of selective wines, the best Czech beers, Budvar, brewed from 1495(!!) and Pisner Urquell, brewed from 1842(!!), great dinner, cakes, dessert, open face sandwiches we kept the audience alive and very much happy! And before we knew it, passerbyers joined us on the dancing floor!
With all modesty we can tell that last night Hall of Nation in Balboa Park was the place to be! Whether you were American, Czech, Slovak, Pole or Greek, you found a common theme on that dancing floor or in the audience watching the irresistible Dancing Queens or the Poe Street Band! Join us next time, please!
Thank you: Poe Street Band, Dancing Queens, Claire Torres, Jan Fiserova, Petra Popova, Petra Leheckova, Christiaan Nazarian, Jan Kafka, Martin Bohaty, Petr Peterka, Robert Fox, and two anonymous that are too modest to be known!