While now I think of Thanksgiving as the holiday that acts as a reminder to start Christmas shopping, by googling Thanksgiving jokes I was reminded that the holiday does have some of its own merits.

For example, with the last football home game behind us, our flex points — I mean dining dollars — quickly running out and exams right around the corner, eating food to celebrate the pilgrims’ starvation serves as a great study break.

Consequently, Thanksgiving also provides us with all of the lean protein and dessert we need to bulk up for vigilant exercise routine we will be beginning in the first five days of January, and which we will promptly quit during that same month when our New Year’s resolution to make use of fitness passes.

However, as I sit here contemplating what stylish yet expandable clothing I will choose to wear to my own personal Thanksgiving feast, I now remember this is also the time to start reflecting on the things I am thankful for this year. So go ahead, read on, reflect, laugh (hopefully), and be thankful that you are not me!
1) I am thankful that it’s colder, because I now have the perfect excuse to skip any class that requires more than a 10-minute walk.

2) I am thankful that I have managed to spend, rather than save money this year. If my bank account was currently full, I would be burdened with decisions on how best to invest or to spend my money during this break. A negative balance makes Christmas shopping that much easier.

3) I am thankful that I am graduating soon, because all incoming students at the College will have to have a meal plan if they are living on campus. With such numbers, the ice cream waiting line will significantly increase, while Sadler’s stock of goldfish will be seriously depleted — all problems I will never personally have to face.

4) I am thankful that I am not a vegetarian, because no matter how many articles and movies about animal slaughter I come across, Chick-Fil-A chicken tenders have never looked better.

5) I am thankful that Santa Claus has now safely been stationed at Yankee Candle (Nov 12th was the premiere night). He will now spend the rest of December taking pictures with kids on his knee rather than risking his life delivering gifts through chimneys and apartment space heaters.

6) I am thankful that I’m older, because it means I’m that much closer to being taken seriously at the ABC store.

7) I am thankful that I have bought a fish tank but so far failed to buy a fish. Somewhere out there in the world, there is a miniature version of Nemo now able to have a much fuller and longer life in the Petsmart aquariums.

8) I am thankful that I have completely embraced my lack of motivation and my new love of Netflix rather than condemning these new interests as reflections of my laziness.

9) Most importantly, I am thankful that next week, I will be able to ignore all of the worries and responsibilities caused by real life and spend a few glorious days pretending that I have absolutely nothing better to do than to watch “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings.”

Dasha Godunova is a Confusion Corner columnist, and she just remembered that she needs to finish that last episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” before she can continue procrastinating on that paper she has.

The sounds of bagpipes, tapping hard shoes and upbeat Irish tunes are about to become a lot more common on campus. The College of William and Mary’s own Celtic Dance Troupe sunk its roots in permanently in October and is rapidly gaining members.

Morgan Bass ’13, president and founder of the Celtic Dance Troupe, has been practicing Scottish Highland dance for over 10 years. She had heard that there were once other clubs at the College involving Celtic dance, but that they had disappeared throughout the years. When she threw out the idea for the Celtic Dance Troupe, she was pleasantly surprised to get a flood of positive responses, finding out that others had been thinking of starting the club as well.

“Ideally next semester we would start having performances within the College and community, especially around St. Patrick’s Day,” Bass said. “But we’d always like to keep it open for all different levels to come.”
The club is still gaining momentum, with many interested new members continuing to appear at each of the weekly meetings. Practices are currently geared toward teaching members the basics of Scottish and Irish dancing. However, in the near future, the club hopes to have developed enough to perform throughout the Williamsburg area.

Andrea Gregory J.D ’13 found out about the Celtic Dance Troupe through their announcement about the new club in a Student Happenings email. Without any sort of experience in dance — Irish, Scottish or otherwise — Gregory decided to jump on the opportunity to participate in the club.

“It’s something I’ve always been interested in,” she said. “I’m Scottish and Irish and was actually looking at schools in the area to start dancing before seeing the Student Happenings email.”

Katie Pietras ’14 also heard about the group through the Student Happenings email, but instead of looking for a new experience, she saw it as an opportunity to revive an old hobby.

“I used to Irish step dance, and I really missed it,” she said. “I have about 4 or 5 years of previous experience in Irish Step. I stopped dancing for about 6 years, so I’m very out of practice now.”

The group is more than willing to help students fine-tune their dancing skills, whether they have a past history or not.

“We take any experience level, you don’t need any experience at all to start,” Megan Victor, co-vice president and second year Ph.D., said.

Before coming to the College, Victor attended the University of Michigan, where she did Intensive Irish Dancing, an advanced program where every year counts for two years of experience.

“It’s hard to give it a concrete number,” she said. “But I’ve been dancing since I was very little.”

Currently Victor acts as the choreographer for all of the club’s Irish dancing, both hard shoe and soft shoe, while Bass choreographs the Scottish dances.

“I would like to improve my dancing and get back to the level that I used to be,” Pietras said. “But for the club, my hope is just that we will continue to have fun dancing.”

Bass emphasizes that Scottish Highland should not to be confused with “Riverdance,” something she says happens frequently among those with no experience with the different dance terms. The dancing performed in the world-famous “Riverdance” is not Scottish at all, but in fact is the type of Irish dancing that the Celtic Dance Troupe also performs.

The Scottish Highland dancing that the group practices has far more in common with ballet than any sort of step dancing, and it requires extreme levels of endurance and arm and leg strength. This type of solo dance got its name from the Gaelic Highlands of Scotland, where the dance first developed.

Although the Celtic Dance Troupe hopes to eventually grow to the level of other dance groups on campus, right now they are all content just having fun learning the dances together.

“I just want to get out there, perform and have a good time,” Gregory said. “I might mess up the steps sometimes, but there will be a big smile on my face.”

A short walk from the Sunken Garden on Armistead Avenue, there is a little-known part of campus called the Bozarth Garage. This building houses the College of William and Mary Gamelan, a unique collection of hanging gongs, kettle gongs and xylophones set up on ornately decorated stands. Here, under the direction of instructor Cynthia Benton-Groner, students learn Indonesian Gamelan, a unique type of music that originated in Central Java centuries ago.

Each Gamelan is special and cast with tuning relative to other instruments in the collection. The College’s Gamelan was constructed in central Java.

“Initially in 1999, there was a spouse of someone in the music department who left his instruments,” Benton-Groner said. “After I started working in 2003, we found funding to purchase these instruments from him.”
The College’s Gamelan was officially named “Gamelan Tunjung Baskara,” which means “Sun Lotus”, by the University of California at Berkley Javanese teacher Midiyanto during a ceremony in March 2006.

The College hosts Gamelan one concert per semester in which both beginner and intermediate groups perform. This past Tuesday, the group put on a performance with a repertoire featuring a mix of short and long pieces, both ancient and modern. Two dancers and a drummer from the Indonesian Embassy also performed with the students.

“Traditionally, the music was to set an atmosphere for puppetry, drama or dance,” Benton-Groner said. “We invited drummers and dancers because there is no [Indonesian] dance program at William and Mary.”

The two guest dancers added much to the performance. During one piece, a dancer gently strutted across the floor, waving her scarf and bobbing her head set to a smooth, languid song. Upon the piece’s completion, Benton-Groner explained that the song was meant for royal entertainment, and the dance originated in the streets but was later refined and perfected.

Gamelan differs greatly from European music ensembles, which are characterized by rigid seating based upon skill. Between every song several players switched seats, trading huge hanging gongs for delicate-looking xylophones. The ensemble also had no conductor, and the instructor Benton-Groner sat alongside her students for the duration of the concert.

“The whole point of Gamelan is to switch around,” Elise Vess ’13 said. “There’s no hierarchy. We all learn it together and play every instrument.”

The written music also shares few similarities with music of the European tradition; rather than staffs, keys and notes, Gamelan is written with a numbered notation and is performed as a song cycle. Cycles can be short, consisting of several bars, or go on for hours. Traditionally, in Indonesian palaces Gamelan was believed to protect people from evil and would be played all night.

“It’s a cycle of songs,” Tera Morris ’12 said. “It’s not Western at all.”

All the songs performed had a pervasive mood of relaxation and tranquility. The timbre of the instruments is gentle and pleasant on the ears. One traditional Javanese song performed was explained as being about a river that heals and calms.

Gamelan spans across many parts of Indonesian culture, both in past and modern times.

“It is still is a very strong component of Indonesian culture,” Benton-Groner said. “There are still shadow plays that go on all night. There is more contemporary music arranged for Gamelan and is played on the radio.”

Although Indonesian Gamelan is just one of many lesser-known activities going on at the College, the performance was attended by several staff members and friends of the performers. Benton-Groner expressed great optimism about its future growth.

“There are talks of a new art center, and I am looking forward to the day when we are more a part of the mainstream college,” Benton-Groner said. “It’s like learning a different language; it’s so different from Western music. It gives people who are looking for a GER 6 a chance to learn music and a different culture.”

Two one-credit Gamelan classes are offered at the College. Both are on Tuesday; beginning players meet at 4 p.m. and intermediate players meet at 7 p.m.

“It’s once a week,” Morris said. “I took it because I didn’t know anything about it and I wanted to try something I’ve never heard of.”