DENNIS WIANCKO
Live and Let Learn
Fair classes for everyone
BY INKA BAJANDAS
S
itting back and enjoying the
performances at the Oregon Country
Fair is great, but learning how to
make a bone tool, juggle or try a traditional
dance from Zimbabwe just might be even
better.
For all those fairgoers who are ready to
stop watching and start learning new things,
here is a sampling of the many workshops
and lessons going on throughout the OCF.
Stuart Celarier, who teaches juggling
at Reed College, joins other expert and
professional jugglers to teach juggling all
day long at Chela Mela Meadow in the
Yes You Canopy to anyone who is willing.
“There are a lot of things at the Fair where
you just watch, and the opportunity to do
something is magical,” he says.
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Newbies can learn the basics, of course,
but those who already know how to juggle
three balls and want to learn new tricks —
perhaps something they saw somewhere
and have always wanted to try — are
also welcome, says Celarier. Along with
juggling balls, participants are invited to
experiment with clubs and other toys related
to juggling — which Celarier defi nes widely
as manipulating objects, such as lassos, in
unexpected ways.
The great thing about him and other
jugglers being available all day long and
on all the days of the Fair, Celarier says, is
that people can come one day and then come
back the next day with a fresh perspective.
The juggling teachers also have a lot of
repeat customers from year to year. “The
fi rst couple of years, there was a little shock
and amazement that this is free and you can
just come up and start juggling,” he says.
Also in Chela Mela Meadow are yoga
classes in the Dharma Garden at noon, 2
pm and 4 pm, taught by six different yoga
teachers.
In Ark Park, primitive technologist
Tamara Wilder and others will give
demonstrations and workshops related
to ancient crafts. Wilder teaches bone
tool making and beadmaking techniques.
Learning about these ancient crafts, she
says, is a way to understand the common
heritage everyone shares of being hunter-
gatherers. “It links you back to your past.
There’s something very grounding about
that.” For the bone tool-making workshop,
she demonstrates, with the help of workshop
participants, how to make a tool out of an elk
leg bone for cutting fl esh off animal hide.
An even more hands-on activity is making
stone and pine nut beads. The stone beads
are made by drilling holes into soapstone,
a very soft stone, using bamboo sticks that
participants spin between their hands.
Wilder teaches bone tool making at 3 pm
on Friday and 2 pm Sunday. The beadmaking
goes on all weekend. Other demonstrations and
workshops at Ark Park include basket making
and hide tanning (which is much easier once
that bone tool has scraped the hide).
Community Village hosts the most
workshops throughout each day of the Fair.
In just one example, Wanda Walker teaches
an African song, dance and percussion
workshop in the Yurt of Community Village.
Attendees to her workshop will learn
mhande, a type of dance and rhythm from
Zimbabwe. She’ll teach the basic rhythm,
some lines of a song and a dance. The class
is a great opportunity for her students to
learn about the people of Zimbabwe, Walker
says, with an added bonus: “It is such a
fun rhythm that they can enjoy and take
with them and spread the music with their
friends.” Walker’s African workshop takes
place in the Yurt at 4:30 pm on Saturday
and at 11 am on Sunday. Other song-and
dance-related workshops include dances of
universal peace in the Village Green at 1 pm
all three days and instant songwriting for
causes in the Yurt at 2 pm on Saturday.
The Community Village Arts Booth
holds art-related workshops such as
Japanese paper marbling at 2 pm on Friday
and Saturday or making a miniature fairy at
4 pm on Friday and 1 pm Saturday.
EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 10, 2008 21