Transylvania party

I hosted a Halloween party for the art club this Saturday night. We celebrated our Transylvania project by dressing up like Dracula and the living dead. Timea, our friend from Hungary who led one of the classes on Transylvanian history and culture, was our guest of honor. She very much enjoyed the Transylvania movie and actually got a bit choked up after seeing it. I think hearing the music she loves put to these wonderful images the kids made was a bit more touching than she expected. This felt like a real success to me and I felt especially grateful for her enthusiasm and support.

The kids finally got to watch the original Dracula movie. I had shown them excerpts, but I needed parental permission to view the entire movie. Anyway, they laughed the whole way through. It's hard to imagine a time when this type of horror had real impact. The slow pace, jerky camera movements, and obvious theatricality was genuinely hilarious to them. As I watched the art club mocking this black and white film, I felt a great longing for the gentler, sweeter times of Bela Lugosi's Dracula. After the movie was over the kids suggested we play charades. They were eager to try on various roles from the movie as they reenacted the mock horror of the night.

Every year the art club wants to have costume making activities during class time. I have stayed away from Halloween projects in the past because I find it hard enough to help my own children make costumes, let alone a whole group of kids. I think the Halloween party is a great way for the club to get together and celebrate the performance art of Halloween in a manageable and fun way. They can make their own costumes at home, but what they really want is a stage on which to share their creations. I want to continue this tradition, and as the kids get older maybe we can learn a bit about installation art as we create a haunted house!?! I feel inspired.