'Finding My Rhythm in Morocco' - Expedia® Viewfinder Contest
As I continue my Bare Feet™ adventures around the world, discovering every place I visit through its music and dance, I realize that the more I experience, the more there is left out there to add to my list. Hitting four of the seven continents so far (a Bare Feet™ episode in Antarctica would probably include me dancing the entire time to keep warm!), I've danced my way from the tango orchestras of Argentina to the poly-metered Dhol drums in India. But I've never danced a beat on the continent that holds claim to man's first steps; the place where probably all dance originates from: Africa. I want to go back to the soil that touched the skin of the world's first dancers, and this just may be the opportunity I've been waiting for. Expedia.com®, the world's largest online travel company, is running the Expedia® Viewfinder Film Contest to send five lucky bloggers respectively to Morocco, London, Australia, Paris, or Seattle. Each winner will be chosen based on which destination they would find most ideal to shoot a Find Yours™ video, along with the reason for their entry. And this is my reason. I want to be chosen to go to Morocco, one of the most historically and culturally fascinating places on earth, to continue my global journey of experiencing the world, one dance at a time. Morocco is a place where not only music and dance are defining attributes of the culture, but going there would take me one step closer to the starting point where humankind's creative juices started flowing.
The closest I've ever been to experiencing Moroccan culture firsthand was at the Travel + Leisure Global Bazaar last September in New York City - the makeshift tent (ie promotional booth) with the dozens of spices on display gave my sense of smell a tease for what is waiting for me at the actual bazaars in the capital city of Marrakesh. The water man, whose colorful costume and loud clanging of his copper pots grabbed my attention in the bustling scene of New York travel publicists surrounding him . Morocco is a country whose culture is as diverse and as colorful as those spices and that water man. Solely based on geographic location, Morocco is a fascinating case of how arts and culture are directly influenced by economy, trade, food, warfare, immigration, conquest, and the heavy hands of time.
There are so many reasons to want to go to Morocco, but the only reason for me is one: I want to find my rhythm in Morocco: dancing the Guedra with the nomadic Blue People of the Tuareg Berber; learning the Gnaoua music and dances of the Sub-Saharan region; trying out Shikat, Morocco’s belly-dance; and so much more!
Do you want to win a trip to Morocco, Australia, London, Paris, or Seattle? Enter by writing how you will ‘Find Your _________’ in Expedia's Viewfinder Film Contest - see official contest rules here! Happy Travels!