'The Welcome Table' warms hearts at the Buskirk

After aerial tricks with silk, Ooolite singers and reindeer dancers, the night had only begun as members of the Bloomington community marched along the B-Line Trail to a fireside gathering with pie.

Malcolm Dalglish’s “The Welcome Table” kicked off ArtsWeek 2010 on Saturday with a full house at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

Theater Director Danielle McClelland said what she enjoys most about Dalglish’s music is his musical realism.

“In literature and movies something fantastical happens while the rest of the story is a normal world,” she said. “A goat begins talking or a bunny starts flying, and I always felt the music and ambience of Malcolm’s shows create this magical atmosphere into something fantastical.”

Annie Walters, junior and Jacobs School of Music student, said music school alumnus Moira Smiley, who performed throughout the night, was definitely an inspiration for where Walters could be one day.

“Only Bloomington can produce something like this,” Walters said. “You can’t beat reindeer dancing.”

Bloomington High School South student Kate Schreider said she related to Dalglish’s poem “Curmudgeon and the Reindeer” about a grumpy old man who doesn’t like the winter because Schreider is not a “winter person.”

“For these two hours, it’s a nice change of perspective because some things are just nicer and cozier in the winter, like pie,” she said. “But once I get outside I’ll probably dissolve.”

The singing, dancing and acting performance celebrated the inner warmth that sustains the community through the dark of the winter.
Schreider said she was most excited for the march afterward.

“I’ve never marched with a group of people before,” she said. “I can’t wait to feel the warmth of the bonfire.”

After intermission and during some of the performance, Bloomington residents Richard and Ann Burke acted alongside a musical performance in the story of an elderly matriarch and patriarch who dance after a family quarrel.

“The audience was with the singers and dancers and the singers and dancers were with the audience in one big collaboration,” Richard Burke said. “It was a magnificent, beautiful show, and the continuation of marching afterward is just like one more small act to keep it going.”