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Sunday, May 25, 2008

A night of fire, music and dancing under the stars












We parked in front of the Amtrak station in Providence to begin our evening adventure of food and entertainment. This was the opening evening of The 2008 Waterfire season.



WaterFire is an environmental art installation created by Barnaby Evans in Providence, Rhode Island. It consists of a series of up to 100 bonfires that blaze just above the surface of the three rivers that pass through the middle of downtown Providence in Waterplace Park
(the Woonasquatucket, Moshassuck, and Providence rivers) , with accompanying world and classical music, sometimes with live performances.
Before walking around the river banks and watching the fires blazing and hearing the classical music we went to the Providence Place Mall Food Courtwhere Mark and I had our favorite Indian food at Gourmet India. I had PANEER PALAK, which is fresh spinach and homemade cheese with a touch of onions and ginger. DELICIOUS
After eating we walked and walked and walked by 10:00pm we were ready to sit for 20 minutes at the Rhode Island School of Design auditorium to see a 3-D slide show of Providence over the past 100 years. Very informative and interesting. After purchasing a medium size bag of kettle popcorn we walked to the WaterFire Sovereign Plaza Ballroom.

Sovereign Bank sponsors the ever popular WaterFire Sovereign Plaza Ballroom featuring live dancing under the stars. The Sovereign Plaza Ballroom returns this 8th season for four exciting nights.













The Sovereign Plaza Ballroom is free and open to the public. The Ballroom is just one short block away from WaterFire beneath the famous Turk’s Head building at the intersection of Westminster and Weybosset Streets in the downtown financial district.

The story tells of a Man named Jacob Whitman who once owned a home on this site in the mid-eighteenth century. His porch was adorn with a carving of a Turk. Over time the corner was called Turk's Head by locals. After Mr. Whitman passed away people continued to associate that name to the area. Eventually a commercial building replaced Mr. Whitman's home but the name still stuck. When the present building was eventually built, a large-scale head of a Turk was included in the design in reference to this legend. The story might have some truth. The Historical society posses a carving of a Turk's head which is said to be the very one from Whitman's front porch. A stunning venue with superb live music and a 65’ polished black dance floor. The dancing flows from 8:00 to midnight. There are free lessons by master instuctors at 7:00 Lesson: Russell Monk and Waltz & Swing the Band is Compaq Big Band 8:00pm-midnight




We left Providence at 12:30 am after having a most enjoyable fun evening

http://www.waterfire.org
http://www.compaqbigband.com
http://www.providenceplace.com
http://www.brown.edu/Courses/HA0191/new/location.php?id=34

2 comments:

Vicky said...

This looks like so much fun. Providence is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Did you learn any new dance steps?

Chat with Kathleen said...

We do love our Providence especially since former mayor, Buddy Cianci brought in the Renaissance Revival which included Waterpark and the Providence Place Mall. You and John Michael will find so many changes to Providence when you come in October. Federal Hill has added many new buildings and 901 Condos has replaced the rundown Farmers Market.
As to the ballroom dancing, as you know John and I do a great waltz. We did learn a few twirls.
Saturday, Oct 11th Jazz 6:10 The Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation will be the last for this 2008 season