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Mount Airy Gym Under Construction
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11th World Gymnaestrada
Göteborg,
Sweden
July
2 - 10, 1999
18 Skyview gymnasts - and about 400 others from all over the US - traveled to Göteborg, Sweden in July of 1999 to participate in one of the world's largest and most spectacular sporting events. 21,000 gymnasts from around the world met there for the 11th World Gymnaestrada - a joyful, week-long Celebration of Movement.The World Gymnaestrada is held every four years much like the Olympics.
But the focus of this event is not on winning medals. In Göteborg, beautiful displays of physical strength, stunning choreographic precision, and playful imagination filled halls, stadiums, parks and shopping malls all over the city nearly every hour of every day for a week. The Gymnaestrada is about Group Performances - some with hundreds or even thousands of participants. Adults and children of every age and description perform. The choreography is designed both to challenge the participants and to delight audiences.We met and performed with teams from Great Britain, Australia, Canada and South Africa. We watched a Norwegian team in a vertical dance performed on a grid about four stories tall, a German Team in a Chess Game with human pieces, a team from Ireland of men and women with disabilities, a team of six men from Japan whose skill and precision were absolutely astounding, a team of about thirty men (all over 55 years old) from Sweden who charmed everyone with their dancing and antics, and a beautiful, beautiful finale performed on a stage the size of a football field. We traded pins, T-shirts and warm-up suits. We even had a bit of time for site-seeing and shopping. It was a FANTASTIC experience! And even before we left Sweden, many of us were looking forward to 2003 and the 12th World Gymnaestrada in Lisbon, Portugal!
Perhaps we will see you there!
