sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
La Boheme Dance Group kicked off Halloween events on State Street starting on Saturday afternoon. Here are my photos of their performance starting at 5:00 PM.
Before the performance, they gathered in front of the Hotel Santa Barbara for group photos.
Teresa Kuskey Nowak is the director and creator of this Santa Barbara treasure and you can see her front and center in this photo crouching in her orange striped knee socks.
VIP Master of Ceremonies John Palminteri struck a pose for me before kicking off the event.
Here is my video of the opening performance, starting with John Palminteri’s introduction. A short bit of “Witchy Woman” then on to the German Witch Song:
Then a short bit of “Staying Alive”
Then on to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
Here is one still shot of several that I captured:
Here dancer Katie Becchio posed for me in her wind-up toy outfit. You may recognize Katie as a regular artist and performer at Solstice.
The theme was about witches, but you can see quite a few creative variants. Here Ana Fagan posed for me in her Steam Punk outfit. You may recognize Ana also from Solstice, from her work with BUNS finding homes for bunnies and creating art at I Madonnari.
We returned the next evening on actual Halloween to see how people were celebrating in the same area of Lower State Street. It was fairly tame when we were there around 8PM, but we still caught some fun costumed revelers. Here are my photos.
Merlie and I struck a pose as we were approached from behind by a light saber wielding character.
This couple kindly posed for me as they waited for their dinner and enjoyed drinks.
The Red Piano was in use and decorated appropriately.
This group of friends had convened from various far-flung locations and stopped to take selfies with us and let me photograph them.
These young people posed and offered some interesting gestures.
This gentleman took care to explain that he was not just dressed up as Thor; he really was the god Thor. It was not clear why Black Widow of the Avengers was spending time with Thor this Halloween.
Merlie had to fill me in on more popular culture and explain that Maleficent is the character portrayed by the young woman at left, accompanied by an assortment of unrelated other characters.
Let’s hope that next Halloween is less scary with real world frights!
