Folk Dancing

[Rían]

I did a search and didn't see any threads on this, so here goes!

Does anyone here do folk dancing? That's what it's called in the US; maybe it's called something else in other countries. Basically, it's older, "folk" (not sure what else to call it - maybe ethnic?) dances from other countries, typically things like line dances.

I first learned some folk dances in 6th grade (approx. 12 yrs old) - a dance from Africa and a dance from Israel, IIRC, and really liked it. Then I think I took a class in high school. But when I really got into it was college/uni. I went every Sunday evening for my last few years of uni, and just adored it! Dances from Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Israel, Russia, Greece, Turkey, etc. etc. I guess they tended to be mostly Eastern European. I loved the music, and the steps ranged from simple to extremely complex.

I remember when I was about to graduate, I took my tape player to the dances for the last few months and recorded quite a few songs. I kept the tapes over the years, and played them on occasion, but tape players always seemed to jam, and I was always afraid I'd lose the tape. Just recently I was able to transfer them to CDs, and I've just been playing them like crazy and dancing around the house and having a ball! So I was just wondering if anyone else here loves folkdancing?

[Hemel]

Yes I haven't been able to recently, thanks to things going on in my life , but I was well into traditional English dancing, and regularly used to dance out at festivals and such as well. And I get very twitchy feet if I hear the music!

[sun-star]

Yep, me too. I like English country dancing and Scottish dancing, though I'm not able to dance regularly at the moment - mostly I only get time in the summer at our local folk festival. I love watching it too (especially morris dancing) and I'm into the music as well. I've never done the Eastern European ones you mentioned - sounds interesting...

[Artanis]

I'm currently taking Flamenco classes and belly dance classes. Though I don't know if that may be classified as folk dance.

Flamenco is like therapy for me. I love the attitude, the music, palmas, the temper. Belly dance is also wonderful, it's 'softer' and more sensual.

[Embladyne]

My grandmother used to take me to her folkdancing classes when I was pretty young. Now that I'm in college, I've taken a few dance classes, the most fun one was just this month...Puerto Rican Folkdancing. It's a huge workout, and really beautiful with the flowing skirts and everything.
My grandmother also gave me some Scandinavian folkdance sheet music before I left for college, and I've been meaning to look it over, so that when I get home, I can convince my brother to play some of it with me.

[Rían]

Sounds like we could put on quite a show with all these dances!

I wish someone knew some of the eastern European ones that I know, like Jove Male Mome. Great dance with really intricate time signature, and 7 sets of step variations. It took me a long time to learn. To learn a dance you didn't know, the custom was to watch for awhile, then go behind the line of people dancing it and try it (so when you messed up you wouldn't throw them off), then finally join in when you got it. It took me quite a few weeks to pick up that one. The music is really wild - reminds me of the music described in Narnia in the depths of the woods. There's a bagpipe-type instrument, I think called the gadja, that gives it a really cool sound.

[Elemmírë]

Originally Posted by Artanis

I'm currently taking Flamenco classes and belly dance classes. Though I don't know if that may be classified as folk dance.

Flamenco is like therapy for me. I love the attitude, the music, palmas, the temper. Belly dance is also wonderful, it's 'softer' and more sensual.

I'm planning on learning some flamenco as soon as and if it's eventually taught at my college. I love belly dance myself (I finally made an outfit over winter break), it's so much fun, and rather tough on muscles. There's really nothing like it.

I don't know if you could consider it folk dance either, maybe not, but I do the Latin ballroom dances (samba, cha-cha, rumba...). Wonderful.

[Rían]

We can talk about any type of dance here

Flamenco does sound fun! and those Latin ballroom dances.

Looks like we have a few belly dancers here!

Hey, we should have a folk dance night at the Teacup Cafe!

[Artanis]

Originally Posted by Elemmire

I'm planning on learning some flamenco as soon as and if it's eventually taught at my college.

That's great! Then we can do some BulerÃ*as together.

Originally Posted by Elemmire

I love belly dance myself (I finally made an outfit over winter break),

Did you make a dress yourself? That's awesome. Is it a cabaret costume or a tob?

Latin ballroom looks like great fun too, but I cannot manage those high heels!