PREZ SEZ
by Terry Abrahams <terry.abrahams@verizon.net>
OK!!!
Huge news about this year’s camp!
Here it is in order of importance:
1.
The date has been changed back to
President’s weekend – Feb 17-20.
2.
Because we have changed camps, and this one gives us
Monday only on that weekend (it is a school camp and needs Monday)
3.
The camp has a WOOD floor!
4.
Name: Camp Crystal Lake
5.
Location: It is North East of Gainesville. Off 301 in the area of Melrose, Keystone Heights, Stark – if this helps.
6.
Go to www.campcrystal.com for pictures,
directions etc. – of course we will give
you further information as time goes by.
Other
information:
First, credit goes to Pat Henderson for finding this camp. She hit the Internet hard and researched over
60 camps in Florida. As it turns
out, this camp has been used by the Vernals contra group, and we think that
this could work for us. She and I took a
day to drive north of Orlando,
and visited 3 sites before we chose this one.
We were ecstatic.
This camp is an outdoor education center
run by the School Board of Alachua County.
It is situated on Crystal Lake (duh!) and is quite lovely. There are enough cabins for all of us, but if
you don’t want to stay at the camp we have located a Bed and Breakfast nearby and we will try to reserve the entire place in the name of FFDC
and you can request a room through us –
it will cost you though – more on that later. There is also a motel about 20 minutes away.
The rooms are not carpeted, but much airier than the other camp and quite
nice. However, no hanging spaces. I’m going to try and provide you with something by that time that will help with costumes, but – hey – there’s always a drawback. Hopefully we will be sleeping on the lower
levels only and you can put your “stuff” on the upper bunks.
They have a cook – we plan our menu, pay for the food ourselves, separate from her labor – so food should be much improved this year. If there’s someone that wants responsibility for this, let me know. I have cooked at camps before, so know the
drill, but would gladly delegate.
The dining hall has a/c; the rest of the camp does not. However,
this is further north than before, and heat in February seems to be no problem
there according to the Director. The
dance hall (which is great – look at the pictures on line) has big fans if we
need them. You must bring your own bedding etc. as before, and I need someone to be responsible for bringing bedding for teachers and possibly
people flying in. (or seeing that it is done).
We’ll do the usual snacks at night thing,
but I’d like to go back to the old days when a specific group prepared something really nice that was ethnically similar to the dances being
taught. Any takers on this? And you ask – who are the teachers? I’ll tell you in the next issue.
Well,
I’m excited, so going on and on. But I
just want to repeat WOOD FLOOR, WOOD FLOOR, WOOD
FLOOR!!!!
REFLECTIONS ON DANCE
by
Dan Lampert
When
people leave our circle, goodbyes are hard. We think about all the good times,
and we know we’ll miss them. But I suggest that we remember those things we learned from them. Knowledge is fulfillment.
Here’s
an email from Raluca from Gainesville. It’s her “thank you” email, which was sent after
she left UF…. you can still send her messages to <rarosca@ufl.edu>…
After seeing the emails that Julieta sent
from her Colorado trip and Gary&Peggy Kirkpatrick sent from Montreal (which, judging by their website, should have a
great folkdance group), I felt the need to email you as well.
First at all, let me thank everyone who wrote me to
express good wishes for my travel and/or participated in the good bye Friday.
Those were very moving moments,
and going home to read the appreciation notes that different
people wrote me made it even more moving. Great thanks for those notes, as well
as the tote and the picture frames, that will be gladly used in the future.
Thank you, my dance family of 8 1/2 years -- while with you I've learnt a lot
about dance as well as about UF administration and group(s) dynamics. I'll be sure to come dancing while back in town.
I've also got news from Yang Mu (still accessible on email at yangmu@ufl.edu). Yang was a student officer of the International Folkdance club, a
regular on Fridays and a dancer in the performance group for 3 out of her 5
years at UF. We've last seen
her in March, for the Women's
Dances workshop, but in the meantime she defended her dissertation and moved
out of town. Unfortunately, we never had a chance to celebrate her contribution
to the group and the 'Phinally Done' sticker.
Yang
wrote:
"I
was busy preparing for a week-long interview at EGC (Environmental Growth
Chamber). It was a stressful week. But finally everything worked out fine.
I got the job. The company
is located in Chagrin
Falls, Ohio. But since we have several projects going on in
southeast region, I'll still stay in FL for a while."
Well,
see you all dancing, ASAP, Raluca
------------------------------
UPCOMING DANCE EVENTS
September
24-25,
Saturday, Sunday: Fall Fling, Melbourne Village Historic House
October
1,
Saturday: Oktoberfest and Street Party, Coca Village
2,
Sunday: Polish-American Festival, Fox Lake Park, Titusville. $10
8,
Saturday: Oktoberfest, German-American Club in Casselberry (Orlando
area)
8, 9,
Saturday, Sunday: Greek Festival, St.
Augustine
14-16,
Friday-Sunday: Greek Festival, Maitland (Orlando
area)
29,
Saturday: Greek Festival, Lecanto
November
11-13,
Friday-Sunday: Greek Festival, Daytona
Beach
February 2006
3, 4,
Friday, Saturday: Greek Festival, Ocala
17-20,
Friday-Monday: FFDC Florida Camp, Camp Crystal Lake, Keystone Heights
------------------------------
FALL FLING ANNOUNCEMENT
by jdaly@palmnet.net
Fall Fling is September 24th and 25th. Will start Saturday at 11:00 am and continue until people are ready to quit in the evening (or 10:30 pm whichever comes sooner). Please bring a potluck lunch to share on Saturday. We will have enough left over to share for supper as well, and will supplement with a roast from the kitchen.
As we did last year, we will have a planned program from 1 to 4 (with spaces for occasional requests). If you have some favorites which you would like to see on the program, please send your suggestions as soon as possible to jdaly@palmnet.net.
Sunday will feature a light breakfast followed by predominantly couple dances for those who didn't get enough on Saturday.
Driving directions: From I-95 and US 192 (Exit 180 -- Melbourne New Haven Ave), go east to the traffic signal with the Home Depot on the right, turn left at this light onto Dayton Ave. Go almost to the end (just before the bridge) and turn onto the dirt road at the sign which says, Historic Site Community House. Go to the white building at the end of the road and you're there.
See you at the Fling.
------------------------------
HAROLD JUNG
from Edwina Scinta
Hello,
Everyone, 08/12/05
Harold Jung died Wednesday at the age of
68. He had contracted pneumonia last week, and after 5 days in the hospital,
succumbed to a pulmonary embolism. Hal was the joy of my life. I will miss him
sorely!
Here is a synopsis of his life and career:
Hal was on the faculty of TWC as an associate professor of education and
director of student teaching. Before that he worked with
the Peoples College of Independent Studies, where he developed new programs and
designed instructional material. He was also local
coordinator for the International Education Forum in Bay Shore, NY. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, transferred to Wisconsin State University, where he completed his B.Ed. in Elementary Education. He
went on to the University of Wisconsin, to complete his Ph.D. in Curriculum, and did
additional graduate work at Florida State University, in Tallahassee, in Reading. He taught at all levels, from a Head Start program in a one-room school to critiquing and editing doctoral
dissertations. He was certified to teach
in a wide range of areas, including math, chemistry, science, biology, and reading. He taught
a variety of subjects, some in
the formality of the classroom, some informally in community educational projects. In these
projects he taught computer
use and programming, dance, soccer, volleyball, consumer economics, mushroom identification, and speed reading.
In addition to his diverse academic interests, Hal was involved in diverse physical
activities. He loved to dance, play and coach soccer, canoe, and watch birds.
He was not a natural athlete. Jung claims, "I was the second clutziest kid in high school." His interest in volleyball and soccer started in college, and his enthusiasm for
dancing started quite by accident one day when he
"dropped into a Folk Dance club meeting, out of curiosity. They asked me
back, and I just kept coming back," Jung explains.
He was very active in dance performance
and education, and was interested
in a wide range of dance styles,
from ballroom dancing, to clogging, from ballet to folk, from Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire instructor training programs to being a guest performer at the Arizona Dance Theater and
a member of several international folk dancing clubs.
Hal was a quiet man who acknowledged he
was a "perpetual student."
His interests were so diverse he could talk to almost anyone, almost about anything and contribute something to the conversation. Hal was a man of all seasons. Even his name
was strangely appropriate - "young" in
German, and Hal was certainly very young at heart.
Upon returning from 3 years teaching and writing at Northern
Marianas College in the US Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands on the island of Saipan, meeting exciting
people and cultures, and enjoying wonderful travel vacations in Korea,
Thailand, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, Hal and I settled in San Antonio, TX.
Here we enjoyed being members of the International Folk Culture Center and performing in the South Texas Polish
Folkdancers. In 2002 Hal started
his "volunteer career", an extension of his lifelong
mission-education. He spent many hours
teaching tutors and writing curriculum for an adult literacy program here in S.A..
If anyone cares to, one can make a
memorial donation to Project Learn to Read
and send it to 211 N. Park Blvd. San Antonio, TX 78204. He would appreciate that.
I will continue to live and work here in
SA. My sister Dorothy, my friends, and relatives have
been very supportive during this sad time.
Love and hugs to all of you. I hope you are all safe and well. Edwina
------------------------------
FFDC CAMP VIDEOS TO DVD PROJECT
By: Pat
Henderson
When I retired about a year and half ago,
I thought that I would have plenty of time to embark on a project of converting
all of our workshop videos to DVDs. Between all the travel we did last year and the hurricanes, I finally started on the project this year.
Bobby helped me upgrade my computer and choose the AV software, Pinnacle. I decided to start with the recent years and I have completed 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004. The first video that I have is from the 1989
workshop so there is a lot more to do. John Daly is receiving a second copy and
is also interested in working on the project. We were wondering if
anyone else is interested in helping. You would need a fairly new or
upgraded computer and AV software that could provide menus so
that each dance can be accessed quickly. For the ones that I have done, you can
see the teaching of the dance separate from dancing the dance. For those of us that are group leaders and/or
teachers, this is so much easier and faster than using the videos. The other obvious reason for the project is
that the dances will be preserved more efficiently over time. If you have any
questions or want to volunteer, contact John or me:
John
: jdaly@palmnet.net or
321-951-9623
Pat: henderp@bellsouth.net or 407-275-6247
FALL WORKSHOP
in Williams Bay, Wisconsin (just west of Lake
Geneva.. featuring local
dance teachers from Wisconsin
and Illinois. as well as programmed dancing, request sessions and reviews.
Dates: Oct.7-9,2005.All
level of dancers are welcome, including beginners. Cost:$185/person. This includes lodging and 3 meals on
Sat. plus 2 meals on Sunday. Beautiful surroundings, nice cabins with
air-conditioning and/or heat, very good food. One of your own FFDC members will
attend (Nancy Wilusz). Come join us.
Contact : Chris
Malcher, 7821 N. Kedvale, Skokie,Il.60076, Ph: 1-847-675-3165
Or: Phyllis Spiegel Pspiegel2@aol.com
8029 Lowell, Skokie,Il.60076, Ph:
1-847-676-3655
------------------------------
FOLKLORE
VILLAGE,
CENTER OF THE WORLD
Judith Baizan
Quotes from FLV Calendar of Events
Folklore Village, where heritage comes alive.
Folklore Village, a celebration of cultures. Folklore Village, making every day magical.
Or making magic every day through its mission of providing for "the
need of people of all ages to have places for joy, camaraderie and
celebration."
If you haven't experienced this
extraordinary institution as yet, you need to go there. On almost any day of the year you will find something special going on in the barn-like
Farwell Hall, the gem of the Folklore Village buildings, where most activities take place. The choices are many. There are Saturday night socials, barn
dances, concerts, craft shows, ethnic celebrations, art shows, and traditional
weekend events.
At one recent weekend event the Hardangar
Fiddle Association of America convened its annual meeting and workshops,
bringing together in one room an amazing number of these unique Norwegian folk instruments, along with their owner-musicians
from all across the country and dancers from everywhere coming to dance to their music. Other such weekends include English Country
Dance, Cajun Dance and Music, Contra Dance, and Swedish Dance and Music.
Coming up soon is the 58th Festival of Christmas & Midwinter Traditions, December
28 to January 1, (with Florida favorite Lee Otterholt on the teaching staff.)
"Jane Farwell founded this enchanting festival in 1947 as an antidote to the commercial packaging of holiday
celebrations. The essential spirit of
Jane's Folklore Village philosophy and the legacy of Jane's magic
shine here. This annual event is the
fabric upon which Folklore Village is embroidered, featuring seasonal
celebrations from around the world, ethnic dancing, crafts, music, storytelling, culture sessions, fantastic food and an outstanding children's program."
To get there just veer a little left as you head due
north, and eventually you will find your self on county road BB at the Folklore
Village entrance, about an hour west of Madison, Wisconsin. To find out more, and to let them know you
are coming try phone: 608 924-4000, email: staff@folklorevillage.org or online
at
www.folklorevillage.org.
------------------------------
GEORGIA
-- ON MY MIND
by JSosb2@aol.com
Here is what some of us Georgians have been up to lately:
In June, Jim and Sara
Osborn went to Romania with the Vasilescus, their third
trip with Theo and Lia. This year the tour went to the Banat and the Oltenia regions, quite
different from Transylvania and Bucovina where we went last year. As before, there were
numerous opportunities to learn dances from experts and to visit villages
where we met and danced with the locals. This year, a group
of younger (in their twenties) folks from Canada, joined us. They
are members of a Romanian dance group and were given money to go on the tour
by their city of Edmonton. Three of them still had family in Romania and stayed after the tour to connect with
them. Theodore is considering another tour next summer.
If you are interested, I will pass on e-mail addresses to you.
David and Dorothy Digby
danced with the FD group in Honolulu, Hawaii, Linda and Sid Gordon went on Mel Mann’s
summer cruise and Liz Nunan assisted with Scandi Camp. Marquette, Michigan, hosted Finn Fest in August and Jim and Sara Osborn attended
and watched several Scandinavian dance groups and listened to much Finnish music. Several
folks will take in the Israeli camp in September and the English
Country Dance workshop.
------------------------------
GRAPEVINE INT’L FOLK DANCERS OF SARASOTA
by Marie Millett <gvduurn@earthlink.net>
I have just arrived home from an evening
of folk dancing. Not just any old
evening of folk dancing but the end of an era. Ann Kessler's last night as our official teacher; however we're not losing her. She
will still be back to dance with us and maybe occasionally
teach as needed.
Ann has been our teacher since 1992.
Sydelle Singer, our former teacher had moved to the East Coast and John and I were floundering along teaching as best we could when Sylvia Steinhardt who had danced with Ann on Long Island told us about each other. We talked and Ann agreed
to give it a try even though it meant driving from Clearwater. And now here we are almost 14 years later. Ann's real retirement party will be the first Wednesday in November, November 2. Do join us.
The Door County Folk Dance Festival was quite enjoyable. Good teachers, good scenery, and good company. It was great to be with Nancy Wilusz and her husband, Ed who
had driven in from Hibbing, Minnesota. They had a happy party for all of us before dancing
the next night. Delores, Sidney and Edith, Don and Phyllis, Bill who danced
with us in Wichita, my sister-in-law Ann, [John's sister] and Ron and Kathy who had visited our group last Winter. Their daughter was one of the teachers. A real thrill was
meeting Ada of Kujwiak fame. Still a beautiful dancer at 88
I'm off to N.J. tomorrow but will return August 5th and the
Millett Hilton will be open for visitors who want to join us for dancing on
Wednesday night 7-9:30.
------------------------------
KOPRIVSHTITSA – MY TRIP
By
Terry Abrahams
Dobre utro! (good morning) Well, I must tell you – Bulgaria and the Koprivshtitsa Folk Festival were AMAZING!!! Jim Gold
plans a terrific trip, and this was tops.
We hit lucky on the very first night there – we found a political rally with a live band! First they pontificated about Macedonia and then they would follow with the band playing
marvelous Bulgarian folk music and hundreds of people did Pravos on the cobbled
square. It lasted for a few hours, so we went to bed thoroughly happy already on our
first day! The next
day we toured Sofia, and when let loose, Jodi and I toured the ethnic
museum, followed by the start our shopping binge, and I found an antique belt
buckle I had seen in the museum, which I figured to hang on my wall.
Well, upon arriving in Koprivshtitsa the
next day, getting settled in our hotel rooms and immediately out for the excitement, it turns out to be a plethora
of shopping booths, with all the folk selling off their family heirlooms, costumes, weavings, crocheted stuff, etc ad nauseum. I, who have
been theoretically not doing any more costumes, managed, in summary, to get an antique dress, apron, belt
material, head piece, accompanying jewelry, purse and socks. I spent a fortune, but wait until you see my stuff! I’m going to try and find a
mannequin to display it, but of course will wear it for a minute at camp. Also Jim gave me his ‘old’ guida (that
doesn’t work) and I’m going to make a collage on my wall with other weavings
that I bought.
The festival itself was truly an experience.
From the village, one wended one’s way up the mountain
where there were seven stages, each representing a different area of Bulgaria.
in Bulgaria, four singers
Folks
came from everywhere to sing and dance for each other, all in
their best regalia. We foreigners were allowed to watch, and
participate in off-the-cuff dancing in various dells. I couldn’t stop taking pictures, even if they hadn’t been in costumes, their visages were so photographical.
Dancers performing the
Spirit Dance
I’ll
include one in this newsletter, the rest you can see once I figure out how to have a spot on the computer for you to watch. The
dancing was always very simple, none of the fancy stuff we do – very interesting. The singing was mostly by women, but there were also men’s groups, and was stunning. Something I was not aware of, there were many dances done by men in masks,
fur and many bells, and were chasing away bad spirits. Now that I think of it, I’ll include a
picture of that too. It was equally fun
to watch the Bulgarians watch each other – and of course the kebabches and kyuftes
were delish. We also toured the little village of Koprivshtitsa.
Close-up of mask in Spirit Dance Cute
little old man
Following the festival, we hopped our bus, which was equipped not only with the best (and handsome) tour guide, but a guida player and dance
teacher. Every night we got to dance and
learn dances. Not too shabby! I bought two CD’s of the guida player. The trip included the Troyan Monastery; a crafts center in Oreshaka village; Veliko Turnovo with the Royal
Hill; an entire village museum where people were making and selling their
crafts; interesting churches, tombs, the Valley of the Roses; Plovdiv; the Bachkovo Monastery; a Roman Theater; other ethnographic museums. We missed a spa resort due to the floods which
had started while we were there, hit Bansko, a ski resort,
ended up in Dobarsko where we were treated to a private concert and dance
workshop with the famous Dobarsko Babis, who also treated us to some great yogurt and breads. To top
off that day we were taken by carts and horses to a farm for a great picnic,
more singing and playing by a men’s group (yes, I bought the CD) and rakia and
wine abounded. The next and last day we visited the Rila Monastery followed by Jim’s big surprise - a visit to a small village (I can’t
think of the name) where a very famous singer lives, Kremena Stancheva. She showed us her costumes, took us down the block to the local rec center, where she sang
(yes, I bought her CD), taught us to sing, was joined by her co-performers from the group “the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices Choir” (some of you probably remember them from way back) (and yes, I found their CD at the airport and bought it);
then the villagers, all of whom came to look
at us (we were the VERY FIRST group ever to come to their village) sang for us, danced with us, and then took us to the
dining area in the center and fed us unbelievable banitza’s (a pastry with cheese) which they made especially for us, which melted in our
mouths, along with big bowls of yogurt.
(They knew we were coming and baked
a cake) – each woman her own, insisting we try their very own! I can’t tell you how excited they were to
have us there. My favorite word I
learned and used was “odleechko” (excellent), and they returned with “Super!” It was a great ending for a great
trip. I must mention that the shopska salads served everywhere were also great – a
cuke, tomato, cheese combo. Bulgaria is known for its yogurt (I didn’t know that)
fabulous, and their meats were generally pork, veal and chicken. No beef.
Lots of potatoes – really good ones!
Well, it’s hard to keep this article short, but I knew you’d be interested in one of the Mecca’s
of folk dancers. Dovizdane (bye).
Women waiting their turn to perform
KOLO FESTIVAL
An Exciting Gathering of
Balkan Music and Dance Lovers
By Gary Anderson
For folkdancers, Thanksgiving is far more
than a time of family get-togethers, overeating and giving thanks. Thanksgiving
weekend brings one of this country’s largest two-day gatherings of Balkan music and dance lovers, with hundreds of
folkdancers from California and North America gathering at the annual Kolo Festival in San
Francisco. For
54 years the Kolo Festival has created a magical weekend of Balkan music
and dance. It is a time to immerse yourself in the sounds and culture of the
Balkans.
This year it is Friday, November 25 and
Saturday, November 26, and will once again be at the Russian Center, 2450
Sutter Street, San Francisco.
Starting at 9:30 am, there will be morning and afternoon classes in
dancing, singing and musical instruments.
There will be Culture Corners to discuss the cultures of the countries we
visit. Each evening will begin with a Center of the Village Balkan Jam. Friday
will feature Bulgarian music and Saturday will feature Tamburica music,
followed by dancing to live music in two halls. Saturday night’s activities
will begin at 6:30 with a Talent
Show/Folk Concert. An added feature Saturday night will be the dancing of the
taught dances in the Studio. Those who have in the past found the sound levels annoying can be assured that they will be under
control this year!
There will be vendors selling music,
books, clothing, jewelry and everything related to folk dancing. Ethnic food
will not be served this year, but a list of the restaurants in the area will be available.
One of the exceptional features about the
Kolo Festival is that it has been able to attract well known,
top level and knowledgeable instructors. This
year the five featured dance instructors are:
Ahmet
Lüleçi teaching Turkish dances. Ahmet is the co-founder and director of
World Camp. Erik Bendix comes west to teach Macedonian and Bulgarian dances. Erik has
taught for some 30 years at many camps in the U.S. and Europe. Marko Vukodinovic
will teach Serbian dances. Marko was born in Cacak, Serbia, where he was a dance performer by the age of eight.
Taking turns teaching the dances of Northern Greece this
year will be the local dance leaders Jerry
Duke and Bob Gardner.
Singing classes will feature a Balkan
overview plus classes in Croatian and Macedonian. There will be instrument classes in melody and percussion. The singing teachers are: Julie Graffagna, mixed material; Michelle Simon, Bulgarian and singing
technique and Rajna LeDoux,
Croatian. The instrument instructor has not yet been announced.
For more information and registration, please see our web site:
www.balkantunes.org/kolofestival
or contact Jerry Duke at
1-800-730-5615 or email jcduke@sfsu.edu
------------------------------
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Carol McGinn wrote:
Just wanted to say thanks for your Greek article in the Nov. 2004 FFDC
newsletter which included "Special supplement for Greek Dance Festivals" and a website on phonetic pronunciation and also spoken
pronunciation. It is a wonderful site, the best I've found after a lot of searching.... Thanks again for all the work
you put into the newsletter.
Dan Lampert wrote back:
You're welcome. I knew the archive of old newsletters was valuable.
The ability for someone to search old issues online is easy… and it
doesn’t require a club officer to dig into the files to retrieve stuff. Coming in the next few months… my company has just written a “search utility” which can search any
series of web files. So, all the old FFD newsletters will become searchable soon!
NORDIC FIDDLES AND FEET 2005
Judith
Baizan
Where will you find the best of Scandinavian Music and Dance?
Why, in West Virginia
in the foothills of the Smokies, the week of the Fourth of July, doesn't
everybody know that? Unlikely or not,
that's where you will find top notch teachers of both Swedish and Norwegian
dance traditions, award-winning instrumentalists teaching hardangar fiddle, regular fiddle,
nyckelharpa, and for 2005, even a folk song specialist. This year Knut Blikberg and
Anna Torhild from Voss Norway taught their local springar and rull (Vossarull)
while the popular teaching duo Britt-Marie Westholm and Bengt Mard gave their usual skillfull presentation of several
Swedish dances.
What makes the Nordic Fiddles and Feet
(NFF) week at Buffalo Gap Community Camp
truly unique is the continuing emphasis placed on teaching basic dance
technique as applied to the turning dance repertoire. The most important period of the day, the first morning session is dedicated to this endeavor, and it is a not-to-be
missed gem of a class in the capable hands of Roo Lester and her partner Larry Harding.
Making music is becoming as important as dancing at the NFF week. Various levels of classes in each instrument are offered, loaner instruments are often available, and then there's the allspel band which
welcomes all joiners and makes a place for every instrument. Music classes -- a
teacher and a few students-- sprout up everywhere, on a porch, in a
vacant dorm, or on the grass under a tree somewhere.
Morning dance classes, afternoon band
practice, dance review sessions, crafts, sales, and other events are all held
in the Pavilion, . There as we dance we can feast our eyes on the green hills, near by on one side, and rolling away in
the distance on the other; and be refreshed by the breeze on
our faces.
Meals are on time, abundant, varied, and
delicious, with a vegetarian entree always offered. Most meals are buffet style, and with two serving lines, go very
quickly. One dinner is always a
smorgasbord, with a stunning array of typical foods including meatballs,
herring, the amazingly tasty potato, onion, anchovy concoction known as Jansen's
Surprise, red cabbage, cucumber salad, whole salmon, beets. breads, cheeses,
and appropriate condiments-- all beautifully displayed to be enjoyed first as an artistic creation, and then again as our supper. To the strains of the fiddlers' ganglat we file into the dining hall, around the
buffet table, and back outside again, so that everyone can see and appreciate
what the cooks have wrought before anyone is served.
Directly following the after-dinner
entertainment of a staff or student concert
or folkloric presentation is the evening dance party. A posted sequence of musical groups or styles of music is carefully adhered to and varied each evening so no
particular kind of music is favored over any other. These sets run about 20 minutes and generally
include a mixer type dance. Dance
teachers each have a slot in the program to review something from their morning teaching. The posted program usually runs until midnight. After that two or three
musicians often get together in the center of the dance floor and play requests for the dancers present.
The NFF camp runs from Saturday to Saturday of the week that includes the Fourth of July. Buffalo Gap Community camp is located near Capon Bridge WV, about a two hour drive west from Dulles International Airport. All of the
details necessary to sign up will be available on the NFF website early next
year. www.nordicfiddlesandfeet.org
Save up, register, and I'll see you next July on the Pavilion dance
floor!
------------------------------
ORLANDO INT’L FOLK
DANCE CLUB
By:
Pat Henderson, written 9-01-2005
Our club is in its last week of our summer hiatus** so the complete update of summer trips will have to wait for the next
newsletter. I do know that Fred and Juanita Schockey had a great trip to Alaska to visit Juanita's daughter and her family.
Bobby and I took a trip to Charleston,
NC, TN and Mammoth Cave Ky. We stopped in for the Saturday night party at the Mountain Playshop near Asheville where we surprised Lee Otterholt, who was the
teacher.
We have great news--Altyn is back from Kazakhstan! She is an international student at Valencia Community College. I happened to see her this week when I was
visiting in the library where I worked.
Kelly Fagan performed in the musical Jesus
Christ Superstar this summer. A few of her groupies from our dance groups enjoyed seeing her in the show.
Many members of our group and some from others in Central Florida have
signed up for Jim Gold's trip to Greece in October, 2006. Lee Otterholt is the dance
leader for the trip. There is a limit of 35 and the deposit is refundable
outside of 10 weeks before the trip. For more information go to: www.jimgold.com or contact me for a flier.
Bobby and I received approval to split our
property into three pieces. Now we are working on a new road to our house
which we have to do before we can sell the front piece.
We look forward to dancing again next
Wednesday. Come join us!
** Note from
editor: OIFDC dances are scheduled to start
on Sept. 7, 2005.
------------------------------
T-T-T-T-TAMPA
by Terry Abrahams
Well, if it’s all about me, look for my
Bulgarian article elsewhere, this Labor Day Weekend is the culmination of all
my planning for the World Veterans Fencing Championships. As you know I’m 1st in the US in foil and made the team in the other weapons
too. So I will be fencing 3 times, along
with making sure my goody bags get distributed, the banquet goes well, the band is good, the buses go where
they are supposed to, that there are enough people to sell “stuff”, T-shirts, yada yada. I’m exhausted – now if I can only hold up and fence well! The fun part is that I choreographed a
fencing-dance to music from Fiddler.
Anxious to see how it is received.
My club is doing it. Also Bobby and Barbara have taught me the hat dance
(flamenco) and I get to swirl with them! Judith and Ernesto will do a scan dance. Hey, the banquet was my responsibility so I get
to do what I want!!
The next weekend finds Andi, Charlene and
I going to Ruthie’s Israeli Dance Camp in GA, I then go the next week to CA
with my family to my niece’s wedding. Upon return is the Fall Fling and I’m teaching at a Bar Mitzvah so will
have to cut the fling short. Well, that’s me.
Andi is driving back from Vancouver as we speak, coming with a plethora of new dances for all of us – both Israeli and
International, Ursula is working on her health problems and we all have our
fingers crossed that she will come out better
than ever. Both our groups are very
small this summer, but we’ve survived. I
hear we have a new couple in our International group, but I’ve been out of town
when they’ve been in. Looking forward to
meeting them. And I’ll make this one short because I’ve written two other
articles in this newsletter.
------------------------------
JULIETA’S PICTURES
May 20, 2005, from the Friday night dance when we had a Scottish dance workshop with live accordion music. This is the last dance of the night.
In this artistic picture we are in Gainesville at a Greek Dinner, not more than 3 years ago. I am leading the line.
The dance is Militsa, from Greece. We danced it last Friday and Saturday and is popular in my group, so I am reteaching it this week. We learned it at Atlanta Rang Tang.
--Julieta
These two pictures are from the GDMA breakfast at Applebees' fundraiser. You can see Stephan, June, Jack and Linda in one photo in the restaurant,
and one of me with the musicians: we had live music and we danced a little!
FLORIDA FOLK
DANCER
Florida Folk Dancer is a
monthly publication of the Florida Folk Dance Council, Inc., a non-profit
corporation whose purpose is to further knowledge, performance, and
recreational enjoyment of International Folk Dance.
2005 FFDC OFFICERS:
President: Terry Abrahams
813-234-1231
terry.abrahams@verizon.net
VP: John Daly
321-951-9623
jdaly@palmnet.net
Treasurer: Pat Henderson
407-275-6247
henderp@bellsouth.net
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Post
Office Box 151719
Altamonte Springs, FL 32715-1719
USA
FIRST
CLASS
Secretary: Jean Murray
321-952-7025
mmurray9496@cfl.rr.com
Editor / Dan Lampert
Historian: PO Box 151719
Altamonte Spgs., FL 32715
dan@webuniv.com
Send all submissions to the
Editor during the last week of the month, to be published the first week of the
next month.
Copyright: articles in the Florida Folk Dancer
are copyright by the Florida Folk Dance Council, Inc., or by their individual
authors.
Subscriptions are $15 per
year and include membership in the Florida Folk Dance Council. The membership year runs from one Annual Camp
(usually February) to the next. Members
can receive the newsletter electronically if desired.
For more info: www.folkdance.org
