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A Bit More on Fall Fling

by Fannie Salerno

Caroline and Gary came early Friday so they could dance with us before the fling and ended helping to set up for Saturday. Caroline taught an easy dance and the beginning dancers really enjoyed having them.

John says we did at least 100 dances on Saturday, and he ought to know! Over 30 people attended and we had near 30 people dancing the Polish Polonez Royale, from camp, which made it extra fun.

Later, I spoke with Willa and passed on all the warm greetings you sent to her. She wanted to hear all about who was there and sends back her love.

On Sunday, John D., Bernice R. Caroline and Gary and Fannie came to finish cleanup after the Fling, have a leisurely breakfast together, and dance. Jean M., the other organizer of the fling, didn’t make it back on Sunday, having been truly exhausted (not from the dancing but from real work – caring for her horse, preparing her house to sell!)

Bernice organized and cleaned the trunk we keep stuff in as well as cleaning up between dances.   Caroline taught four dances which were unfamiliar to us in Melbourne, including a couple of easy ones and two which would be great for a demonstration.  John hunted up instructions or wrote them down, so we are anxious to learn at least one well enough before our next demo. Gary helped everywhere and then found a bucket and mop and damp mopped the whole wood floor. Way beyond the call of duty. We left the place cleaner than we found it. Thanks so much, Caroline and Gary.

President's Letter

The Hospitality Committee is working on menus for (un)Camp.  They don't know they're the Hospitality Committee.  I've just given the group that grand name.  They're considering a variety of possible menus.  Lunches will be a fair amount of work, as they will be prepared by volunteers.  Dinner will be prepared by professionals, who seem gratifyingly excited by the challenge of preparing an ethnic meal and plan to make it special.

The Registration Form is on the web site.  One of the more difficult aspects of holding "Camp" at the hotel is working out the "cabin" arrangements.  Pricing is based on two people per room.  Please help us by coordinating with another dancer and putting the name of your roommate on your registration form.

Several people plan to bring a non-dancing spouse or significant other since we have a hotel environment.  We have a pricing option for this on the registration form.  Register the dancer, with "Single Occupancy" for the room, and add extra meals for the non-dancer.

Another concern will be sleeping arrangements.  The registration form allows you to specify one bed or two beds.  Our calculations are that there will be enough rooms with two beds for those campers who are not well enough acquainted to share a bed.  To make sure of that, please choose a room with one bed if you are willing to sleep with your companion.  On the good side, remember that you won't have to bring linens, pillows, and all that stuff.  The hotel will take care of all that!

This will be a new experience for all of us, so constructive suggestions are always welcome.

-John

The "twins" – Bobby Quibodeaux and our amazing Terry Abrahams, who continues to dance (and contributes so much to the newsletter), despite the chemotherapy that robs her of energy and hair!

Fall Fling Dancers: Jan Lathi, Julius Horvath and Kelly Fagan

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Bata is Back

by Terry Abrahams and Pat Henderson

-Terry

We did not know any dances to their music.   Some of the Serbians there sang to many of the songs and some of the women danced to a few. A little later the band played in even closer quarters under another shelter. The picture below shows part of the band and local women, some in costume, dancing around and through the band.

OK – Pat’s turn…

Bobby and I arrived with our “entourage” around 3 PM with expectations of seeing Bata’s group at 4 and possibly staying through 7 PM show with dancing 8-10 PM.  These were the performance times that I was told from the festival organizers. Well, Mother Nature had other ideas and we sat under a tent with non-stop rain for two hours.  Terry and Mickey made it out just in time.  The brass Serbian band played under our tent for a long time. 

After his show, a DJ played a few Serbian dance tunes and those of us left were finally able to dance.  I wish that we could have stayed until the end of the dancing which was scheduled until 10:00 PM but our group had a tiring day so we left early.  Next year, if anyone goes to this festival – go late.  It gets more fun after dark.

Around 6:30-7:00 PM, some of our group gave up on Bata and left.  Finally, about 7:15 PM, Bata and his group arrived.  He was very happy to see all of us.  About an inch of rain had to be swept off the cement where his group was to dance.  Lights had to be set up; so we finally were able to see the children dance shortly before 8 PM!  Dan Lampert joined us right before the show—good timing, Dan!  It had been a long five hours for us but it was worth seeing these incredible dancing children.  He has done a fabulous job teaching them how to dance and perform.  His choreography and stage management was impressive.  We saw a few of the dances that he taught at our camp last year. 

Bata's Serbian Children's Group Performing

Photo by Pat Henderson

Photo by Caroline Lanker

Dancers Vacation in France

by Dorothy Archer and Sara Osborn

In September, five intrepid folk dancers (Liz Nunan, Jenneine Lambert, Dorothy Archer and Sara and Jim Osborn) toured Brittany and Paris under the guidance of Liz. In Brittany we rented a car and took day trips from the gite (house) in Porhors (ever heard of it?).

Fortified by galettes (crepes), cider, and a little calvados (brandy from apples) and ideal weather, we toured Carnac with its ancient stone formations, Quimper, Pontivy, Mt. St. Michel, Chartre, and Giverny (Monet's house and gardens.)

Highlights in Paris were the Notre Dame Cathedral, a Seine boat trip, Musee D'Orsay, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Rodin Musee, Champs-Elysees, Versailles – the usual.

At the Arc de Triomphe, Liz, with her near perfect French, charmed a WW II officer, Colonel J. Cristiani. He asked where we were from, said, "We love the Americans," and invited us to take part in a ceremony honoring the unknown French soldier, even signing the official book.  The French saved Liz from a closing train door, carried our luggage upstairs, and gave us directions. Saturated in beautiful art, architecture, gardens, history, and the joie de vivre of the French, we say, "Nous aimons les Francais."

Liz, Dorothy, Jim and Jenneine at Carnac

Photo by Sara Osborn

The unusual added spice to the trip. Coming out of the subway in Paris, we were greeted with a techno music parade attended by every teenager in Paris, dancing in the street and on the rooftops.

In Brittany, Liz and Jenneine asked help in finding the Fest Noz (dance party) from a tavern keeper, who called around and found it for us. We are not sure why, but after that, whenever we needed directions, Liz and Jenneine always wanted to go back and ask him.

At the Fest Noz, Jenneine requested Andro Retourne. The musicians laughed, but they played it and everyone knew it. Other dances we did were La Laride, La Maitre de la Maison, schottische and gavottes. What a treat to dance with the locals! 

Jenneine and Jim Head Up a Couple Dance at the Fest Noz

Photo by Sara Osborn

At the Arc de Triomphe

Top: Dorothy, Sara, Jim and Liz at the base of the Arc

Lower: Sara Signing the Official Ceremonial Book

Photo by Jim Osborn

From the Editor

Well, after a slow dancing news month in October, the dancing and the news has certainly picked up. This issue includes news from a number of sources, including some authors new to the Florida Folk Dancer. 

Our news is that Gary retired as of October 1.  One of the luxuries that our new freedom from a job schedule affords us is the ability to travel around to dance more.  In addition to the Fall Fling, the Serb Fest, and Orlando’s Halloween party, reported elsewhere in this issue, we have been to the Melbourne Tuesday night English Country dance group, the Wednesday night Scandinavian class and Friday night international dancing in Tampa and the Wednesday night dancing in Orlando. On Saturday afternoon, Nov. 3, we went to Tampa for Judith’s Scandi workshop. When we found out there was a Greek Festival currently going on at the Saint John Greek Orthodox Church in the Hyde Park area of Tampa, of course we had to go there, too.  So, that evening, we sampled the festival's Greek food and met up with a bunch of dancing friends – Terry Abrahams, Wanda Turner, Ursula Tison, and Judith and Ernesto Baizan along with their son, Hansen, his wife Joanne and their daughter, Kelsey, who has danced with the St. John’s dancers in the past.

We saw a couple of performances of Greek dancers, including the St. John’s dancers. The photo above shows a performing group.

In between performances, the band played for general dancing.  The dances were either ones we knew, like the syrto, or simple, repetitive dances we could pick up.  Kids as well as adults were joining in.  Some of us got up and danced, including the Baizan family. I’ve known Judith and Ernesto since 1965, when they used to bring their five kids folk dancing in Houston. It was great to see three generations of Baizans dancing together.

In the months to come, Gary and I hope to make a regular practice of getting around to the various dance groups within a couple of hours of Frostproof.  So, I hope to be seeing a lot of you!

-CL

Photo by Terry Abrahams

Deland Dancers Summer in Michigan

by Joan Washington

Wally and I summered in Michigan again this year and danced at the Yale Public Library, with a few extra dances at the nearby Capac Senior Center. We were also asked to schedule a dance at the Memphis Public Library, where they have a large second story meeting room with a wood floor. We hope to hold more dances there next summer.

Taking a little time off dancing, we enjoyed a trip to the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Lake Powell, and Montezuma's Castle – a beautiful part of the country.  The 15 day trip included traveling out and back on Amtrak and a Caravan bus tour.  We saw a lot, and the trip was a good mix of planned sightseeing and time on our own.

A surprise treat on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend was attending the Thumbfest, a folk/acoustic music festival held in Lexington, Michigan on the shore of Lake Huron. I saw a listing for a one hour workshop on eastern European folk music led by Luti Erbeznik from Macedonia. We missed the first few minutes of the workshop, but the main purpose seemed to be discussing the tempos and rhythms and illustrating them for those musicians who had their guitars with them. One of his selections was Jovano, Jovanke. The guitar music didn't sound familiar until Luti began singing. WOW! Wally and I danced while the guitars played and Luti sang.  Luti also provided a handout of resources on the web for musicians, including one website with folk dance music (see Handy Web Sites).  Later Luti joined the folk group Brian Wood and The Troubadads and was just as skilled at the American folk music and vocals.

We also attended a performance listed as XD Wei, world music, jazz, bluegrass, rock, and ethnic folk. That covers a lot of territory. We saw an unusual Chinese instrument called an erhu. It is similar to a violin except that it only has two strings

and the bow is captive between the strings. What a lot of music came out of those two strings! It has a three octave range. Here's a photo of the musician explaining the instrument.

Tampa Triumphs!

by Terry Abrahams

Well, we finally had our performance and I finally have something to write about.  As you know, we never perform anymore, but we were offered $350 to do an hour at the Carrollwood Culture Center last Sunday, and I accepted so we could buy a laptop for the international club.  Then the panic began, as an hour is a long time to dance.  Later on I found out they insisted on a 10 minute intermission, and I knew we could do any amount of audience participation, so in the end, we actually went overtime. The crowd was tiny – the Bucs were playing – but they really enjoyed it and we enjoyed doing it.

As I mentioned last month, I went through the “ABC’s” of folk dancing – Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia (even though we really did Serbian, and Turkish and Romanian).  We did Sestorka (Serbian), Jove Male Mome (Bulgarian), Oj Devoce (Bulgarian), Schiopa (Romanian), Kabaday (European Turkish) and Rustemul  (Romanian).  Then Judith’s Scan group did a terrific Shottis Medley that Judith choreographed (D for Denmark), left out E, then France - Bouree Dolce, Germany - Kreutz Koenig, Hungary – Tuberosa, and Italian – Tarentella.  Then our Israeli group did 3 numbers -  Mochar Prachim, Shedemati, Kleyzmer and the show ended with Spanish, with Cecy, my flamenco dancer friend, doing three numbers, Pasadoble (solo - her partner was sick) using Mantones and Castanets, a Sevillanas (with Bobbie and Barbara) with castanets and ending with a Rhumba.  I MC’d with pertinent information about everything, and stepped in for three dances myself.  The other dancers were Andy Pollock, and all those pictured on this page.

We were so good we had two requests for other gigs after the show.  I doubt we’ll do them, but what fun to be asked! It would be even more fun if some of the “interested” people actually came to one of our groups!  Not holding our breath!  Some of us went out to dinner afterwards – just like the old days!  Kevin and Nil’s daughter video’d – maybe we’ll have something to show later.

My daughter Mick and I went over to the Serbian Festival in Orlando on October 27, got to see Bata’s young folk dancers perform and had a quick but wonderful conversation with him and his wife before they had to take the kids swimming (we forget how lucky we are not to live in Canada).  It’s so nice to keep in touch with him.

Andi Kapplin’s husband had back surgery to alleviate numbing but painful arm problems and at this moment is still in the hospital, but doing well.  Jennifer’s foot is hurting, but she managed to perform, Ursula also is coming along slowly and is dancing the best she can. I’m hanging in there, although tired.   We’re looking forward to the Moti Alfassy workshop coming up in Orlando.

So, this is long enough.  Hope you all had Happy Halloweens and are going to have Happy Thanksgivings!

Israeli Dancers Bill Schwarz, Jennifer Velt, Ken Kwo and Andi Kapplin and Flamenco Dancer Cecy D'Oriente

Photos by Terry Abrahams

Terry Abrahams, Ursula Tison, Wanda Turner, Bobbie Ward and Barbara Ward Donovan

Photos by Wanda Turner and Terry Abrahams

Scandinavian Dancers Nil and Kevin Wilkins, Judith and Ernesto Baizan

Photos by Terry Abrahams

Gainesville Dancers Perform for UN Day

by June Littler

The International Folk Dancers of Gainesville presented a short program at the Oct. 18 UN Day event sponsored by the United Nations Association, Gainesville Chapter. The morning panel discussion and keynote speech at lunch were on managing infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in third world countries. So much can be done with just the use of mosquito netting while sleeping!

The dancers appeared just before lunch and were rewarded by smiles and applause from the 160 people in attendance, representing 36 different community organizations. It was a welcome positive aspect of international friendship, especially after the serious earlier discussion. Someone mentioned later how nice to was to see that two generations could enjoy the same activity together.

The group presented five dances: the Slovakian Kapura, Kinneret from Israel, Keciko from Turkey, Ada’s Kujawiak  from Poland and Hora de joc de la budesti, an improvisational gypsy dance.  June Littler sat out two dances, but the others, John Ward, Margaret Tolbert and Stefan Craciun, were properly damp after dancing all five.   We also put out a flyer telling our dance group’s history, which other dancers may be interested in (see History of Gainesville International Folk Dancers).

History of Gainesville International Folk Dancers

by Joyce Dewsbury

Around 1955 or so, the folk dance group included members from the physics and math departments at the University of Florida. The original dance leaders’ names have been lost to antiquity. When John Ward came to Gainesville in 1962, already involved in dancing, he went to what was to be the last meeting of the group. The woman teacher was graduating and leaving town, so John took over the group.

The group danced in a number of locations, the longest in Norman Hall Gym.  As people became very involved in dancing they began attending folk dance workshops both in and out of state.  In Florida alone, there were sometimes three dance workshops a year. International folk dancing thrived in Gainesville and, indeed, around the country in the seventies and eighties.  It was not unusual to have 40 or more people at the Friday night dance sessions in the Norman Hall Gym.  They often included students from other countries such as Greece, Taiwan, China, Germany, Spain, France, and Turkey.  It truly was an international group.

When the Norman Hall Gym was remodeled, the group moved to the student activity center and later to the basement of Weaver Hall. The present group, now seriously depleted of students and no longer part of the UF student activities program, meets at 308 W. University Avenue, 2nd floor, on Friday nights 8-11 PM. Instruction is from 8-9:30 and requests until 11 PM.  A core group of about 12 carries on, along with a couple of snowbirds in the winter. (We will not meet the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Call Jack Seltzer, 352-333-7571, for more information.)

Margaret, John, June, and Stefan performing Kapura

Photo by Paul Doughty

The Babiak Dance Ensemble

The Babiak Dance Ensemble performed seven Oktoberfests this year.  The photo at right is from the performance at Camelot Lakes in Sarasota.  The dancers pictured are, from left to right: Demetrius and Shirley Babiak, Pat Houpert, Juan de la Sierra, Mary Finegold, Tahja and Catalin Mihai, Linda and Rich Nicoli. 

Photo by Catalin Mihai

Orlando International Folk Dance Club

by Pat Henderson

We had a busy month with people traveling, festivals, Fall Fling and Tropical Storm Noel.  The travelers this month included Joe and Lucy Birkemeier to Phoenix, Phyllis and Ed Dammer to Europe, and Bobby and I to New York and Pennsylvania.  Joe and Lucy visit friends and family often in Phoenix. 

Phyllis and Ed were gone almost five weeks, ending with a repositioning cruise out of Florence on the Emerald Princess, a new Princess cruise ship.  They spent a week touring Spain, then another week in Florence, Italy and then boarded the cruise ship in Venice.  The ship stopped in Barcelona, Rome, Lisbon, Monaco and the Azores.  The weather was good and Phyllis's favorite experience was the ride along the Amalfi Coast in Italy.  The ship brought them back to Ft. Lauderdale. 

Bobby and I had a week long trip to Binghamton, NY to visit friends and then to the Pittsburgh area for the wedding of my cousin's son (my father's side of the family).  We flew our two children up for the wedding so they could see some of my cousins whom they had not seen for 20 years.  It turned out that Bobby and I were in eight states in eight days (counting flight stops) and slept in five states in those eight days – including Florida, of course.  My sister and her son also flew up for the wedding, so it was a nice family reunion.  We saw some of the fall foliage and enjoyed the fall temperatures.  We found time to visit the international dance group in Wheeling, WV, the group where Ann Robinson and Juanita Schockey were once members.

The dancing events of the month included the Fall Fling and our group was well represented there.  It was a fun day of dancing.  Several members of our group attended the Serbian Festival in Longwood (Orlando area) on October 27 (see Bata is Back).   Kelly Fagan, along with her family, enjoyed the Greek Festival in Lecanto on October 28.  Other members of our group backed out of the Greek Festival trip after the long day at the Serbian Festival. 

Our club's October 31 Halloween Party was washed out by the weather system associated with Tropical Storm Noel - we had a lake around our house.  The property was dry by November 7 and our postponed Halloween Party was on.  Most dancers were in costume, either Halloween or international, as you can see in the photo.  If there were a prize for best costume, Emilie Brozek would have won for her medieval maiden.  Gary and Caroline Lanker from Frostproof joined us in the festivities.

Orlando Halloween Party-goers:

Phyllis Dammer, Palmira Mora-Valls, Wally Washington, Lucy Birkemeier, Joan Washington, Mary Jean Linn, Ann Robinson, Joe Birkemeier, Caroline Lanker, Pat Henderson, Bobby Quibodeaux, Emilie Brozek, Juanita Schockey, Manuel Mora-Valls

Photo by Gary Lanker

Guess Who?

Please note: The Florida Folk Dancer prints information on folk dance tours, camps and other events that may be of interest to our readers. This does not imply an endorsement or recommendation of any tour or camp (except our own FFDC events!).

March 27 - 30 The Miami Valley Folk Dancers (Dayton, Ohio) 55th Anniversary Workshop - Oldies but Goodies

Focus on old dances that have fallen out of our repertoire, "dances so old, they are new."

Teachers: Ron Houston from Austin, Texas, Founder of the Society of Folk Dance Historians, and Alix Cordray from Oslo, Norway.

Place: Michael Solomon Pavilion (Community Golf Course), 2917 Berkley St. Dayton, Ohio 45409

Schedule: Thursday evening - MVFD's regular dance, with teaching and a party; Friday evening - Sing-a-long at someone's home; Saturday and Sunday - workshop sessions at the Michael Solomon pavilion, with dinner and a Dance Party on Saturday evening. Also, culture sessions and a "Folktique Boutique."

More information: www.daytonfolkdance.com/mvfd.

Contact: Leslie Hyll, 937-252-0638, mvfd@daytonfolkdance.com

March 14 – 16 San Antonio Folk Dance Festival

Marking Nelda Drury's 50th anniversary of founding and involvement with the San Antonio College Folk Dance Festival (a separate event) and the newer San Antonio Folk Dance Festival.

Instructor: Miroslav Marcetic, Serbian.  Also a Serbian musicians ensemble.

Schedule, in addition to workshops: Friday - concert and after-party; Saturday - a gala concert of performing groups, primarily from Texas, followed by dancing and after-parties.

Wednesday March 12 - for children: art and storytelling, dance and music.

Directions and campus map at www.ollusa.edu.

Contact: Nelda Drury, 210-342-2905, nelda@sc2000.net.

February 28 - March 2 National Folk Organization Conference in Orlando

Featuring a dance workshop by Lee Otterholt

Times and places: Thursday, Feb. 28, daytime – pre-conference visit to EPCOT.

Thursday, Feb. 28, evening through Sunday, March 2, noon – conference, at the Holiday Inn Select Orlando East/UCF Area, 12125 High Tech Avenue, Orlando, FL 32817 (across the street from the University of Central Florida).

Saturday, March 1 – Lee Otterholt workshop, banquet and dance party at Whirl & Twirl Square Dance Hall, 6949 Venture Circle, Orlando, FL 32807.

You can register for the whole conference, including lunch on Friday and banquet dinner on Saturday, with a discount for NFO members. Separate admissions to the dance activities. More information and a registration form are available on the NFO website: www.nfo-usa.org.

Contact: Pat Henderson, henderp@bellsouth.net, 407-275-6247

Events and Tours

February 15-18 Florida Folk Dance Camp

Place: Kenilworth Lodge, 836 SE Lakeview Drive, Sebring, FL 33870

Teachers: Cristian Florescu & Sonia Dion (Romanian) and Susan Lind-Sinanian (Armenian)

Flyer and registration form are on the FFDC website: www.folkdance.org. Registration form is included with mailed copies of this newsletter.

Handy Web Sites

www.dunav.org.il: Sent to us by Julius Horvath, has folk dance music, videos, song lyrics, and sheet music from Balkan countries plus Hungary and Turkey.  They add a new dance every month.

http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/~jaffer/Music,

or, more specifically,

http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/~jaffer/Music/tunes.html: Sent to us by Joan Washington, has a random selection of folk dance recordings (MIDI format) and sheet music.

Return Address:

Florida Folk Dancer

38 St. Andrews Ct.

Palm Coast, FL 32137

USA

FIRST CLASS

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.

2007 FFDC OFFICERS:

President: John Daly

321-482-6818

jdaly@palmnet.net

VP: Fannie Salerno

772-664-0580

fansale@aol.com

Treasurer: Jan Lathi

386-447-8396

amarjan1@bellsouth.net

Secretary: Willa Davidsohn

321-254-7090

annona2@earthlink.net

Historian: Dan Lampert

PO Box 151719

Altamonte Springs, FL 32715

dan@dlc2.com

Newsletter Editor: Caroline Lanker

1963 S. Lake Reedy Blvd.

Frostproof, FL 33843

863-635-9366

lanker2@attglobal.net

Submissions: Send all newsletter submissions to the Editor during the last week of the month, to be published the first week of the next month. Electronic submissions are preferred.

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. The newsletter is posted on the FFDC website and members with e-mail addresses are notified of its availability. Subscribers/members can also request printed copies to be mailed to them.

FFDC Website: www.folkdance.org