Folk Dance Fridays: Contra Dancing

Contra Dancing at the Harrisburg Area Contra Dance

After teaching for about five years, I had an epiphany:  why am I teaching folk dancing if I don't participate in the local dance community?

A discussion with a friend at a Bulgarian folk dancing class let me to my local contra dance. My eyes were suddenly opened to a whole new world: dancing with people who are not music teachers!  They were dancing because they enjoyed it, and not to look for new materials for their classroom.  It was joyful and vibrant and wonderful!


Contra dance is an American form of folk dance where partners perform a dance with a neighbor couple and then progress to dance with a different neighbor couple.  While most dances are still called using the gendered terms "ladies & gents," the roles themselves can be danced by whomever is willing.

If you would like to try contra dance, check out this website:  Contra Dance Links.  Here you can find links to dances in every state, except for South Dakota.

Happy dancing!

Folk Dance Friday: New England Dance Masters & "Sasha."

Sometimes with folk dance, it can be difficult to think through how to teach this to your students.  Luckily, there are the New England Dancing Masters.   Andy Davis, Mary Cay Brass, and Peter and Mary Alice Amidon are all expert callers and dance teachers and have created a repertoire of dances for use in the school and community.

The books and recordings they publish are all fantastic resources for finding dances for your students.  Recently, they have also started a YouTube channel where you can see how to teach some of their more popular dances.  The dance below, "Sasha," is one of my students' favorites!

Skills you can teach/reinforce with "Sasha":

• AB Form
• Duple meter
• Moving safely in the classroom
• Finding a partner without teacher assistance
• Eighth note - eighth note - quarter note (Ti - ti Ta, Du - de Du)
• Major/Minor
• Russian music & culture

Happy dancing!

Folk Dance Friday: Folk Dance Musings

Many times, I see teachers asking on Facebook groups where to find dances from a particular culture.  Well, I have the website for you!  Folk Dance Musings is a website run by Andrew Carnie, a folk dance instructor from Tucson, Arizona.  Here you can find dances from all around the world.

Each dance comes with a source for the music, meter, formation, directions, history, and videos and links to other sources on the internet.  

Happy dancing!

Folk Dance Friday: Rob Amchin & Zemer Atik

Happy Friday!

I'm here to share one of the best resources out there:  Rob Amchin's YouTube channel!

Rob Amchin is one of the best Orff process teachers around, and this channel shows him teaching his college students.  (There are so many great ideas in his channel!) In this video, he teaches one of my students' favorite dances, an Israeli dance called Zemer Atik:

Here's a short list of some concepts you can teach with this dance:

• Expanding & contracting a circle safely
• Duple Meter
• AB Form
• Whole notes & Half notes
• A Section foot rhythm - Q - Q - Q - Q / W
• B Section foot rhythm - H - H / Q - Q - Q - Q

Happy Dancing!

Folk Dance Fridays!

For me, one of the biggest obstacles to teaching a folk dance I've never danced before is visualizing the movements.  In this world of YouTube it's easier than ever to see a dance in action, but sometimes that isn't enough.

Dance Animations!

Luckily, this website exists: http://www.dancekaleidoscope.org.au/dance.html 

This website offers visualizations of many different dances.  You can search their dance database by genre, number of couples, or dance author.  The dances come with notes, call, source, and where available, the history of the dance.

Happy dancing!