Information about other dance and folk events in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area and beyond.
Minneapolis and St.
Paul Events
Sunday Night Cajun
and Zydeco Dances at the Half Time Rec.
Dances start at 8 p.m., and run until 11. Cost is $5. Lots of great
bands. Check out their web
site or call (612) 724-4687. The Half Time Rec is located at 13 Front
St., in St. Paul; telephone is (651) 488-8245.
Monday Night Square
Dance is on
the first Monday of each month at the Eagles Club. The music is provided
by live old-time string bands and the callers instruct everyone thru each
dance. The dance starts at 7:30 and goes till 10:30 with a $5
cover. No partner or experience needed. Questions? Call Lee
at 715-386-7790, send email to guthriel {at} spacestar.com or just show up. The
Eagles club is located at 25th and 25th in Minneapolis in back of the old
Stardust lanes-now Memory Lanes.
First Saturday
Contra Dances
are organized monthly by Jim Brooks. Dances are held at the Odd Fellows
Hall on the corner of Raymond and Hampden Avenues in St. Anthony Park,
St. Paul near Highway 280 and I.94. Dances start at 8 pm (7:30 for
beginning teaching) and cost $7. Jim calls to live music by various
bands.
SNOPA
is an international folk dance festival held in the Twin Cities area every
February.
International Folk
Dancing is
held every Tuesday night from 7:30 to 10:30PM at the Audubon Neighborhood
Center, Buchanan St. & 29th Avenue, NE (2 blocks west of
Johnson, north of downtown Minneapolis, East of Central Avenue, south of 694).
Formal teaching is from 8:00 to 9:00PM and request dancing is in the remaining
time. Beginners are welcome and no partners are needed. Suggested
donation: $2.00. The dances are led by Myrtle Hoppe, who has taught
international folk dancing for many years. She brings dances from workshops in
California and elsewhere. For further info, call (612)789-2659
The Minnesota dance
Co-op puts on a Country dance weekend every
October for ECD and Contra and the annual Playford Ball in March. Preparation
for the Playford Ball is held at Tapestry English country dances
throughout February.
Electronic dance
communities
To keep in touch with
the dance events going on in the Twin Cities you can subscribe to the following
email lists: For thel email contacts here substitute @ for (at):
USA Dance - Minnesota Chapter USA Dance
Minnesota is a local chapter of a national non-profit organization formed to
promote the enjoyment of social and competitive ballroom dance.
International
folkdance: For information visit http://www.jimkiehne.com/ifd (About 2 emails per month)
1st Monday Square dances: Send a message to Shawn Glidden [acmeknits (at)
earthlink.net] (About 1 email per month)
General live music and dance opportunities all over: go4 dancer [go4dancer (at)
hotmail.com] (About 2 long emails per month)
Dan Newton: Cafe Accordion, etc gigs: Visit http://daddysqueeze.com/
(About 1 email per week)
Salsa dance in Minnesota: At www.yahoogroups.com, join salsaminnesota (About 2
emails per week)
Irish dance Paul McCluskey [paulmcc (at) scc.net] (2 emails per month)
English country dance: At yahoogroups.com join TC_EnglishCountryDance (rare)
Scandinavian dance: Visit www.catpin.com/mary
(About 1 per month)
And don't forget,
tapestryupdate, Click
here to join Tapestry update! (about 1 per month)
Out of Town events
Folk Ball is held in Madison in January
and features international folk dancing and Contra http://plantpath.wisc.edu/~tdd/folkball.htm.
Madison's regular Contra schedule is available here.
The Door
County Folk Festival
is held the weekend after July 4th and is one of the most fun-filled,
enjoyable and educational dance weekends held in the Midwest. Each
year, the DCFF attracts between 250 and 300 participants to Door County,
Wisconsin, from all around the U.S., Canada and other countries. The 23rd
Annual Door County Folk Festival continues a tradition of enjoyable, extended
July weekends where you will dance (late into the night), sing, play, learn,
share experiences, eat, party and make new friends in a congenial, relaxed,
community atmosphere. For information, about and registration forms for
the Door County Folk Festival, check out another web site: http://www.dcff.net. This website has links to
many midwest Folk dance and Contra events.
The Central Iowa
Traditional Dance and Music Festival in Ames, Iowa (Iowa State
University Memorial Union.) is held every September and features Contra dancing
with some English Country dancing. More information can be found at our
website www.danceames.org. Reservations
are suggested early (they “sell out” when Wild Asparagus is in town).
Folklore village in
Dodgeville, Wisconsin (near Madison) has frequent barn dances and runs a
Christmas dance camp.
Summer Camps sponsored by the Country Dance
& Song Society (CDSS). Many camps in June, July and August and
over the Christmas break offer options for a variety of dancers,
musicians and combinations. Get a free catalog by sending an email
request to camp@cdss.org , calling
(413)268-7426 ext. 3, or check out the CDSS Web
site for more information. They also have calendars of more Contra/ECD
events than you can shake a stick at.
Lark Camp in
Mendocino, Calif.- Celebration Of World Music, Song & Dance 2006 July 28 -
August 5, 2006 features just about every dance form done at Tapestry in a 1
week groove-a-thon plus numerous musical opportunities. Check out the
Lark Camp Website: http://www.larkcamp.com
Online
The folks in Fairfield Iowa have with Bare
Necessities an English Country dance weekend the 1st weekend in November and an
advanced Contra dance weekend the last weekend in May.
(NOTE: these are not
intended to be exhaustive lists, just a few sites from which you can find out
just about anything about folk dancing in the mid-west and beyond)
Local Links
For the Twin Cities Scandinavian
music and dance scene see www.tcscandinavian.org.
Committed to Dancesport, Inc.
is a ballroom dance agency whose goal is to mak the Twin Cities area a better
known place for highly talented International DanceSport competitors, both
children and adults. To acheive this goal the agency only represents extremely
talented, passionate instructors, with years of formal training in the sport.
Twin Cities Folk Information is
a good link for lots of dance and folk music events in and around the
Twin Cities. This site is updated irregularly, and can help you keep your
dancing habit fed.
Royal Scottish Country Dance Society
- Twin Cities Branch - Hold classes at 7:30 pm on Monday nights at Tapestry
from September through May; newcomers are always welcome. They also have a new
Friday night series at Tapestry.
Ethnic Dance
Theater
performs ethnic dance and music from around the world. Their
2000-2001 Season includes performances in September, October, January, February
and April. Their web site http://www.ethnicdancetheatre.com
gives you a taste of what they do so well. You can contact them at info@ethnicdancetheatre.com
www.tancuj.org is the site for The St. Paul Czech
and Slovak Folk dancers featuring Folk Dances from Bohemia, Moravia, and
Slovakia. The group was formed in 1961 to display Czech and Slovak culture through
dances from a number of different villages throughout both the Czech (Bohemia,
and Moravia) and the Slovak Republics. Dances include the polka, czardas, and
waltz.
For Twin Cities Irish
Dance, check out this web page
or this one.
For Western Square
Dance information in Minnesota, try this web site http://www.DanSahlstrom.com.
For Contra Dance
information on northern Minnesota's Iron Range go to www.danceontherange.org for a full
schedule of dances and special events sponsored by the Home On The Range
Community Dance Association. This site also provides booking information for
the house band, Circle of Friends.
For the Twin Cities tango
dance scene see the Tango society or Lois Donnay's site.
Rendezvous Dance
Studio - Group
and private lessons in Ballroom, Salsa, Cumbia, Tango, Swing, Belly Dance,
Flamenco, Haitian Dance and more!
http//:www.theplacetodance.com
General Dance Links
The National Dance Grid
- for schedules of contra dances and English country dances across the country.
Sapphire Swan Dance Directory for
all kinds of dance information from ballet to Morris to folk.
A collection of Contra Dance Stuff: Kiran
Wagel's homepage filled with good information about Contra Dancing
Another collection of
Contra Dance links maintained by Dwayne Johnson http://www.contracorners.net.
American & English
country dance in Europe and a place to purchase folkdance material: send them email or check out their web site at http://users.pandora.be/aads.vzw1/.
In the US, go to CDSS.org.
www.folkdancing.org is devoted to all
types of folk dance including Balkan, clog, contra, English country,
international, Israeli, Morris, Scottish country, Scandinavian, square, vintage
and western square dance.
Dance gypsy announces dance festivals
and dance weeks throughout the US for International, Contra, Cajun, Scandi,
Scottish, English, Ballroom, Swing, etc.
For geeky folkdance
discussions and miscellaneous announcements check out rec.folk-dancing
Paul Collins has
a nice site with lots of info about International dancing and music: www.ethnicdance.net.
The words and
translations to many of the International dance songs are available in the MIT
Folk dance Songbook available in Adobe pdf form at: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~ira/sb/mitfdcsb.html
The Lloyd Shaw foundation is dedicated to
preserving America's dance heritage. It runs dance camps in Colorado and W.
Virginia in July and in W. Virginia in December every year, most of which
feature a mix of Contra, squares, ECD, and Round dances.
The East European Folk life Center
sponsors annual Balkan Camps on both coasts.
The Library of Congress
has a nice collection of American ballroom dance manuals on line including
videos of round dance and quadrille figures and old-time folk
music.
Dancilla has an extensive database of
folkdances with downloadable videos of some dances. More videos can be found of
mid-European and English dancing than Balkan.
Dunav is a non profit organization based in
Jerusalem for the promotion of Balkan folklore. They share music, dance videos,
song lyrics, folk costumes and other folk dance resources with people from all
over the world (88 countries at last count!)
Ethnic dance is good
for you. Even WEBMD
says so. But ARE YOU A DANCE-AHOLIC? Take this test....
Bands
Finn Hall is a group of musicians dedicated to
preserving the feel and sounds of historic Finnish-American dance halls of the
last century.
For a directory of
Minnesota folk bands and folk dance groups click here. For McKnight Foundation's
and Walker's list of Minnesota artists (including bands and other media) click here.
Pig's Eye Landing and
Contratopia are popular Contra Dance bands that play at Tapestry and all over
the country. Check out their schedule, available CD's and more at http://www.pigseyelanding.com and http://www.contratopia.com
Wild Asparagus has a website listing
their activities and diskography. You can join them on some fabulous
trips so check out where they are playing this month!
Bare necessities is
our favorite English country band http://www.sover.net/~marylea/bnhome.htm
Bez Ime is our favorite, local band for
International folkdance.
NOTE: If you can
suggest useful links to place here, please send the relevant information to: webmaster
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