If you have been to the Festival of Nations in St.Paul, Minnesota or have
seen performances of Ethnic Dance Theatre or have seen Zorba the Greek you know
International Folk Dancing. We dance to recorded music from a wide variety of
countries, especially Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Israel, and Brittany. The
folkdances are most often done in lines or circles and sometimes couple dances.
You do not need to bring a partner to international folk dancing.
Each Friday evening we do about 45 dances during the all-request program from 8:30 to 11:30PM. Not everyone
does every dance; only the dances they know and like. We try to play easier
dances early in the evening and more difficult ones later on.
You do not need prior experience to join in International Folk dancing at
Tapestry. Starting at 7:30PM each Friday night, we have 1 or 1.5 hours of
teaching by leading dancers. We encourage beginning dancers to arrive at 7:30 sharp
for this teaching. Subsequently we try to play newly taught dances at least once
during the evening's request programming.
Many dances we do are done in lines or open circles and there are some
conventions regarding joining lines that you should know. These will help you to
join in more comfortably and not be intimidated.
- Generally the leader is the person who requests a dance, the person who
has just recently taught the dance, or someone who knows it well, therefore
never join a line on the lead end unless you fit into one of these categories.
- Most dances lead to the right. (Dances from Brittany, often having "dro" in the
name, are the major exception to this-they lead from the left.) Join at
the end!
- If you don't know the dance, or are not sure, then follow at the back.
It's easier to follow from behind rather than from beside. The leader is the
best person to follow, but over time you will come to recognize who are the
most knowledgeable dancers at Tapestry, so any one of them can be followed.
Everyone is encouraged to make requests. This provides an interesting and
balanced program that appeals to everyone. Please limit your requests to a few
each evening. The programmer will try to accommodate everyone. During the
teaching, it is important to try to learn the names of the dances, particularly
those that you would like to request. The names are usually listed on the
programmer's board as they are taught. It helps to write them down.
To make a request go to the table near the programmer and look up the tape
number in our notebooks and write it down on the blue sheets of paper found on
the table.
During the request program, the dance names are listed on the white board
near the programmer.
