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.
Sunday Scandinavian Dance. Good Templar Hall (on Cedar Ave. between Lake and 29th St.), Minneapolis. Dance instruction at 5pm, social dancing from 6-9pm. Everyone welcome, no partners necessary. Join in the fun of dancing Scandinavian couples' dances to great live music featuring Art Bjorngjeld and Char Bostrom with many guest artists during the season. $7 dance only/$8 with dance instruction. FMI: http://www.nisswastamman.org/sundaydance
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.
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):
International folkdance: For information visit
http://www.jimkiehne.com/ifd
(About 2 emails per month)
Swing dance: Visit www.tcswing.com
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)
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 every Fall and a Contra/English/Scottish dance weekend every Spring.
(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)
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.
Swing Dance Information - for up to date information about Swing Dancing, check out the TC Swing home page maintained by Terry Gardner. If you can't find what you are looking for, ask them and they'll get it for you.
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
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
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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