Thursday Dancing

Thursday, the Lindsborg Folkdanslag got a first chance to warm up for midsommar.

As I look at last year's video of the folks from Mora, Sweden, I am gratified to know that the same place we often go wrong in this dance, they went wrong. The most difficult part of Åttamän engel is keeping your head on when you're spinning. The dancers have to chain in one direction, spin with their partner and go back the same direction they came. See if you can spot the error

Ready to Dance I

We've been busy over the weekend and I haven't posted. One of the things that occupied a fair amount of time were "warm-up" performances for Midsommar. We danced in the street on Thursday night, and in the church fellowship hall in Wichita on Saturday night.



Here's Charlotte and Sarah Anderson playing Charlotte's "Church March." The great irony is that many of the pious Swedes who came here would have frowned upon this kind of music (the fiddle was the devil's instrument) and on dancing. Gustaf Fröding's poem "When beauty came to town" details the opprobrium that would have fallen on dancers like us in the 19th century. Roger Hinchcliffe recorded it. His recordings are available online.

Midsommar Arrives

The Lindsborg Folkdanslag lowered the Majstång in Heritage park tonight, and worked on dances for this week and next. Midsommar celebrations are almost here.

There will be changes this year. "Tiny Toads," a variation on the "Små grodorna" theme, will be doing a street concert as well as playing at the festival in Swensson Park. That´s different. The same dance groups will be back, but Folkdanslag has at least one new dance to bring to the performance. I don´t know about the Swedish Folkdancers, the high school group.

We won't have a Swedish dance group this year. Here is video of the Mora Folkdanslag of Mora Sweden from the 2006 festival performing one of my favorite dances, "Schottis i tur." It's a fun dance to watch and a fun dance to perform.



There will be at least one change in the food at the festival park. The Rotary club will be offering a Swedish Meatball plate or an all American Hotdog (it'll be a Nathans).

And there will be a Swedish Vespers service, with Alf Brorson preaching. You'll remember Alf. He's a frequent visitor to Lindsborg, from Sunnemö, Värmland, Sweden. He'll preach, but I don't know who will lead the liturgy. Charlotte Anderson is going to be gone. I'm going to be gone. We're running out of Swedish Speakers willing to lead the liturgy.

Well, it will be Midsommar i alla fall.