{"id":4468,"date":"2016-05-08T21:02:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T03:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4468"},"modified":"2016-05-09T09:26:58","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T15:26:58","slug":"would-you-folk-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/05\/would-you-folk-dance.html","title":{"rendered":"Would you folk-dance?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Remember this scene from The Sound of Music?<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>During a ball to welcome the Baroness, Maria teaches one of the von Trapp boys to dance the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/L%C3%A4ndler\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">L\u00e4ndler<\/a>,\u201d a folk dance, on the terrace; then the Captain comes and dances with Maria to show how it\u2019s done. \u00a0They lock eyes, realize they\u2019re falling in love, and the Baroness, seeing the scene and mindful of her plans to marry the Captain, talks to Maria, who flees to the convent.<\/p>\n<p>Now, here\u2019s the scene at the Donauschwaben Mother\u2019s Day program:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/05\/dancing-pic.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4472\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4472\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/05\/dancing-pic-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"dancing pic\" width=\"541\" height=\"406\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Donau Schwaben dance #1\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6AUnx4M6VZE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Donau Schwaben dance #2\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cD18jsmm6SY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Donau Schwaben dance #3\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G1X8Tb7KVhE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>These videos are all short clips of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donauchicago.com\/jugendgruppe\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jugendgruppe<\/a> and the Kindergruppe at the Donauschwaben club, performing at the Mother\u2019s Day program which we attended as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donauchicago.com\/school\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">German Saturday school<\/a> families. \u00a0(If you\u2019re in the near northwest suburbs of Chicago, they have an open house next Saturday for prospective students\/families.) \u00a0These two groups, for teens\/young adults and children, respectively, aim to pass on Donauschwaben traditions, and specifically the traditional folk dances. \u00a0 The Jugendgruppe performs at various venues during the year, and there are a number of youtube videos of their performances, if you google \u201cdonauschwaben chicago\u201d \u2014 when they perform more formally, they have matching traditional outfits.<\/p>\n<p>And, look, I don\u2019t know about you, but when I\u00a0watch these dances, it looks like fun. \u00a0You can almost picture a village celebration in the Old Country, in which children and adults alike dance out of enjoyment, not just as a carefully-choreographed performance for others.<\/p>\n<p>But in the meantime, well, the only families I know involved in dance around here are those whose kids take Irish dance lessons, and for whom March is a whirlwind of performances. \u00a0I suppose the majority of kids who dance are girls who start with preschool ballet lessons and, if they continue, take a progression of dance classes until they reach the orchesis program at high school, all aimed, again, at performing for audiences. \u00a0Perhaps there are other kids who just \u201cgo dancing\u201d for fun but I suspect that\u2019s rare, except for the various middle school or high school dances, at which the kids may or may not even dance.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve periodically thought it would be interesting, as a social event at church, to have a folk-dance group come in and lead us in these sorts of traditional folk dances. \u00a0It <em>seems<\/em> like it would be fun, at least, though perhaps we would all then turn back into awkward middle-schoolers.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps this is all just gone, just as much as square dancing is \u2014 and I\u2019m told that folk dancing is just as much relegated to tradition-preserving community groups in Germany as it is here.<\/p>\n<p>But wouldn\u2019t it be nice if it wasn\u2019t?<\/p>\n<p>(Further Monday Morning comments: \u00a0I suppose it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that \u201cfolk dancing\u201d has disappeared in the U.S., and is probably non-revivable. \u00a0After all, German traditions couldn\u2019t make it past the World Wars except hidden away. \u00a0And everything else is too wrapped up in the question of what culture any given individual \u201cbelongs\u201d too. \u00a0Pick the folk dance traditions of a minority culture? \u00a0That\u2019s cultural appropriation. \u00a0Pick the fok dance traditions of a majority culture? \u00a0That\u2019s wrongful imposition by the majority upon the minority. \u00a0And while Irish dancing seems to be safe, that\u2019s more of a spectator activity.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember this scene from The Sound of Music? During a ball to welcome the Baroness, Maria teaches one of the von Trapp boys to dance the \u201cL\u00e4ndler,\u201d a folk dance, on the terrace; then the Captain comes and dances with Maria to show how it\u2019s done. \u00a0They lock eyes, realize they\u2019re falling in love, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,380],"class_list":["post-4468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-germany","tag-traditions"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Would you folk-dance?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember this scene from The Sound of Music? 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