the Dancers go to Monona Grove

The dancers made one of their first appearance of the new year at an elementary school in Monona Grove. Lots of smiling kid faces. Even the mascot got in on the act! With several new dancers in this year's group, the emphasis of the early part of the year is the training and rehearsals that the group needs to get their timing. Gymnastics needs to be learned and practiced and of course the hat kick does not come naturally, it too needs some practice time. With dances throughout the year, we hope you will follow along with the dancers. There is a performance schedule on the dancer website. The dances come from all over the Scandinavian part of the world - Norway, Finland, Sweden, even Denmark has a dance or two in the group's list of dances.
The dancers are self-contained. The group has three keyboards, speakers and speaker stands that come along for every performance. Each performance features gymnastics from the boys. They train hard during the summer to perfect their moves. Many of the boys have never done gymnastics prior to joining the dancers and working on these dances. Most of the kids have never danced as a couple before or even performed in public, so their learning curve is steep and nerves always have to be dealt with.
Pictures in thi blog entry are from Stu Joannes.

Dancers in Action

Most people when picturing a folk dance think of something calm, or at least a dance where everyone's feet stay on the ground.  The SHS Norwegian Dancers like to occasionally dispel that myth.  The picture below is taken from an elementary school performance where the boys are performing a dance based on the dances found in xx.  Hundreds of years ago, dancing was one of the ways that young men in the Scandinavian countries could "show off" and hopefully impress the eligible young women in their village.  That is the basis for this aerial maneuver that the three dancers are doing. The move itself is hard enough to do alone, doing it in time with two other dancers is even more impressive.  Lots of early morning hours spent practicing this!