Wayback Dancer Pictures are trickling in....

The word seems to be slowly getting out. Dancers from wayback are starting to send in some of their pictures. Officially "wayback" starts in 2004 and goes back from there. Below are a couple of dancer alumni-submitted pictures showing the 1990 group.

The Stoughton Victorian Holiday happened this past weekend. One piece of that puzzle is the Stoughton Norwegian Dancers. As a new parent to the group this year, this was my first full indoor performance. Fun is the first word. Unexpected is the second word. Acrobatic is the third word. Gymnastics is the fourth word. The hat dance, which is part of the Halling dance, given as the finale of the performance was enjoyable to watch. The whole Halling dance which portrays a multi-day family reunion back in old Norway overall was all fun to watch.

It is impressive to see the athleticism required to do the lifts and the backflips and the myriad other movements that are part of this dance. Equally impressive is recognizing the amount of work that goes into mastering the many pieces of this dance. It is really neat to see a 20+ group of teenagers all in this together doing such a good job at something so intricate.

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!

Destination Stoughton Performance

October 27-28 was the weekend for Destination Stoughton.  All sorts of things happened in our fair town and some of them were Norwegian in nature.  Surprise surprise.  One of those happenings was the Stoughton High School Norwegian Dancers first public performance this year.  It took place outdoors in the form of a street dance under blue sky and a bright fall sun.  Fun to watch.  Who knew Norwegian dancing was so athletic?