I have always loved music, and to dance and spin. I have been dancing my whole life, from ballet lessons at age 8 to square dancing on Martha’s Vineyard at the Chilmark Community Center at age 11 to folk dancing in college (at UC Berkeley and Ashkenaz) and grad school (Johns Hopkins University, including the Balkan dance performing group Narod) and now into my 60’s.

My mother hated when I was dancing and spinning and would yell and make me stop immediately. I don’t know what made her so intolerant. She said she was afraid I’d get too dizzy, but what is the harm in that? Perhaps she just didn’t want to see it, or it was too joyful when she was unhappy. So it is interesting that now I specialize in turning dances.

I had twenty non-dancing years while living in Charlottesville with a non-dancing husband (a mixed marriage!) and raising children while working full-time as a scientist and professor. During this time I tried several new groups and types of dance and realized that a big part of what I loved about dancing was the friends and relationships I had in the community, not just the dancing itself.

After years of receiving the Scandinavian Week flyer and longing to go but not attending, I signed up and was accepted in 2003. It was short drive from Charlottesville to Capon Bridge, West Virginia. My first night at camp out in West Virginia I wondered, “Whatever was I thinking!” It was a radical move to sign up for a week-long dance camp after 20 years of not dancing. But Paul Kreiss was there and remembered me from dancing in the Balkan performing group in Baltimore, and he pulled me up on the dance floor saying, “You know this one!” Sometimes I even did know that one! Other campers were friendly and patient and encouraged me. The dances that year were Southern Slängpolska from Sweden, and Springleik from Vågå from Norway. I managed to learn those, but at the end of that week I only knew those two dances out of hundreds. But more importantly, I realized that I needed that kind of fun and joy in my life. I drove away at the end of camp knowing that I had to make whatever changes would be necessary to be with these people and have dancing in my life. I have been avidly Scandinavian dancing since then.

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Scandinavian dancing is done with leather soled shoes on smooth wooden floors so that it is easy to pivot on the soles of the shoes, protecting the knees from stress. The pivoting and turning are key to the dances. The knees bend and straighten as part of the dance. The unweighting helps the pivot, and the up and down feeling is part of the joy of the dance. You need your feet grounded to propel you up, and then you come back to earth again, all at the right moment in the music for the dance. Learning how to coordinate and balance these moves for yourself and with your partner is at the heart of this dance style. Each partner is different and making the dance and partner and music work together is the challenge and the fun. And when it works, it is bliss!

Dance camps are wonderful events. At Buffalo Gap I loved being in that open-sided and breezy dance pavilion looking at the lush green trees and grass and down the hill to the pond, and realizing that all I needed to do that day was learn a dance. I shared the experience with lovely people, all enjoying the moment. We spent July 4^th at camp, and my favorite way to celebrate that holiday became going in the sauna after dancing, and then floating in the pond watching the stars and the fireflies.

Dance Camp weeks or weekends are like Brigadoon, which only exists one day out of 100 years, but in our case the magical and warm folk world exists one week each year. 80-140 people come together in the summer to enjoy the dance and music, for example in the Mendocino Woodlands on the West coast of the USA. The East coast camp used to be at Buffalo Gap in Capon Bridge, West Virginia but moved to New Hampshire 10 years ago. We bring teachers over from Sweden and Norway and spend the days in music and dance classes with them. There are performances and cultural exchange sessions, and wonderful food, and swimming, and naps, and we spend the evenings dancing together. Live music is part of each class and party.

After my first camp in 2003 I began driving up to Greenbelt, MD once a month for the Scandia DC third Saturday Scandinavian dances. I worked diligently to learn the dances. One Saturday at Greenbelt I was dancing Telespringer with Harriet Gerber. I was trying very hard to keep the challenging rhythm and follow the steps and my brow was furrowed in concentration. Harriet looked at me and said, “This is a dance. It is supposed to be fun!” We laughed and I tried to relax more and have fun while continuing to learn.

It has been the perfect hobby for me. I have a good sense of rhythm and enjoy learning the subtle and compelling different rhythms of the dances. I find the challenge to be fun. The feel of the dances is very hypnotic; some are like a heartbeat, some have a strong drive, and others have a lovely airborne, floating feel. These differences are all within a 3-beat measure, and that subtlety is perfect for my inner music nerd! I love the music, and I find that the better my musician ears get trained, the better my dancing. Being a dancer has immeasurably helped my ability to play music for dancers and help lift their feet and keep them engaged in the dance. I love the communication back and forth between musicians and dancers, whether I am playing the music or dancing to someone else’s music.

After several years of dance camps and local dancing, it has been magical to travel to Sweden to find the same dances and music there. The dances are named after the very local region where they originated, so it is a profound experience to dance Boda polska in the very small town of Boda, specifically in the Boda Gammalgård. 

Before testing at Uppdansning, we spend a week in Furudals Bruk practicing and learning from Leif and Margareta Virtanen. It is a fun week with lovely friends.

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Swedish dancers have their own version of “Brigadoon” within Sweden, with the best dancers coming together once a year the first weekend in August for polskemärkes – Uppdansning, or Swedish bygdedans medal testing. 200-400 dancers from small communities around Sweden and in the US, Italy, France, and Japan converge for this event to share their love of dancing. Old friends and acquaintances greet each other with warm hugs. The joy and warmth of the people who do this dancing is very special.

When I am enjoying a good dance to good music, I think to myself, “There is nowhere else I’d rather be and nothing else I’d rather be doing.” One of the first times I had that thought was while dancing Telespringar with Paul at Buffalo Gap. I continue to have that very satisfying feeling while dancing in the US and in Sweden, and when I am playing my nyckelharpa for dancers.

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Amy, Linda, and I traveled from the Washington, DC area to Sweden to dance at Uppdansning in the summer of 2019. Amy got her bronze medal, and Linda and I danced for DIPLOM, which comes after Big Silver.

An earlier post about Uppdansning is at http://www.soniasvikt.org/?m=201508