Great Success: International Folk Dance Workshop and Party!

Many thanks to all who came! Marcie taught us some wonderful dances, which we will be reviewing in the coming weeks. Even with the dice-y weather, we had a great time.

****Saturday morning update****

So….it’s snowing outside today, as you know, heading for 2 to 4 inches, according to the forecasts.

But to judge from the temperature and the cars going past our house in Harpswell at fairly normal speeds, driving conditions don’t appear to be too hazardous. Also, dance teacher Marcie Van Cleave is already on her way from Boston.

So today’s International Folk Dance Workshop and Party are still ON, as planned. Please judge the weather conditions for yourself and, naturally, don’t come if you don’t feel safe. But other than that, we hope you’ll join us!

Folk Dance Brunswick will host a special “International Folk Dance Workshop and Party” led by noted folk dance teacher Marcie Van Cleave of Massachusetts.

The event will be held on Saturday, February 11, in two parts — a teaching session from 1 to about 5 p.m. and an evening dance party from 7 to about 10 p.m. — at the People Plus community center, 35 Union Street, one block west of Maine Street, in downtown Brunswick. All are welcome. Suggested donation $10.

“Marcie is a fantastic teacher — clear, kind, easy to understand, and very energizing,” says Solange Kellerman, chair of the Folk Dance Brunswick entertainment committee that organized the event. “She also has a great sense of humor. These are beautiful dances, with beautiful music — and people love learning them. It’s going to be a great night!”

Van Cleave is the executive director of the Folk Arts Center of New England in Stoneham, Massachusetts. She has been teaching and leading traditional dances in the Boston area and throughout New England since the mid-1980s. In recent years her reputation as a teacher and caller has spread beyond New England, and she now regularly teaches at camps, events and festivals around the U.S. and in Europe — notably in the Czech Republic, where she has an annual engagement with the traditional Czech dance group Dvorana in Prague and has co-led several cultural tours of the country.

She also has extensive expertise as a contra dance caller and English dance leader and in developing and running music and dance camps, including the Folk Arts Center’s International Weekend and Folk Days at Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, Massachusetts; its Pinewoods Cape Breton Weekend; and the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School on Thompson Island in Boston Harbor.

“Folk dancing is good exercise — and good fun for all ages,” Kellerman concludes. “No partner is needed, and it’s a nice way to help build global community through local action.”

No street shoes on the dance floor, please.

For more information, contact 207-200-7577, brennan.mk @ gmail.com, or http://www.folkdancebrunswick.com.

(Photo courtesy of Marcie Van Cleave.)