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We had lots of fun at Spelmansstamman last weekend! Friday and Saturday nights they had dancing. The habit I learned at contra dances, to never, ever sit out a dance, is, perhaps, not nearly as appropriate at a Swedish Folk Dance.
Why? Because at a contra dance the individual dances are rather long (10 to 15 min?), but there is a short break between every dance--enough time to drink water, find a new partner, and form up new lines, and then they teach the dance (the teaching often also counts as a break). There is also an actual break at the mid point of the evening. Here, on the other hand, the dances are faster (1 to 5 min?), but they come one right after the other in quick succession. Since the dances are couples dances without chirography or anything to teach it is just dancing, all of the time. At an event like this one there are a bunch of bands, each of whom follows the other promptly, with no real break at all. As a result the three hours straight I danced both nights all went onto the exercise as dancing. By the end of the evening my feet and legs were a bit sore from all of the dancing, and even my neck was a bit tight, from looking up at my partner all evening. He would have been content to sit out some of the dances and talk to people, but it has always been against my religion to sit out a dance...
Saturday during the day we had the performance of our folk dance group, which was much fun, and we worked one shift each day to help out with the event, setting things up, selling hamburgers, and sitting gate. The weather for the event was perfect--reasonably cool, yet warm enough, mostly sunny, and no rain (unless you count a very light sprinkle of a shower one afternoon for a couple of minutes). The following two days were constant rain (the first I have really seen since moving here, since it doesn't rain in the winter). I enjoyed the rain (and the fact that it washed away all that pollen--our blue car had turned yellow with pollen!), but am glad that we didn't have it for the music event.
Monday and Tuesday we had practice for this coming weekend's folk dance performance in conjunction with the local MidSummer celebrations. The last couple of performances was just our folk dance group doing choreographed dances, the one this coming weekend is a combination of our group and another, doing a different set of dances, so I was glad to have a couple of days to learn the new dances. We have one more practice tonight, after the work session where, if I understand it correctly, we will be attaching leaves to something for the midsummer celebration.
I got a very good demonstration at Tuesday's rehearsal showing how much better my reading comprehension is as compared to understanding spoken Swedish. In between each dance set the guy in charge read aloud the text he will share with the audience this weekend, and I understood none of it. After we did the dances I picked up the paper and read it. Yup, I was able to understand about 90% of it in the written form, even though none of it made sense in the spoken form. I will be so glad when my ability to understand the spoken language catches up with my reading!
I have one week left before I fly to Australia. I hope that the ash clouds that have been disrupting air travel don't interfere with the trip. It would be sad to be stuck in Hong Kong unable to complete the journey!
I took apart my winter coat last week, got rid of the old, shredded lining (don't re-use raw silk from an old dress that had been often washed in detergent--it isn't worth the effort and will need replacing far too soon), modified the fit so that it is more comfortable and more flattering, cut new lining in wool, and now it is ready for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
archinonlive to sew back together as soon as he finishes the Swedish Folk music/dance shirt that he needs this weekend. I hope we get it reassembled before I head to winter...
Time to head out for the evening, I hope that all is well with all of you!
Why? Because at a contra dance the individual dances are rather long (10 to 15 min?), but there is a short break between every dance--enough time to drink water, find a new partner, and form up new lines, and then they teach the dance (the teaching often also counts as a break). There is also an actual break at the mid point of the evening. Here, on the other hand, the dances are faster (1 to 5 min?), but they come one right after the other in quick succession. Since the dances are couples dances without chirography or anything to teach it is just dancing, all of the time. At an event like this one there are a bunch of bands, each of whom follows the other promptly, with no real break at all. As a result the three hours straight I danced both nights all went onto the exercise as dancing. By the end of the evening my feet and legs were a bit sore from all of the dancing, and even my neck was a bit tight, from looking up at my partner all evening. He would have been content to sit out some of the dances and talk to people, but it has always been against my religion to sit out a dance...
Saturday during the day we had the performance of our folk dance group, which was much fun, and we worked one shift each day to help out with the event, setting things up, selling hamburgers, and sitting gate. The weather for the event was perfect--reasonably cool, yet warm enough, mostly sunny, and no rain (unless you count a very light sprinkle of a shower one afternoon for a couple of minutes). The following two days were constant rain (the first I have really seen since moving here, since it doesn't rain in the winter). I enjoyed the rain (and the fact that it washed away all that pollen--our blue car had turned yellow with pollen!), but am glad that we didn't have it for the music event.
Monday and Tuesday we had practice for this coming weekend's folk dance performance in conjunction with the local MidSummer celebrations. The last couple of performances was just our folk dance group doing choreographed dances, the one this coming weekend is a combination of our group and another, doing a different set of dances, so I was glad to have a couple of days to learn the new dances. We have one more practice tonight, after the work session where, if I understand it correctly, we will be attaching leaves to something for the midsummer celebration.
I got a very good demonstration at Tuesday's rehearsal showing how much better my reading comprehension is as compared to understanding spoken Swedish. In between each dance set the guy in charge read aloud the text he will share with the audience this weekend, and I understood none of it. After we did the dances I picked up the paper and read it. Yup, I was able to understand about 90% of it in the written form, even though none of it made sense in the spoken form. I will be so glad when my ability to understand the spoken language catches up with my reading!
I have one week left before I fly to Australia. I hope that the ash clouds that have been disrupting air travel don't interfere with the trip. It would be sad to be stuck in Hong Kong unable to complete the journey!
I took apart my winter coat last week, got rid of the old, shredded lining (don't re-use raw silk from an old dress that had been often washed in detergent--it isn't worth the effort and will need replacing far too soon), modified the fit so that it is more comfortable and more flattering, cut new lining in wool, and now it is ready for
archinonlive to sew back together as soon as he finishes the Swedish Folk music/dance shirt that he needs this weekend. I hope we get it reassembled before I head to winter...Time to head out for the evening, I hope that all is well with all of you!
