Sunday, December 10, 3:00–5:30: For our end-of-year Scandi get-together we’ll be reviewing some of the Scandinavian dances we learned during the year, including the schottis and its mellparing variant from Sweden; Knut Arne’s Rheinlander and the springleik from Norway; and other Scandinavian dances like the hambo and other polskas, finnsgog and rorospols, telespringar, waltz, polka, svav, snoa, zwiefachers, and others.
Sunday, January 14, 2:30–5:00: Our first dance of the new year will feature the Finnskog polska, a dance popular on the Norwegian-Swedish border that was settled by Finnish farmers. It’s a three-part dance: a walking step, a slow turn, then a fast turn, and it’s danced to music with a lively rhythm and a short third beat. See it danced here. Of course we’ll also be dancing other Scandi dances.
♦ February 11, 2:30–5:00: Come dance the Swedish rattvikpolska.
♦ April 14, 2:30–5:00: The national dance of Sweden, the hambo, will be featured.
♦ June 9, 2:30–5:00: We’ll be learning the rorospols, from eastern Norway.
WHAT IS IT?
Scandi is short for Scandinavian, as in Scandinavian Dance, and features dances popular in the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Alpine regions of Europe—and now, thanks to HCD, right here in Connecticut. You’ve maybe heard of schottis, hambo, polska, springar, springleik, pols, snoa, mazurka? How about Alpine zwiefacher? Well, now you can learn them and dance them compliments of HCD’s newest dance series. These are couple turning dances, some of which even resemble swing dances. For a typical example, see the hambo here.
THE PARTICULARS
HCD Scandi dances are held at Temple Beth Torah in Wethersfield on Saturday or Sunday afternoons, with exact times announced here when the dance is posted. Music for these events is in the form of recordings, with occasional live music scheduled. Dances are taught by Charlie, who’s been teaching these dances since 1977 and has been teaching at and running Scandinavian dances in this area since 2007. These are not monthly dances like other HCD events; rather, they are held intermittently, with upcoming dances posted on this page when scheduled. See a video of one of our dances here.
ADMISSION
Although there is no charge to attend HCD Scandi events, donations are gratefully accepted and are applied toward rental of the hall and other related expenses.
The HCD Scandi Committee is a committee of one—Charlie— who will be happy to answer any questions you might have. Get in touch with him concerning HCD Scandi by completing the form below. Also, if you’d like to be notified of upcoming HCD Scandi events, be sure to indicate that in your message.