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.

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.

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.

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

I have had the great good fortune to be able to play for dancers in my community in the Washington, DC area every month. My friends have encouraged me since my early days of playing nyckelharpa, and this has helped my playing grow and improve. Each month I add new tunes and practice with this gig in mind.

The Mid-Atlantic Norwegian Dancers (MAND)  has monthly house parties with potluck and dancing at houses around the Maryland and DC area. We are fortunate to have multiple members with dance floors in their homes, including my home. Our local Hardanger fiddler, Loretta Kelley, is an amazing resource and initiated this series together with Jenny Foster. Loretta’s first set is usually Telespringar and Telegangar from Telemark. When Loretta takes her first break I play a set of Swedish dances and Norwegian Rørospols. Loretta returns with Valdres springar, Hallingspringar, Setesdal gangar, Vossarull, and other Norwegian dances. When Loretta cannot be there, we call on other Hardanger fiddlers from New York and New Jersey to come and play for our party.

I was nervous when I started to play alone for dancers, and lucky in the early days to have Melissa Running, a nyckelharpa-playing friend, to play with at the monthly dances. By the time she met her husband and stopped coming, I had been to the Eric Sahlström Institute and was more comfortable playing alone. I used to welcome anybody to join and play with me, preferring the coverage of another musician. But now I enjoy playing solo as much as I enjoy playing with other musicians.

Once a year we sponsor our Spring Springar Spree, inviting a Norwegian couple or single to teach dancing. Friends come from out of town to play Hardanger fiddle and join us for dancing. The Spree is usually around early May and has been going for over 13 years.

Furudals Bruk is a lovely and magical spot where I have been multiple times for the late July week of dance training just prior to Uppdansning medal testing. I had seen an intriguing poster describing a musicians’ gathering in mid-August during those visits. A flier for the 2018 event featured musicians Ale Möller, Per Gudmundson, and Ola Bäckström, and I was highly interested in seeing them. The event is hosted by my friend Chris Gruber, so I expected I would know some of the people there.

Flyer for the stämma

Kättingsmedjan at Furudals Bruk. This photo was taken another year, during antique car week.

I completed my Big Silver medal in 2015, so I wasn’t going to Sweden for summer dance testing. We needed an event to bring us over to Sweden that summer, so my boyfriend Ted and I decided to participate in the spelmansstämma in Furudals Bruk. Once we began making inquiries, everything fell beautifully into place. Chris welcomed and invited us to join an “American Spelmanslag” including him and Carol Olson, Peter Michaelsen. Paul Johnson, Barbara Cameron, Mark Williamson (bass), Mike Palmer, Erica Ross, Marilee Mansfield (nyckelharpa), Janet Gabites. Chris sent a Dropbox link with notated tunes and mp3 files for a set of 13 tunes so we could practice. They were wonderful tunes and I enjoyed adding them to my repertoire, and the fact that I already knew several. It was interesting that although we did not know each other, we each knew Peter Michaelson, and we came together to form a wonderful group to play for a dance.

With Ted Porter in front of the Stallet lodging in Furudals Bruk

Mats Oberg, Ale Möller, and Olle Linder during the concert

Ore Kyrka, the evening of the concert

The concert by Ale Möller, Olle Linder and Mats Oberg was in the beautiful Ore Kyrka.

The list of spelmanslags playing for the Saturday evening dance.

The USA Spelmanslag on stage at the stämma

Dala hästerna

Tunes with Helen

Making new Swedish friends at a small stämma near Norrköping.

After the stämma we traveled around Sweden. including a trip to the Dala häst factories near Rättvik.

We had a wonderful visit with friends Stig and Helen in Norrköping. We got to meet their adorable baby grandson, Holger!

I can’t believe a year has passed since I completed my year at the Eric Sahlström Institute. The time has flown by. I’m continuing to improve on nyckelharpa and as a musician.  i’m still processing what I learned. As Ditte said, they stuffed us full of tunes and technique and information to last for many years.

Here’s a photo from our final concert last year.

I love this picture of my daughters coming off the Upptåget to attend our final concert. May 22, 2015. They are smiling and so am I!

I loved and missed the wonderful filmjölk in Sweden. There is a product available here from Siggi’s and available at Whole Foods, but it is non-fat and heavily sugared and flavored and I just didn’t like it.

Then Andrea Larson told me Bob Mills was making it with whole milk. So I used a recipe from when I made yogurt and it worked beautifully.

Filmjölk with some oats and a raspberry on top

Here’s my complete breakfast on the deck. I’m also making kanelbullar.

Here’s how I am doing it:

Heat 2.5 Cups milk to 180 deg F (use temperature probe with alarm)
Let cool to 110 to 115 deg F. Can accelerate in an ice bath, stirring and measuring temperature.
Stir in filmjölk starter (3 Tbsp commercial filmjölk (Siggi’s) or prior filmjölk I made)
Put into jars.
Incubate in cooler 8 hours to overnight together with a jar of hot/warm water.
Refrigerate.

Note the dog nose and pink tongue. He wants some.

I recently tried another dance modality, West Coast Swing (WCS). I found it to be a lot of fun, with a very nice community of  people. 

I went to MADJam (mid-atlantic dance jam), a regional WCS 4-day weekend with about 1500 participants, this time in Baltimore (see atlanticdancejam.com or the Facebook event page). They had an extensive lineup of workshops with three simultaneous tracks for levels 1, 2, and 3. I participated in a Newcomer’s program that was new this year and made it very welcoming to join in and begin. The friday workshops included  First Timer’s Orientation, Social Dance Survival, Fun, Easy Moves, and Pass Fundamentals. They introduced people to the cultural norms of the community, including asking people to dance, and we practiced asking as well as saying “Yes” and saying “No” when asked. They assumed that we already knew the basics of WCS, so I had to fake it when we did exercises that included dancing. I just followed the leaders and it all worked out. In addition to classes, there were competitions of various kinds with lots of encouragement for people to join, exhibitions, and dance evenings for fun. It was a diverse group of friendly people of all ages.

A new acquaintance who had conveyed his enthusiasm about WCS and piqued my curiosity about it came over and taught me the basics in my home dance space. It was very nice to have a good private lesson, and it was a lot of fun.

I then began attending the WCS lessons at the Rendezvous social dance club, which they have every Monday evening. They have a beginner lesson at 7:30, then intermediate at 8:15, then social mixer dance party from 9:00 until 11:30 with a DJ at a cost of $15 per evening. The teacher is Debbie Lynn, and she has been an outstanding teacher. Classes have had about 30-40 people, reasonably balanced between leaders and followers. We change partners very frequently, which in my experience is a really important way to learn couple dancing. They also change partners frequently during the dance evenings, often every dance. People have been very welcoming and I have not had trouble getting partners.

There are additional WCS dances on Fridays at the Hollywood Ballroom, and a group in Frederick, MD on Thursday nights, and probably many others.

Here is a good video of WCS: https://youtu.be/Y3i6kyLLB2g 

I like that the style of WCS is very casual and down-to-earth. Women wear jeans or pants and a top. Unlike ballroom dance it doesn’t have the high-heels-and-sequins style and pretense, nor the business model of soaking the customer for every hour of dance time and instruction. The music is popular and commonly available and the dance works with various speeds and 2/4 music. It is easy to learn and get started, but with many layers of proficiency to get really good at it and keep it interesting.

A fundamental difference between this and Scandinavian and other dancing I do regularly (waltz, contra dance) is that WCS is not a live music activity; music is pre-recorded and played by a DJ (disc jockey). So there is no applause after each dance because there are no musicians to clap for, and no concurrent music instruction at the weekend workshop as we have at other workshops. The sound systems are good, and the DJ’s are excellent at keeping the flow of the dance evening going.

I noticed that I miss the extra dynamic of interacting with musicians as a dancer. It adds such an important dimension to Scandinavian couple dancing. We often say that there are three people in each dance, the two people in the couple and the fiddler. I discussed this during an earlier post as the teachers in the Eric Sahlström Institute year-long course did such an amazing job teaching the musicians and dancers about that interaction (link).

For comparison, here is a Swedish slängpolska example filmed at the ESI with Petra Eriksson dancing with Håkon Vejvi, and Emilia Amper playing nyckelharpa.

I haven’t decided if or how much I will continue learning WCS, but I am happy to have had the introduction and it has been interesting.

Over a year ago I wrote a post about the wonderful event at the ESI, Prova på and Återträffen. This year I returned for the same event and participated in the Återträffen portion. It was a month later than last year’s, in late February rather than late January. I had a wonderful time. 12 of us from the 2014-2015 class of 20 attended the weekend, and it was so great to see these wonderful people again. We lived and studied together for 9 months, but then we haven’t seen each other for the past 8 months. I love being part of this special community of musicians and dancers.

View from the airplane on the way to Copenhagen, then Stockholm.

I went early to acclimate, and am so happy I did. I was able to stay in my old room with Ginny Lee, who is there this year. I arrived early enough (9:20 landing in Stockholm) to take the trains and be there for lunch, my favorite soup and pancakes. Mia Marin was one of my favorite guest teachers and was teaching all day, so I was able to join the class after lunch. We learned a wonderful new tune, Polska från Barsebäck. On Friday we had Sonia Sahlström and it was delightful to have class with her again. We learned tunes that had been bonus tunes for us last year, and it was great to really dig into them. We then played through multiple tunes I had learned last year. What a pleasure!

This was the first time I had seen the mansion without scaffolding! It has been painted a darker yellow-orange color.

We had a fun dance evening Friday, and I danced and joined a group playing for dancers.

Saturday I practiced in the morning, and we had 19 musicians in a session in the afternoon with Mia Marin and Niklas Roswall, each of whom taught two tunes. Then we played a series of tunes from prior years together. It was a blast.

Mia Marin recording Niklas Roswall’s tunes. They taught the reunion class together.

Part of the reunion class recording tunes.

After a walk in the snow and a rest, we had a dinner, the traditional taco buffet, while singing songs we all knew with the help of words printed in a booklet. After ice cream we cleared the room for dancing, and had a succession of musicians play for dance. I did a bit of dancing, but spent most of the time in the two different ongoing musical jams. Last year I was not brave enough to join the fast jam of former students in the Eric Sahlström Rummet, but this year I joined and fully participated and it was wonderful.

Norrköping station

I went to Norrköping the next day after Āterträffen and had a lovely afternoon dancing with the group I danced with last year, then spent the night with Stig and Helen. It was heaven to dance with and see those lovely people again! Helen and I played some tunes together in the morning. She taught me Tre Strömingar, then Ginny and Mikkel are working on it too, which was a fun coincidence.

I spent the next night back in Stockholm with Ginny and Mikkel; we played tunes and went Scottish Country Dancing in Gamla Stan! After that I checked into the SkyCity hotel, then zoomed back to Stockholm on the Arlanda Express to walk around.

Room at SkyCity Hotel at Arlanda, between terminals 4 and 5. My nyckelharpa is on the bed. I got a business class room upgrade!

Fika at Vete-Katten in Stockholm. Excellent princesstårta!

Sunset in Stockholm

I have continued to work on Swedish language and it really is getting better. Interestingly, when in the USA I don’t dream in Swedish, but in Sweden I do!