* MIT Folk Dance Club *

Sunday: International Folk *Two or three Tuesdays per month: Contra Dance *Wednesday: Israeli

Updated February 13, 2012

**Upcoming Dances

** Quick Index

Click to jump to a category.

*About The Club
* IAP Special Events
*Club Email Lists
*Special Events
*How to Find a Room We're Scheduled in
*Organizational meetings of the Club
*Links to related dance sites

** About The Club

The MIT Folk Dance Club sponsors three nights of dancing each week throughout the year, all of which are open to the MIT community and the general public.

Sunday night International Folk Dancing meets every week from 8:00 to 11:00 pm, almost always on the 2nd floor of the Student Center:

Sunday Dates (8-11 pm) Building/Floor Room Notes
January 8 & 15, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Live music Jan 8 by Rakiya!
Thursday January 19, 2012 Student Center 3rd Floor Private Dining Rooms 1+2 Open folk music jam, led by Skorosmrtnica!
January 22, 2012 Student Center 4th Floor Room 407 Live music by Skorosmrtnica!
January 29 & February 5, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall Live music Feb. 5 by Rakiya!
February 12 - March 4, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
March 11, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
March 18, 2012 Kresge Auditorium basement Rehearsal Room B
March 25 - April 15, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
April 22, 2012 No dancing. See you at NEFFA!
April 29, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
May 6, 2012 Student Center 3rd Floor Student Center Coffeehouse
May 13 & 20, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
May 27 - June 10, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall Subject to change or cancellation.
June 17 & 24, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico

To see what dances we've done from July 2002 - July 2010, see the playlist archive. See our web archive for old versions of our web pages.


Wednesday night Israeli Dancing usually meets on the 4th or 2nd floor of the Student Center, from 8:00 to 11:30 pm.

Wednesday Dates (8-11:30 pm) Building/Floor Room Notes
December 14, 2011 - January 18, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Beginner's Class 1/18, 7:30 - 9 pm
January 25 - February 15, 2012 Student Center 4th Floor Room 407 Beginner's Class 1/25, 7:30 - 9 pm
February 22, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
February 29, 2012 Student Center 4th Floor Room 407
March 7, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
March 14 & 21, 2012 Student Center 4th Floor Room 407
March 28, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
April 4, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
April 11, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
April 18 - May 9, 2012 Student Center 4th Floor Room 407
May 16 & 23, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
May 30, 2012 Location to be announced.
June 6, 2012 Kresge Auditorium 1st Floor Kresge Mainstage Subject to change or cancellation.
June 13 - 27, 2012 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall

Check the Israeli email announcement archive to confirm information about each week's location and teaching schedule, and special events. Light kosher snacks and drinks will be provided each week.
Israeli dancing is co-sponsored by MIT Hillel and the MISTI MIT-Israel Program.
Israeli photo gallery
For more information about Israeli dancing, email   mitisraeli [at] gmail.com .

In addition to our folk and contra dance PE classes, some semesters there is also an all-Israeli folk dance class run by David Karger. The next class will be IAP (January) 2012. Register with the PE Department. For more information, email karger [at] mit.edu , or see https://stellar.mit.edu/S/pe/2011q5/0304.1/ .


International Folk and Israeli Dancing each start with Early Teaching at 8:00 pm, followed by teaching and requests until 11:00 pm. Beginners are always welcome.

On two or three Tuesdays per month, the Contra Dance for All meets in various locations from 8:00 to 10:30 pm (check the schedule for dates and locations). Live music every time! Beginners are always welcome and are encouraged to come early.

Club officers for 2011-12:
President Mitcho Erlewine mitcho [at] mit [dot] edu, fdc-president [at] mit [dot] edu
Vice President Neta Batscha nbatscha [at] mit [dot] edu
Treasurer Gretchen Kern gkern [at] mit [dot] edu, fdc-treasurer [at] mit [dot] edu
Secretary Ira Winder jiw [at] mit [dot] edu

All Club Meetings are open to the general public. We're especially interested in hearing from MIT students!

We're considered to be one of the best places for International Folk Dance in the entire country. Come and check us out!

** IAP Special Events

The MITFDC gives classes and workshops as part of IAP each January.
See our IAP offerings for January, 2012.

** Club Email Lists

We maintain electronic mailing lists used to announce dances and other events of interest. These lists are for announcements only and have very low volume.

If you have any questions, please contact the Folk Dance Club officers at fdc-request[at]mit[dot]edu.

** Special Events

* English Sword Dance Demonstrations
Saturday October 29, 2011. 10:30 AM - 12:00 noon
Student Center Coffeehouse (3rd floor)
Free!

Come see some performances of rapper dancing, a traditional English folk dance done by teams of 5 using flexible "swords" called rappers, which are weaved in and out of figures for display. A number of acrobatic figures can be employed, including forward and backward somersaults over the rappers.

* Bulgarian dance workshop with Daniela Ivanova
Sunday July 24, 2011, 8 - 11 pm, Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center 2nd floor).

Daniela is an accomplished, professional folk dance teacher and performer. She is also a very gifted choreographer and a researcher of the South Slavic folk dance culture. She has directed and choreographed several folk dance ensembles in Bulgaria, Banat and Besarabia. She will teach a variety of folk dances from different regions in Bulgaria. No experience necessary!

*Annual Israeli Dance Marathon

2011 Marathon Update: There won't be a Christmas Eve Israeli dance marathon at MIT this year.
Instead, there is a marathon at Congregation Kehillath Israel, 384 Harvard St, Brookline MA.
[more info]

The Christmas Eve Israeli Dance Marathon takes place every year on or about Christmas Eve.

We start at 6 pm and dance until 4 am.

We'll start with simpler dances and move progressively to harder dances as the night goes on, so be sure to come earlier rather than later...even beginners will have fun if you show up at six!

* Beginner's Nights are for people who haven't done much dancing before and want to learn some and for more experienced dancers who want to practice the basics. In other words, they are for everyone. You need no prior experience and you don't need a partner. Beginner's Nights for all 3 nights of dancing occur in September and January each year.

Israeli Dance Beginner's Nights:
Two Wednesdays, 7:30 - 9 pm
January 18, 2012, Sala de Puerto Rico
January 25, 2012, Student Center 407

*The Israel Folkdance Festival of Boston takes place each year in March, in Kresge Auditorium on the MIT campus. The next festival will be on Sunday March 18, 2012. The show includes performances by dance ensembles from far and near. Visit http://www.bostonfestival.org for more information and to order tickets.

** Where We Meet

These are the locations where we usually meet. Click on a location to see it on a campus map.

1. The Stratton Student Center (Building W20). It is located at 84 Mass. Ave., directly across the street from the main entrance to MIT. La Sala de Puerto Rico and Lobdell Dining Hall are located on the second floor. Rooms W20-407, W20-491, and our club office W20-447 are located on the fourth floor.
2. Lobby 13. Can be accessed from either Vassar St. or the Infinite Corridor (go in the main MIT entrance at 77 Mass Ave and turn north at Lobby 10).
3. Kresge Auditorium. Kresge is the triangular dome with a turquoise roof, set back on a plaza at 48 Massachusetts Avenue (across the street from the main MIT entrance). Rehearsal Rooms A and B are located in the basement.
See a Google map and get driving directions

See a schedule for the #1 bus which runs along Mass Ave.

Parking

Free parking is available in the lot behind the Bank of America ATM at Mass Ave and Vassar Street (though it sometimes fills up on weeknights), or on the street.
No parking permit is required at this lot after 5 pm or on weekends. Metered street parking is free after 6 pm.

Update: As of 11/30/11, the N10 Lot on Albany Street is no longer available for people without MIT parking permits.
As of 11/10/10, the West Annex Lot on Vassar Street is not reliably available.

** Club Meetings

Organizational club meetings usually take place once a year in early May.

Contact the club officers at fdc-request[at]mit[dot]edu to find out about future meetings.

** Links to other folk dance resources

International Folk, Contra Dancing, and Other kinds:
*The Folk Arts Center of New England home page, including their calendar Folk Dancing 'Round Boston.
* New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA) runs a folk festival each April in Mansfield, MA, as well as a contra dance each Thursday night at the Scout House in Concord, MA. (This dance was formerly located at the VFW in west Cambridge, and hopes to move back there now that the city has rebuilt it as a youth/community center.
* Country Dance Society, Boston Centre (Contra and English Country dancing.)
* contradancelinks.com, a comprehensive page of links to other Contra Dances around the world.
*Larry Denenberg's Beginner's Catechism page
*The Cambridge Folk Orchestra plays at various folk dances in the Boston area, and occasionally plays at MIT at our Sunday night international folk dances.
*The MIT Folk Dance Club Songbook, a compilation of lyrics of the songs in our record collection.
*Arthur Saltzman has posted FDC photos and movies from the 1960s.
*Our own Neil Rosen has written a Folk Dance mp3 Player which can be used along with a database of dances.
*The Tuesday Night Revival is an advanced Balkan dance group that used to dance at MIT, and now holds dances about once a month in Arlington on a Friday or Saturday.
* Balkan Music Night is a concert and dance party which occurs each year in March, in Concord, MA.
*The Dance Gypsy is a calendar of contra and other folk dances throughout the U.S., focusing on New England.

Israeli Folk Dancing:
* Israeli Folk Dance in Boston, including Sunday night Israeli Dancing at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill (formerly located at Harvard Hillel), and Monday night dancing at Congregation Kehillath Israeli in Brookline.
* israelidance.com, which includes a test to see if you are a true folk dance addict and a session-finder, in case you're thinking of moving and want to see if there's dancing there first.

Comments on this home page and other subjects are welcome.
Send mail to fdc-request[at]mit[dot]edu .

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