This page is an historical archive, and therefore is out of date and will
not be updated. Please visit our updated homepage at
http://mit.edu/fdc
for current information about the MIT Folk Dance Club.
MIT Folk Dance Club
presents--
International Folk Dancing
Participatory line, circle, and couple dancing for everyone from
eastern Europe and the world
Every Sunday night from 8:00 pm until
11:00 pm
September 7, 2008
Beginner's Night 8 - 9 pm, followed by
live music with the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
Programmers: Barbara Zeles & Janet Baker
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center, 2'd floor)
September 14, 2008
Beginner's Night 8 - 9:30 pm, followed by dancing until 11
Programmer: To be determined
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center, 2nd floor)
September 21, 2008
Programmer: Bob Parr
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center, 2nd floor)
September 28, 2008
Live music with Rakiya!
Programmer: Yaron Shragai
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center, 2'd floor)
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October 5, 2008
Programmers: Barbara Zeles & Janet Baker
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center, 2'd floor)
October 12, 2008
Programmers: Barbara Zeles & friend
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center, 2'd floor)
October 19, 2008
Programmer: Bob Parr
Kresge Auditorium: Rehearsal Room A (basement)
October 26, 2008
Live music with the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
Programmer: Nancy Reid
Student Center 407 (4th floor)
November 2, 2008
Programmer: Yaron Shragai
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center, 2nd floor)
November 9, 2008
Live music with Pajdashi!
Programmer: To be determined
Student Center 407 (4th floor)
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November 16, 2008
Live music with Divi Zheni and the All-Girl Band!
Programmer: Janet Baker
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center 2'd floor)
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November 23, 2008
Programmers: Janet Baker and Barbara Zeles
Kresge Auditorium: Rehearsal Room B (basement)
November 30, 2008
Programmers: Nancy Reid and friends
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center 2nd floor)
December 7, 2008
Programmers: Barbara Zeles and Janet Baker
Student Center 407 (4th floor)
December 14, 2008
Live music with Rakiya!
Programmer: To be determined
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center, 2'd floor)
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December 21, 2008 -- CANCELLED due to the weather.
Programmers: Nancy, Elizabeth, and Yaron
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor)
December 28, 2008
No dancing -- Student Center is closed.
See you next year!
January 4, 2009
Live music by Rakiya!
Programmers: Barbara Zeles & Janet Baker
Sala de Puerto Rico
January 11, 2009
Programmer: TBA
Sala de Puerto Rico
January 18, 2009
Programmer: Yaron Shragai
Student Center room 407 (4th floor)
January 25, 2009
Live music with the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
Programmers: Nancy Reid & friends
Student Center room 407 (4th floor)
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February 1, 2009
Programmer: Barbara Zeles & Janet Baker
Student Center room 407 (4th floor)
February 8, 2009
Programmer: To be determined
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
February 15, 2009
Programmer: To be determined
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
Thanks to Dan for wrangling better rooms for some of the above dates!
February 22, 2009
Programmer: Yaron Shragai
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
March 1, 2009
Live music by Yaron and Friends: Yaron Shragai, Sandy Theodorou, Ben Pasamanick, Sonia Lipson, Ariel Weinberg, Stacey Cordeiro, Antonio Dominguez, and Dan Salomon
Programmer: Bob Parr
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
Snow update: We are dancing tonight, Sunday March 1st! We might end a little early if the storm looks bad.
Cambridge has declared a snow emergency parking ban starting at 11 pm.
If you're planning to stay until the end of the dance, please use an off-street parking lot or public transportation.
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Thanks to Dan for wrangling better rooms for some of the above dates!
March 8, 2009
Programmers: Barbara Zeles and Janet Baker
MIT Student
Center, room 407 (4th floor)
March 15, 2009
Programmer: Bob Parr
MIT Student
Center, room 407 (4th floor)
March 22, 2009: Live music by the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
Programmers: Janet Baker and Elizabeth Rollins
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
March 29, 2009
Programmer: Yaron Shragai
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
April 5, 2009
Live music by Rakiya!
Programmer: To be determined
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
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April 12, 2009: MIT FDC 50th Birthday
Party!
Folk and couple dancing, with live music by Barbara Pixton
and Robert Penney, and The All-Girl Band.
FREE for everyone! Refreshment donations welcome.
Programmer: To be determined
Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center 2'd floor
April 19, 2009
Programmer: To be determined
Kresge Auditorium, Rehearsal Room A
April 26, 2009 -- NO DANCING!
See you at NEFFA!
May 3, 2009
Programmers: Janet Baker & Barbara Zeles
Student Center 407 (4th floor)
May 10, 2009
Programmer: Bob Parr
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor)
May 17, 2009
Featuring klezmer dancing with KlezMITron, the MIT klezmer band!
Learn some easy Yiddish dances, including the freylakhs, bulgar, slow hora, and chusidl!
Programmer: Yaron Shragai
Musicians: Carol Novitsky (percussion), David André Broniatowski (violin), Scott Arfin (bass), and Daniel Salomon (violin), with Barry Shapiro (accordion)
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor)
May 24, 2009
Programmers: Nancy Reid and Elizabeth Rollins
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor) [updated!]
May 31, 2009
Programmer: Barbara Zeles
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor) [updated!]
June 7, 2009: NO DANCING
due to Commencement.
See you next week! There's lots happening the next 2 weekends
& beyond - so please read on!
Saturday June 13, 2009
Greek Night, with live music by members of Ensemble
Aperiskeptos!
Ben Pasamanick (clarinet), Yaron Shragai (percussion, recorder, voice),
Sandy Theodorou (laouto, accordion, voice),
Annemoon Van Erp (violin, voice)
Dance to Greek music ranging from Pontic to Epirotic, Nisiotika to Rebetika
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor) 8-11 PM
June 14, 2009
Live music with the Cambridge
Folk Orchestra! Sit-in musicians welcome.
Programmer: Bob Parr
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center
2nd floor)
June 21, 2009 - Special event
Bulgarian Workshop & Party with Ivan Dimitrov and Rakiya
Workshop 4-6 PM in Lobdell Dining Hall
Dance Party 8-11 PM in the Sala de Puerto Rico
Student Center 2nd floor
With Ivan Dimitrov, plus
live music
with Rakiya!
Suggested donation $5 per event, or $8 for both.
Free for MIT & Wellesley students.
Beginners welcome!
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Ivan Dimitrov graduated from
the National Academy of Dance Arts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
He was a lead dancer and soloist with the Bulgarian
State Folklore Ensemble "Trakia" in Plovdiv. His DC-based
professional dance group, The Ivan
Dimitrov Dance Ensemble, has been warmly received at the Kennedy
Center Millennium Stage, Cherry Blossom Festival opening ceremonies,
and the Greater Washington International Folk Festival.
Rakiya is a fiery 8-piece Balkan Rom
(Gypsy) band based in the Boston area. They perform electric,
very danceable songs and dance tunes.
June 28, 2009
Programmer: Barbara Zeles & special guest Herb Lin
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center 2nd floor)
July 5, 2009
Programmer: Bob Parr
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center
2nd floor)
July 12, 2009
Programmer: Elizabeth Rollins & Nancy Reid
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center
2nd floor)
July 19, 2009
Live music with Rakiya!
Programmer: Janet Baker
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center
2nd floor)
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July 26, 2009
Programmer: Barbara Zeles & friend
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center
2nd floor)
August 2, 2009: A special Oldies Night with live music by members of Evo Nas: Joanie, Erica, and Janice, and Henry, drummer extraordinaire!
Another 50th anniversary event!
Programmer: Henry Goldberg & friends
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center
2nd floor)
Evo Nas is a Boston-based group which performs traditional music of the Balkans. The group, whose name means "Here we are!" in Serbo-Croatian, has been presenting this music both in concert and for folk dancing since 1975. Evo Nas uses authentic instruments - including the gaida (bagpipe), gadulka (Bulgarian fiddle), kaval (flute), tambura (lute) and tapan (drum) - and traditional vocal styles. In retirement since 1990, the group continued to come together to perform at Balkan Music Night until 1994. Some of its members are joining us to provide live music tonight.
August 9, 2009
Programmer: Bob Parr
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor)
August 16, 2009
Programmer: Janet Baker
Sala de Puerto Rico (Student Center 2nd floor)
August 23, 2009
Programmer: Barbara Zeles
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center 2nd floor)
August 30, 2009
Live music with Rakiya!
Programmer: Yaron Shragai
Lobdell Dining Hall (Student Center 2nd floor)
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See the complete schedule through October, 2009.
The MIT Folk Dance Club recorded information line is 617-253-FOLK. Note that since our
office move this machine is not physically accessible to
us. We're updating it remotely as best we can, but please have patience if it
does go down or if the information is stale.
Now more than ever--we're an all volunteer organization, and we
depend
on our dancers to help keep us going! Even a little help makes a
big difference, and please feel free to ask us about sharing
programming duties with one of us (i.e., you don't have to go it
alone!).
Some
further information on
location:
The room listed in the schedule above is our officially-reserved room
for each date. Normally, this will be either Room 491 or 407 on
the 4th floor of the MIT Stratton Student
Center, or the Sala de Puerto Rico or Lobdell Dining Hall, both on
the 2'd floor of
the Student Center. Be aware that our meeting room can
sometimes change at the last minute, so if we don't appear to be in a
scheduled room, check elsewhere in the Student Center (2'd or 4th
floors).
Also look for a sign that may be posted near the
scheduled room announcing a location change. If there's enough
warning (which there often isn't), late room changes will be posted on
the e-mail
list.
Detailed directions to MIT, parking, and other location information can
be found on the MIT folk dancing main
page.
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If
you're new to dancing or
missed out on the Beginners' Nights:
Come check us out anyhow! Bring
your friends! No
experience necessary!
New dancers are welcome to join us any Sunday, not just at Beginners'
Nights. Come any time, though the best time is the earlier part
of the evening (roughly 8:00-9:30) since a certain number of dances are
usually taught during that period. Many of our dances are
straight-forward enough to pick up "on the fly", and folks will invite
you to join the line (or circle, or whatever the formation might be)
for those dances. Later in the evening, we will blend in
some more complex dances to appease the more experienced dancers, but
you should be aware that most of our dance programmers make an effort
to maintain a mix of levels that includes a certain percentage of
easier dances right through the end of the evening, so there will be
plenty for you do to do in the latter part of the evening as
well. If you're unsure about whether to join in a dance you
haven't seen before, a good tactic is to get behind the line of dancers for a
few moments and watch their steps to assess whether you feel
comfortable "faking" this one. And, yes, it is perfectly
acceptable to "fake" a dance - just make sure you're moving more or
less the same direction as the other dancers in the line, keep your
grip relaxed and smile a lot - and no one will notice what your feet
are or aren't doing. This is something all of us, even experienced
dancers, find ourselves doing from time to time.
Please avoid using perfumes or scented personal care products while at
the dances - some of our dancers are allergic to these.
Footware note: For your comfort & safety, please wear sturdy
low-heeled shoes that you're comfortable running & jumping
in.
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The kinds of dancing that we do and how we
operate:
We dance mostly village dances and some dances choreographed in folk
style to the complex and fascinating rhythms and music of
Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, and
others. We round out the repetoire with a few dances from other
parts of Europe and the world (such as Israel, France, Russia, even
England and the US). We have a "core" repetoire which you will
pick up as you attend a succession of Sunday nights, but we're also
always acquiring fun and interesting new dances from a number of
sources. Some of the dances are lyrical and slow, others are
great aerobic exercise and give you a chance to really move. Most of the dances move
in the traditional lines or circles; the repetoire also includes some
couple dances (but you don't
need to bring a partner).
The club owns a large and enviable collection of old, rare, as well
modern recordings which we dance to most Sunday evenings. There
are also a number of talented performers of this music in the area, and
on occasion we are able to have live music for dancing - those will be
noted in the schedule. Each Sunday we have a programmer who determines what
dances we will do and sets up the flow of the evening. In
addition to making sure dances get taught and that we get the right mix
of easy/hard, the programmer also works from a request board; anyone can write a
request on this board, so bring along names of dances that you know
from here or from elsewhere.
Approximately half-way through the evening, we usually pause for some
brief announcements and to take a donation.
Suggested donation is
$1.00 for anyone who isn't an MIT or Wellesley student. MIT and
Wellesley students always attend for free. On nights when we have
live music, we may ask for a voluntary donation of more than $1.00,
with the entire "take" to be donated to the band.
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E-Mail list
The Sunday night e-mail listserve is the most reliable way to get
current and last minute information. This will include reminders,
room updates, special events, and the rare cancelation. This list
will be used for this purpose only; it is not a discussion list, and
only the list managers can post.
To subscribe to the list, send a blank e-mail to fdc-international-subscribe[at]mit[dot]edu
or fill out this form:
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Last updated: September 20, 2008
Comments & suggestions for this page to: Bob Parr
(parr[at]ll[dot]mit[dot]edu)
Return to MIT Folk Dance Club home page
