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Comparisons are odious

1/20/2019

I've been thinking about Linda (my former dance teacher) a lot lately. When I think of Linda, I think of her abounding energy, her dark eyes, and her smile. And of course her red boots! My eyes were glued to her boots as I learned the dances.
She taught us style-filled couple dances that I haven't considered teaching these past 10 years... like the hambo. I remember learning Zillertaler Landler (video below) from Linda. I haven't done that dance for over 30 years. But I'll never forget Linda's instruction of sticking the guy's hands in his armpit for that repetitive turn.
On the other end of the energy spectrum, Linda taught us lots of lively dances like Hora Or, Trei Pazeste, Cimpoi, Godecki Cacek, Haroa Haktana, and many more. Linda had a great sense of rhythm. Coupled with her spritely approach to these dances, I was won over immediately.
I don't have a crystal ball, but I wonder how much longer I'll be able to teach. Can I do this for another 20 years? I've been inviting the Universe to bring me someone young who will fall madly in love with international folk dancing, and want to learn ALL of the dances that I know. Maybe a cadre of young people. That would be nice. It's essential to keep passing the tradition forward.

From Jonathan Jensen's song "Spread the Joy",
Spread the joy, pass it on,
May it blossom in our children when we're gone,
For the gift of dance and music has the power to enthrall,
Share the magic, spread the joy to one and all.

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Preserving the tradition

1/9/2019

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I know I shouldn't write in red font, but in honor of Linda's red boots...

The photo above is a group of folks from a SWOCC PE 185 Folk Dance class. It was taken in the 1980s; we were performing, but I'm not sure where. We were doing a lively Israeli dance called Hora Or. The exuberant woman on the left in the red boots (with a scarf on her head) was my teacher Linda. See how light she is on her feet?! Linda sewed many of those costumes we were wearing. She taught us invigorating dances, and she made us look good! Folk dance class was a lot of fun, and I'm forever indebted to Elka for inviting me to come along to her class. Linda was an inspiring teacher, and I loved taking her class.

I'm the girl in the photo who is facing the camera... wearing a big white apron and knee socks. I would never have imagined back then that I'd be teaching these dances in a PE class at SWOCC 30-40 years later.
This week, I was contacted by the SWOCC librarian. She had a notebook of instructions from dances taught at PE 185. She said she never had the heart to dispose of it, and asked if I could put it to good use. There had been cassette tapes to go with the notebook, but she said those were long gone. (I remember borrowing those cassettes years ago from the 3rd floor audio-visual part of the library! I thought they were so cool!) How thoughtful of Linda to make all of this information available to the community by putting it in the library. Yet another thing to admire about her!

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Comparisons are odious

Preserving the tradition

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