Every January, the Veselo Dancers in Eugene hold a multi-day folk dance festival. On Saturday, there are morning and afternoon workshops by a featured dance teacher - this year the workshops featured Bulgarian dancing with Yuliyan Yordanov. Later in the evening, there are demonstration dances. Once again this year, Heidi Vorst brought 21 of her costume-clad children from the Portland-based troupe Sussefusse International Dance Group. They are a shining star of the Veselo Festival to me. The best part is when each child introduces him or herself and states where their costume is from. This year the children performed dances from Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Malaysia, Japan and Albania. In addition to this group, another group of children performed dances from Hawaii; a woman from Eugene performed a classical Indian dance.
The room during the evening dance party was filled with dancers from around the state! Eugene-based Balkan band Kef played music for the four hours of the evening party. It was exhilarating. A highlight of the evening was being part of this large circle of dancers, and enjoying watching friends holding hands, smiling and talking with each other as they danced. There's really nothing like it.
The Veselo Festival 2013 was the impetus for our South Coast Folk Dance Festival. I'm feeling like a 2016 South Coast Folk Dance Festival may be in our future.
The room during the evening dance party was filled with dancers from around the state! Eugene-based Balkan band Kef played music for the four hours of the evening party. It was exhilarating. A highlight of the evening was being part of this large circle of dancers, and enjoying watching friends holding hands, smiling and talking with each other as they danced. There's really nothing like it.
The Veselo Festival 2013 was the impetus for our South Coast Folk Dance Festival. I'm feeling like a 2016 South Coast Folk Dance Festival may be in our future.
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