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Nordic Dancers |
THE NORDIC DANCERS' teachers-Lars Johanson, Chris Kalke, and Ross Schipper-collectively bring to the group decades of dance experience. This experience includes growing up and dancing in Nordic communities and participating in dance courses and workshops with teachers from the Nordic countries. In addition their enthusiasm for the dances and the accompanying folk traditions strengthens their commitment to keep learning and expanding their own skills and repertoire. All three also play instruments - accordion, fiddle, and hardanger fiddle, respectively.
Lars
Johanson began dancing in 1955 and danced to the music of the late Walter
Eriksson and other Scandinavian musicians at social dances and participated in
children's dance groups and adult dance groups in the New York City area before
coming to this area. He joined the
Nordic Dancers in 1975 and served as director from 1977 to 1995. He was one of the organizers of the Nordic
Dancers' participation in the Nordlek Festivals.
Chris
Kalke grew up in Michigan and began dancing as a child with her parents and
their friends in the Scandinavian community to the music of the late Per Bengtsson,
Erik Nilsson, and the hardanger fiddle player, Ingvald Orheim, and other local
musicians. She danced with the original
Hoijakat (now called Nordic Heritage Dancers) of Detroit and Windsor and was one
of their teachers. She joined the
Nordic Dancers in 1980 and is also a fiddler with Skandal.
Ross
Schipper has been a member of the Nordic Dancers since 1983. He first got interested in Scandinavian
dancing in 1981. Together with Linda
Brooks, he runs the SCANDIA, D.C. "Third Saturday" dances and teaches
for local folk festivals. Ross and
Linda have traveled to Sweden and Norway, where they have attended dance workshops
and festivals and researched various dances. On one occasion they researched versions
of Nordlandspols and later introduced it here in the Washington area for the first
time in the U.S. Ross also plays the hardanger fiddle.