DANCE
I don't just act. I also folk dance, starting when I was 10. With the Berea Festival Dancers I performed around Kentucky, including a special series celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday. We toured Ireland, Denmark, and the southwestern United States, and were invited to showcase our skills at the Marlboro Morris Ale in 2010. I have also done swing and salsa.
Dance is still an important part of my life. I annually participate in Christmas Country Dance School, a dance week in my hometown, and helped build a contradance community at Grinnell College. It's still going strong. Curious for more? Below are summaries of my favorite folk dance traditions. |
RapperThis English dance is performed with flexible steel swords, which get twisted into impossible shapes. It is very fast with precise footwork.
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MorrisMorris dancing dates back centuries, one of many prop-based dances from rural Britain. The dancers usually wear bells to accentuate their great hops and leaps.
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ContraContradancing is among the more popular folk dance forms in America. The focus is not performance, but recreation and socializing. It's my favorite.
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DanishQuick, happy dances, these feature unique and interesting figures. In one particularly showy move, the ladies' feet fly off the floor.
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Irish SetsIrish set dances are very, very fast, meant to be danced shoulder-to-shoulder in a room full of other sets. These are also some of my favorites.
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English CountryElegant and graceful dances, these are less adrenaline-fueled than the others I list here but have a beautiful flow that can make you swoon.
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