Monday, June 08, 2009

I'm home from Tulsa!



Last weekend I took a trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The primary purpose of this trip was to attend a workshop conducted by the North American Federation of German Folk Dance Groups.




The host group was the German American Society of Tulsa, or GAST. Their facility is lovely, and housed in an old church that they have remodeled for social events.



The host group arranged for a bobbin lace demonstration while the set up for the workshop was taking place. Originally, it was going to be a drawn thread workshop, which really appealed to me, but sadly it had to be changed at the last minute. The women doing the bobbin lace were very interesting, and I learned about it, but I don't think it is something I want to learn to do at this time in my life.


Dancing began Friday in the late afternoon, and then continued on all day Saturday and again on Sunday morning. Workshop attendees came from at least 11 different states, with the instructor coming from Berlin, Germany.


Volkhart Jaenert was the instructor, and he taught a great variety of folk dances throughout the weekend. He has been teaching folk dance since the 1950s......he is in his 80s but still a remarkable dancer. I learned lots of new material that I will be able to bring to the groups I teach.








There was a lovely display of Trachts that was available for viewing all weekend.








The host group, the GAST dancers, performed for us on Saturday evening.







While in Tulsa, I did other things besides dance. Check back for more of my adventures in Tulsa.

5 comments:

CJ in OK ;-) said...

Sounds like it was a great weekend. CJ ok;-)

KIM said...

OMG! That dress with the maroon vest with the beaded flowers on it is just like the dress and vests we used to wear when I went to Polish school. COOL! Maroon or black velvet vests with beaded flowers either on the boarder or all over the front. And the skirt of the dress was either just like that or with skinny ribbons all around near the bottom.

I love how close they are!

Kim

Kit said...

What a wonderful weekend, thanks for sharing your pictures!

Cindy F. said...

That sounds like a wonderful weekend Eva! Sorry to hear they dropped the drawn thread workshop:(

Brigitte said...

What a great weekend!