This workshop was organised by three Flemish Folk Art Groups: Boerke Naas, De Wouwe, and Drieske Nijpers. They invited Klaus Fink to give dance instructions. Klaus (left on the picture) was born in the swabian town of Leonberg and spends his freetime mainly working on two things: folk-dancing and computers. No wonder we found each other already before the event on the Internet.

No dance instruction without music, so he was accompanied by Thomas Walker, an engineer in automation (is it a coincidence that people working with advanced technologies tend to have a passion for old stuff ?) who still prefers to play the squeeze box himself than to have a robot fool around with it. He's a member of the German folk group Kraut & Rüben.

The event was organised in Meerbeke.

We have written a workshop report in Dutch for Folkroddels.

The following dances have been covered:

1. Polska variants
2. Scandinavian waltz variants
3. Zwiefacher
4. Two other dances

Please allow us a few weeks to get everything complete. Meanwhile, you can already enjoy video-fragments. Just click on the pictures.

Polska variants

Hambo

If you know how to dance a polska, you're already familiar with the characteristic style of turning, but be aware that the actual foot work for a hambo turn is different than for a polska turn. In a polska turn, the gent's right foot is placed on beat 3, while in a hambo, it is on beat 1. Also how to hold the partner while turning, is slightly different.

There are several good descriptions on the web:

• John Gustin has a very detailed description (with some introductory steps to practise before doing the turns) which matches perfectly what Klaus explained.
• Also Andrew Carnie explains everything nicely in a PDF-document.
• Niels Mejlhede Jensen has drawn some figures for the footwork.
• A summary chart is available as Aunty Sarah's Hambo Helper given by Sarah Gowan. When she writes both, you must read it as continue to turn on the foot bearing weight while bringing the other foot next to that one, without changing weight;

Here is Bror Dahlgrens Hambo (mp3) on fiddle, by members of the Swedish folk music society Spel och dans stugan.

Familjehambo

There are different familjehambo choreographies. The one learned here (click on the picture to see the video) has exactly the same steps in the same order as the regular hambo, but the figures are different. Dancers start in a large circle (hence the name Ring familjehambo), hands joined low, gents having their lady on their right hand side. The hambo dal steps are done on the spot. Then for the three walking steps, the gents pass by their partner, and move to the next lady to start the hambo turn. After four turns, the sequence is repeated, starting with the dal steps.

Compare this with the 4 flickor pass familjehambo (wmv) and the 2 och 2 efter varandra familjehambo (wmv) danced in couples instead of a circle.

Hambo-Vals

Hambo fran Turinge

Scandinavian Waltz variants

Stigvals

Snurrvals fran Hede

Zwiefacher

Zwiefacher are dances with changing rhythm, most often a combination of waltz and two-step bars, sometimes with also polka bars, what is then rather called a Vielfacher, such as the Vielfacher composed by Senn René. Robert Bauer, who maintains a quite exhaustive Austrian folk dancing diary, collected some facts about Zwiefacher.
With respect to the steps, there is not that much to say: during a waltz bar, you do normal waltz steps, and during a two-step bar (called dreher) you do a two-step as in the second part of a scottish. The complexity of the dance is rather in the combination of the two (or three) kinds of bars. Dick Oakes, an American folk dancing fanatic who described over 200 folk dances, published a list of some Zwiefacher and their patterns.

Here are a few examples on video (wmv). Only the last one, 's Luada, is an exception: the sequence of 32 drehers is impossible to dance the normal way or you would get dizzy for half a day. That's why partners dance that sequence alone, interchanging clockwise and counter clockwise turns. As a disclaimer: this was the first time ever for me dancing Zwiefacher. The only way I could cope with the rhythm changes, was by marking them, what resulted in bobbing body movements. Zwiefacher should however be danced smoothly, only moving in a horizontal plane.

Ja, unser Bauer (sheet music)	Leutl müassts lustig sein (lyrics)	Hansmelcherle
Eisenkeilnest (lyrics)	Bald fahr i	s'Luada (dance description in German)

Other dances covered

Scottish fran Kalhell

Longdance of Solleron

Here is a detailed description of this dance which is one of the oldest known dances of Sweden.