Being away from contra dancing while living in Sweden has been really unfortunate. One thing I am so glad to have found is the group Philochoros, which welcomes non-students. And what I am realizing is that folk dancing is folk dancing and the people who enjoy folk dancing are the people who enjoy folk dancing. And I love the dance and I love the people, and those two things are not so different between my contra-world and my philochoros-world. One day I will write more on my thoughts on the types of people I find drawn to contra dancing, but that is for another time.
A thing I find interesting is that with Swedish folk dance (as with contra dance) you have events that focus on being traditional, where people dress in folk costumes and the mood is sort of historically-based (whatever that means). And then there are events that have a more modern-type mood. For contra dancing it would be like the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend versus a Brattleboro Dawn Dance. I absolutely love them both, but they have very different moods, and are thrilling in different ways.
In a week I think I will experience the Dawn Dance of Swedish Folk Dancing. The event is Grandkväll with Bollnäsbygdens Spelmanslag. Here is a video of them:
I have been listening to their music for the past week and will probably not be able to listen to anything else this week either. Needless to say, I am getting really super excited.
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