The annual Heritage Dance Festival takes
place in a suburb outside of Philadelphia. This year was the 14th,
and was filled with over 100 participatory dance workshops and
demonstrations. It included ethnic food venders, booths of dance
and traditional books and recordings, and included opportunities
for "sit-in" musicians in the SPUDS band (Summit Pickup
Dance Society) which is a large contra dance orchestra which welcomes
newcomers and anyone interested in playing.
After I became acquainted with the layout, I was invited to sit
in on fiddle with several other bands also, including an International
dance, English country dance, and Klezmer and Irish sessions.
The weekend was primarily organized for dancers rather than visiting
musicians however, and so I took the opportunity to attend several
excellent instructional workshops in Irish Step dancing, Irish
set dancing, appalachian clogging, Lindy Hop, and West Coast swing.
Dancing ran Friday night from 8 pm to around 11 pm in two separate
dance areas. On both Saturday and Sunday there were events happening
simultaneously in 7 different locations, so it was impossible
to take in everything. Besides the dance events there were a few
other activities including puppet making for kids, a juggling
workshop, instrument making, and music workshops in fiddling,
bodhran, singing, hurdy gurdy, and accordion.
Dance styles represented at the festival included: contra, cajun,
swing, zydeco, Japanese, Scandinavian, Greek, squares, Tahitian,
Hawaiian, Morris, minuets, Irish, Romainian, Bulgarian, country
western, Israeli, family dances, and more.
I ended up making a number of new friends, learned some great
dance steps, and enjoyed playing my fiddle for dancers. In all,
a great weekend. The Heritage Dance Association is a membership
organization. The members elect the officers and decide the association's
activities. For membership information contact the association
at P.O. Box 42415, Philadelphia, PA 19101, or check out the web
site for more information on various activities: Heritage
Dance Association