Dancing This Week

Thursday Night Folk Dancing

June 6 • Arlington, MA • 8pm

Please join us at the only Thursday Night Folk Dancing for this month (you know, Pinewoods and all that). But have no fear -- we will be back for the summer!

Paula Rosenstock will be our programmer for the evening and Ira Gessel, our special guest teacher, will review Oj Ti Momce Ohrigance, which Steve Kotansky taught during an online FAC workshop. Jeanne Clifford will also review Trabzoni Bar, an Armenian dance introduced to us by Tineke Van Geel.

Our SUMMER dancing schedule is on the FAC website; put these dates in your calendar. Come join us!

July 11 • July 25

August 1 • August 22

Masks are optional but welcome and highly recommended.

--Sue Rose

Friday Night Folk Dancing:

Romanian Night

June 7 • Arlington, MA • 8pm

Some things are sacred in our annual calendars - and Romanian Night at the Friday Night Dance series is most definitely one of them.

Every year, Tom Pixton brings the Pinewoods Band together for an entire evening of rip-roarin' Romanian dance tunes, beginning promptly at 8:00! A few dances will be quickly reviewed at the start of the event, and then it's Dance Your Socks Off for the rest of the evening!

--Marcie

New in the Little Shop of Horas

We have been busy in the Shop, adding new titles and replenishing old favorites as we prepare to bring our traveling shop to Pinewoods later this month. We hope you will pop in and have fun browsing our virtual shelves!

A new video from our SOFA Series online collection:

Ruth Evans held us spellbound and in stitches at another fantastic SOFA Series presentation last week sharing her research on the 1914 Lowell Tango Trial, a little-known scandal that rocked New England for a short while and was subsequently forgotten -- until Ruth rediscovered it. In case you missed it, a video of that presentation is now available!

Now in stock:

Ruth Evans' fascinating book: "Twirling Jennies: A History of Social Dance (and other mischief) in the City of Spindles 1820-1920." The Industrial Revolution in the United States took hold in the 1820s with the founding of Lowell, Massachusetts, a city born of the textile industry.

Twirling Jennies takes a look the evolution of social dances over this 100-year period; along the way, this heavily-illustrated book touches on a wide range of topics including social mores, sexual harassment, architecture, immigration, pastimes, and more. The author has lifelong ties with textiles, dancing, and Lowell.

--Katy

Calendar

Special Events

Saturday, June 29: Documentary: "My Borrowed Heritage" and Dance Party (Belmont, MA and online) with Efie Derksen, Hans Derksen, and the Flying Squirrel Orchestra

Dance & Music Series

Thursday, June 6: Thursday Night Folk Dancing (Arlington, MA)

Friday, June 7: Friday Night Folk Dancing Romanian Night with Tom Pixton and the Pinewoods Band (Arlington, MA)

Friday, June 14: Friday Night Folk Dancing with Cambridge Folk Orchestra (Arlington, MA)

Tuesday, July 9: Dancing on the Greenway: English Ceilidh with Alex Cumming & Friends (Boston, MA)

Camps and Tours

June 20 to 27: Pinewoods International Sessions (Plymouth, MA)

August 30 to September 3: Labor Day Weekend at Pinewoods (Plymouth, MA)

October 17 to 31: Autumn in Bulgaria Cultural Tour with Iliana Bozhanova and Todor Yankov

This week's contributors:

Anna Alter: FAC Program Manager

Nick Bishop: Tech troubleshooter, Updates proofreader

Lynne Janbergs: GASP Committee member, Updates proofreader

Marcie Van Cleave: FAC Executive Director

The Folk Arts Center of New England is a nonprofit organization promoting participation in the traditional dance and music of many cultures. FAC sponsors community dances, annual camps, workshops, and other programs in the greater Boston area, elsewhere in New England, and online.

The Folk Arts Center thanks

the Massachusetts Cultural Council

for its generous support.