“And five, six, seven, eight!”
Every Thursday evening, around eight friends gather on the second-floor studio above Tri-State Bearing Company, Inc., crank up some music, and kick up their heels. Their style? Folk dancing.
Gardner Weber introduced international folk dancing to Evansville in 1971 through a beginner’s class at the YWCA. Over time, the group became more recreational but still focuses on reviving dances that have been forgotten.
“We are not a professional performance group. We prefer to say we ‘demonstrate’ and hopefully get people participating and enjoying the music and movement,” says dance leader Barb Gillespie, whose parents helped found the Evansville International Folk Dancers group in the ’70s.
The group’s playlist is heavily influenced by Israeli and Eastern European music, with many tunes drawn from Greece, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Turkey. Although some dances require partners, many can be performed solo. Member Mary Engelland often introduces new steps she has learned while teaching line dancing at the YMCA of Southwestern Indiana. Members also request their favorites; the playlist is flexible.
Some members, like Julie Pyle and Carol Grimm, are interested in learning about other cultures. “I like the different music and learning the steps,” says assistant dance leader Grimm, a member since 1978. “Plus, it’s good exercise!”
The group’s welcoming environment also makes dancers at all skill levels comfortable with joining in. “It’s the one place I can dance and it’s OK,” says 20-year member Brenda Meyer. “I don’t always get the steps, but I can do the rhythm.”
Each session ends with dancers holding a flameless candle bearing the name of a late group member and then performing “Erev Ba,” an Israeli dance, in their memory.
Local members attend Kentucky Dance Institute workshops each summer as well as folk dancing events in major Midwestern cities. And they heartily welcome new dancers to join them on Thursday nights; they accept $3 freewill offerings to help cover costs. Feel you have two left feet? Get a crash course in folk dancing July 25 at a Bierstube Bootcamp two weeks before Germania Maennerchor’s annual Volksfest — a heritage celebration that aligns with the International Folk Dancers’ mission.
“We’re keeping the history alive, of people getting together and socializing over food and dance,” Engelland says.
When You Go
Bierstube Bootcamp
7-10 p.m. July 25
Germania Maennerchor, 916 N. Fulton Ave.
