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August 2003 - Newsflash The Danish folkdance “touring group” consisting of 14 dancers departed Australia in various stages throughout the months of May and June. Most folk dancers had made quite expansive itineraries and all made it to the Nordlek International Festival in Naestved, Denmark arriving from all corners of the world, and a lot of them disappearing over the horizon again a week or so later after the Festival, seeing yet more before returning to Australia. Lis Larsen, Dance Leader reports on the Nordlek events in July 2003: After playing tourist the day dawned where Tom and I were going to meet up with most of our folkdance group in Naestved. Our lodgings were not in this town, but a short distance away in an idyllic place called Karrebaeksminde. We had booked apartments in the conference centre there. The day after our arrival we went to a get-together with our family and friends. It was a very good day where the group had a chance to talk with some Danes and experience some Danish food and we even had time for a bit of dancing.  The following week we were busy performing, starting with the opening ceremony and as one group member expressed it: “When we saw our Club’s flag being carried in, it was like the Olympics and brought tears to our eyes”. There were 4,900 people involved in the Nordlek festival from the five Nordic countries, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and of course Denmark, but also from Australia, Canada, Estonia, Russia and USA. It was an amazing event to be part of. During this week we performed specially rehearsed program including our bush-dances in Naestved and also in Karrebaeksminde and the performances went very well. At the end of each performance we went and found a new partner amongst the unsuspecting but quite willing audiences and continued the merry dancing to everyone’s delight for a while longer. During the week there were also a lot of different workshops to go to, but not enough time to attend them all I found. One workshop we did attend was to learn the Danish Sonderhoning folkdance. It is a dance that is quite difficult to do and I especially wanted to make sure that I am teaching it correctly. We also went to a barn dance at a farm outside Naestved both for dinner and for some dancing. This has special significance as some of the band of musicians who were entertaining visited us in Australia together with the Taastrup Folk dancers back in 1992 and those two groups are our very reason for existing today. Moreover we do a lot of folk dancing back in Brisbane using the band’s music. The musicians as a group are called Ramsoe Spillemaend and it was a great night of dancing. We are used to playing their cd’s but dancing to their live music was an even greater experience. Saturday was the big day of the festival with the closing ceremony, the one we had been practicing for during the last 6 months. The weather was good and all the dancers from the five Nordic countries plus all of us from countries with connection to them, assembled before walking into the big oval. There were of course all the usual speeches and then the fantastic big band consisting of spillemaend from all the Nordic countries including our band Salmiakki from Newcastle was playing, an awesome experience. All participating 2000 dancers then danced one dance together from each of the five Nordic countries Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark. In between the above mentioned dances the National dances were performed and we had the great pleasure to be part of the Danish National Performance. We thought that “us coming from Australia just had to practice hard to measure up!” But we were pleasantly surprised as “us Australians” were actually doing very well. About 8pm we had seen a lot of good National performances. Very moving was the performance of VI-KAN, which are mostly mentally handicapped people from all the five countries, the happiness and the excitement they showed in their dancing was great to watch. After some more dancing in the three dance halls, where we could choose between different dances and bands, it was time to gather for the closing ceremony of the festival. There were speeches and hand-over of the NORDLEK flag to Sweden (Gothenburg) where the next festival is to take place in 2006. Finally, the firework display was a spectacular sight as it lit up the now almost dark sky; it was daylight up there until 10 – 10.30pm every day. The final fireworks displayed Gothenburg 2006. That was the end of the festival that we had come for; but now the touring of Denmark and meeting up with our folkdance friends were going to start and that was going to be just as exiting as the festival. After the end of the festival week we had a day where we were able to relax and do all the “touristy” things including shopping, eating lots of ice cream as the weather was being at its best – a balmy 28 degrees – we were enjoying café and other life sampling plenty of the wares on offer. But I did have an encounter of the very unpleasant kind with a large flying object in the form of a stray beach umbrella. I was totally unaware of the danger, but according to others it missed my head only by a centimeter. The next week our folkdance Group toured Denmark together and did sightseeing of Zealand and Jutland and then we all set out for the island of Fyn (Hans Christian Andersen was born on this island). For the two weeks we stayed in Karrebaeksminde we had leased a bus to get around and Tom was our driver. The first week we used the bus between Naestved and Karrebaeksminde and the following week for our sightseeing trips. Still sightseeing as we went along we were also responding to an invitation to do yet more dancing and not to forget enjoy more food delights with a folkdance group in Svendborg. This also included an overnight stay. The next day we also managed to see Taasinge and Langeland with Hans from the Svendborg Folkdancers as our guide. It was quite a sight to see all our Svendborg friends there waiting for us with a band of four musicians playing and everybody looking cool and dressed up. Because here we were, arriving after a day of sightseeing - hot, sweaty and tired! Though, it did not take us long to get into a happy mood. We were soon singing along with the rest of our new found friends, how could you not, with all the wonderfully friendly people who had been looking forward to our visit. We did have a fabulous evening with a great meal to boot and soon we were dancing away into the wee hours on a very hot summers night – all 50 of us! After goodbye’s in Svendborg the following day, yet more sightseeing was done and then back to our lodgings in Karrebaeksminde to get ready for another invitation. This time by our friends, the Taastrup Folkdance Group, who as I mentioned previously, visited us in July 1992, While living in Denmark, my husband Tom and I used to dance folkdance with this Group, so we go back a long way. It was a happy reunion for all and they had a sumptuous and overwhelming smorgasbord waiting for us. After having done the smorgasbord justice we went outside, where we had our photos taken by the local newspaper. They had already run one article about us visiting the Taastrup Folkdance Group and also an article on the Nordlek Festival and now they did a follow up, which was going to appear in the newspaper soon after we left Denmark. The evening finished with some folk dancing of course and at the end of a wonderful evening spent with great folkdance-friends it was time to say goodbye yet again which we all did singing the song of friendship: “Should auld acquaintance be forgot” and finishing off with: “Now is the hour”. It was indeed “the hour” as everyone in our group slowly made their way back to Australia along different routes and I am sure I speak for all when I say that we will treasure our happy memories about the wonderful people we have met and the great friendships we have made throughout the Nordlek Festival which brought folk dancers together from all over the world. Lis Larsen & Jytte Pedersen The Danish Folkdance Group “Heimdal” |
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Our group was established, after a visit from 45 Folk dancers from Taastrup – Denmark, and currently consists of about 40 dancers.
We have a mixture of nationalities in our group and we mainly dance traditional Danish Folk dances but with a sprinkling of Norwegian and Swedish dances.
We have imported fine taped music to accompany us, as we have no access to traditional musicians.
Dances, we have chosen for performances, are a mix of couple dances, circle dances and quadrille dances.
Our
costumes and dances have been drawn from the period between 1750 and
1890
and include Swedish and Norwegian costumes as well. 
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To book performances and for general inquiries please contact: Folk Dance Group: Chairman Tom
Larsen or
Dance Leader Lis Larsen
Ph. 07 3288 5538 email: tom_larsen_lis@hotmail.com
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