Dance and Music

Today’s session of the GABFEST speaking club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) was planned as a free topic. The participants were encouraged to suggest topics for discussion.

Our American volunteer Mr. Joseph has introduced the topic of social dancing. He presented an very traditional American dancing genre – shag dancing.

"Shag" (when used in reference to American social dances) is a very broad term used to denote a number of swing dances that originated during the early part of the 20th century.  Shag was known throughout the entire country under various names, like "Flea Hop".

Today the term "Collegiate Shag" is most often used in reference to a kind of double shag that is believed to have originated in New York or New Jersey during the 1930s. To call the dance "collegiate shag" was not as common during the swing era as it is today, but when it was used (as it was with other vernacular dances of the time) it was meant to indicate the style of the dance that was popular amongst the college crowd. If anything, this meant it was a more energetic variant, probably involving more kicks. This name later became somewhat standard in the latter part of the 20th century.

The discussion further touched upon other national dances – Ukrainian gopak, Russian Kalinka, Latin-American salsa, Nigerian traditional. All the dances were illustrated with relevant videos from YouTube. The club members explained to the foreign guests the difference between the Ukrainian and Russian folk costumes. The guests shared their first impressions about the Ukrainian folk dance gopak performed by the famous Ukrainian State Dance Ensemble named after Pavlo Virsky.

Among other topics discussed during the session were the following:

·                 Election of the new Club’s President and Vice-President for the year 2013. The unanimous vote elected Mr. Jeff K. as the new President.  Ms. Olga Sh. Was re-elected as a Vice-president.

·                 The dress code for the Xmas session after-party.

·                 Musical numbers to be presented at the Xmas party. Mr. Joseph volunteered to sing Xmas carols. To illustrate his skills he showed us a video of himself singing A popular Russian song “Bat’ka-Ataman”. We have enjoyed the show and look forward to more of Joseph’s singing.

·                 Answering questions of our foreign club member Toby about the dates diference for popular winter holidays.

 The session was fun and enjoyed by all the participants.

The number of participants – 42.

Have a look at more pictures, please