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Dick Crum/David Vinsky Workshop
by Jeremy Hull
Going to a dance workshop away from home is always a bit of an adventure. You don't know exactly what to expect from the dance teachers and the other dancers or how well things will be organized and what kind of welcome you will receive. But when going to workshops at the Tapestry Folk Dance Center in Minneapolis there is little cause for concern. A the recent Dick Crum/David Vinsky workshop people were very warm to all of us out of town visitors (I think half the dancers at the workshop were from out of town), and the Winnipegers who went to the workshop - Dan Stone, Patti Cohen, Roger Redwin and I -- had been to other midwest events over the years and knew many people there already. I seemed to recognize every face even if I couldn't put a name to it. And several years ago we had two of the prominent dance leaders from Tapestry - Dan and Mary Garvin - come to Winnipeg to lead a dance workshop.
So our expectations were high, the karma was good and the stars were favourable. The two workshop leaders gave us a great combination of skill and experience. I have heard about Dick Crum for years, how he was one of the pioneers of international folk dance who originally introduced many Balkan dances to North America from the 1950s on, and how entertaining he is as a dance teacher cum storyteller cum standup comedian. He turned out to be a delightful, gnome-like man with a sparse, scruffy beard, a stylish west coast style cowboy hat that he never took off, and a constant twinkle in his eye. He led us in a few dances over the weekend but at his venerable age he no longer has the energy for the faster dances. He also treated us to a “culture corner” in which he outlined some of the history of dances from the region of Serbia, Croatia and Romania where many of our Serbian and Croatian dances are from, and how and when these dances were first introduced in areas of the United States, especially in Pittsburg and other areas of Pennsylvania and Ohio and in St. Paul where he grew up. He also led us through a fictional re-enactment of how a folk dance from somewhere in the Balkans might have been transmitted to North America, going through a transformation from a very basic dance done at village celebrations to a more complicated set of steps taught to recreational folk dancers in a very different context. For this exercise we all became villagers in the fictional “Upper-Lower village” and performed “Our Dance” while Dick took on various personae including the Oldest Person in the Village, the State Dance School Choreographer, and the American Folk Dance Collector, with humourous results.
The other dance leader, David Vinsky (from Pittsburg I think), had a vaguely professional look with his neat goatee, glasses and dress shoes, so that someone said he reminded them of a dentist. He was our primary dance teacher throughout the weekend and took us through a number of mostly faster dances from Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Hungary. He did a great job of breaking down the sometimes subtle and complicated steps for us. When teaching one of the Croatian dances that Dick had originally introduced he noted that the dance used to take much longer to teach because of its unfamiliar syncopation. We now know this rhythm by Dick's famous phrase “Get your pa-pers here!” It seems that international folk dancers have been getting ever more skilled and sophisticated in their dancing over the years, and I suppose the other side of the coin is that it has become ever more challenging for newcomers when they first encounter Balkan folk dancing, something we need to keep in mind.
The other dancers were from all over the upper Midwest, with a lot of people from various parts of Wisconsin and others from Iowa and Nebraska. Some of these folks I had first met camping at the Door County Folk Festival in Wisconsin or at an Yves Moreau workshop in Eau Claire Wisconsin. The irrepressible Michael Kuharsky from Madison (the inventor of “Istanbul Bar”) was very much in evidence, often leading the dance lines, calling out changes to the dance steps, playing his accordion during breaks, and asking obscure technical questions about the dances. The Minneapolis dancers were excellent hosts, billeting us out-of-towners, putting on a potluck lunch on Saturday and a Sunday brunch, and making us feel welcome. We were even invited to an impromptu meal (and shower) during the Saturday supper break, courtesy of Carol and Ron, where we enjoyed a great vegetarian chilli etc. while we chewed over Dick's thoughts about folk dancing. Three of us stayed with Craig and Fiamma who have a unique, custom built house with beautiful views of lake and woods, north of the twin cities. They had it built with its own good-sized dance hall with a sprung wood floor where they like to host dance parties.
The Tapestry Dance Center is a great facility in itself, and is the result of a lot of hard work and fundraising by its members. Tapestry encompasses a wide variety of dance styles, from Cajun to Contra to English, Scottish, Swing, International, etc. The Center is a former machine shop that Tapestry was able to buy and renovate to meet their needs. It now has a wonderful large dance hall with a beautiful wooden dance floor that the members put in themselves, along with a smaller dance studio, a kitchen and change facilities. Tapestry always has a lot going on, and the only reason we were able to have our Saturday night party in the big hall was that it was the fifth Saturday of the month, the only time Saturday nights are not booked for contras and squares. The dance parties were lots of fun, with an emphasis on Balkan dancing. Most dances were of the kind that we could join in and “fake it” until we picked up the pattern, or they were dances learned during the weekend. On Saturday night Patti led Hoe Anna by popular demand, and the canoes were making significant progress during the dance, threatening to crash into the music table. Meanwhile Michael Kuharsky, who was one of the paddlers, experienced a shark attack, perpetrated by Craig. We also had the excellent local band, Orkestar Bez Ime, to play for us Saturday night, alternating with recorded music, and many of the dances they played were familiar to me.
So, all-in-all, it was a memorable trip. Folk dancers, like others with a passion for their chosen recreation, love to meet others of their ilk. I would say to other MIFDA members, if you have the opportunity to go to one of these workshops, in Minneapolis or somewhere else, you will most likely find a warm welcome from folk dancers and have a great time.
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