On October 16, GBIFD will be turning a new page. After running our weekly indoor sessions from September to June at the Owen Sound Family Y for 5 years, we are moving the sessions to the Parish Hall of St. George's Anglican Church. We will be dancing on Mondays from 10:45am to 12:30pm. The drop-in sessions are free for all adult and senior residents as well as visitors of Grey Bruce.
In the past few years, we have enjoyed the occasional drop-ins of some Y members on our Friday afternoon sessions. It was fun to have the young swimmers from the Owen Sound Aquatic Club join us weekly for half an hour last academic; that was part of their dry land training. Unfortunately, the group could no longer meet at that time because of some circumstantial changes of individual members, and the venue at the Y was not available at the new time that works for the group. After putting our heads together, and making a few inquiries, we were welcomed with open arms by the St. George's Anglican Church, one of whose foci in recent years has been community involvement
We hope that the change in venue, time and admission(now free!) means people who are interested but were unable to join us in the past can now do so. Something else new is that the sessions are going to be "open practices", which means that people in the community are welcome to come and watch.
Friday, October 13, 2017
One Down, Two to Go
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Feet on the ground, hands in the air
Well, only two more weeks and we will be dancing outdoors again at Harrison Park!
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Chinese Fan Dance(Original Choreography)
We had our debut performance of the Chinese Fan Dance at Grey Bruce Chinese New Year Celebration 2015 on February 21 at Grey Roots Museum & Archives. Up till then, we have always done demonstrations and workshop. That was the first time we did a performance in costumes. Thank you Grey Bruce Chinese Culture Community for sponsoring the costumes
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Smooth Transition Follow-up
Remember in June we organized an event at Hillcrest Elementary School for grade 6 students from Dufferin, Hillcrest, Keppel-Sarawak and Sydenham who would be attending grade 7 at Hillcrest this fall? Well, now that it is a month into the new school year, we are going to visit these students in their "new" school and classes and see how they are doing.
On October 6, we will be bringing these students together once again in their school gymnasium to do some dances they already know - Kambos(Greece), Alunelul(Romania), Kanaztanc(Hungary) and Kulsko Horo(Blugaria). I think we will probably have time to teach them a couple more - Ambee Dageets(Armenia) and Zemir Atik(Israel)
On October 6, we will be bringing these students together once again in their school gymnasium to do some dances they already know - Kambos(Greece), Alunelul(Romania), Kanaztanc(Hungary) and Kulsko Horo(Blugaria). I think we will probably have time to teach them a couple more - Ambee Dageets(Armenia) and Zemir Atik(Israel)
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
It's School Outreach Time Again!
Last school year, our School Outreach have visited over 20 classes of 3 elementary schools in Owen Sound --- Hillcrest, Sydenham and Dufferin --- and 1 in Southampton, GC Huston, introducing international folk dance to more than 500 children and youths. Two or three area schools are coming on board this year! The first workshops started today with a grade 6/7 and a grade 7/8 classes of Holland-Chatsworth Central School. Both classes learn 2 dances: Kambos(Greece) and Alunelul(Romania).
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
We Have Moved!
With the arrival of fall starts our indoor sessions. After enjoying the mirrored room(fitness studio) at Owen Sound Family Y for 2 years, we are moving into Hit the Beat. We are really excited about the change: the venue is right downtown, which makes the sessions more accessible; we get the venue - two studios if we need to use both - all to ourselves, and storage space too! Grey Bruce International Folk Dancers finally has potential to expand!
We meet Fridays from 4:30 to 6:30pm. There is going to be a drop-in fee of $5 to $8 depending on attendance, in order to cover rental cost. The sessions are open to both gender aged 9 and up.
We meet Fridays from 4:30 to 6:30pm. There is going to be a drop-in fee of $5 to $8 depending on attendance, in order to cover rental cost. The sessions are open to both gender aged 9 and up.
GBIFD's "Let's Dance" Workshop July 1, 2014 - Part 2 of 4
Another segment of our workshop on Canada Day.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
GBIFD's "Let's Dance" Workshop July1, 2014 - Part 1 of 4
On July 1, we celebrated Canada Day by sharing international folk dance with our community. Here's a couple of Armenia dances, Assoulis and Ambee Dageets.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Looking Good
Here's a snapshot at Grey Bruce One World Festival. Kids who were in classes GBIFD have done workshops with were pleased to see us there; even those who were not too keen to dance during workshops eagerly joined in. A few of them even returned to do more after visiting other activities on the site!
Next Up, Workshop at Canada Day Celebration
Owen Sound celebrates Canada Day at Kelso Beach. This year, GBIFD will be joining the team of activity providers and hosting a 45 minutes Let's Dance at 3pm. Unlike Grey Bruce One World Festival whose main audience is elementary school classes, the Celebration is a family event. We are looking forward to having parents/grandparents joining us and their children/grandchildren! Folk dancing sets no age boundary.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Smooth Transition Folk Dance Gathering
Date is confirmed.
On Tuesday June 17, grade six students of Hillcrest Elementary School, Dufferin Elementary School and grade six French Immersion students of Sydenham Community School will gather in the large gym of Hillcrest at the start of the school day and do an hour of folk dancing! The objective of the event is to provide opportunity for these to-be-middle-schoolers to meet and interact with each other before they start school together in the fall.
This September, over one hundred 6th graders from 4 different schools will continue their elementary school in the senior section of Hillcrest. In the past few years volunteering at the school, I have observed, and teachers have told me, some of the difficulties these pre-teens are faced with. It takes them a long time to break down walls between them and be able to learn and grow as a group. When I was doing folk dance workshops with grade 7 classes at Hillcrest last fall, the students were very receptive to this group activity, to the teachers' surprise. Each workshop ran for 3 sessions. By the third session, students were mixing with each other. Hence, I started toying with the idea of a folk dance event for grade 6s.
It was not difficult to convince principals and teachers how their students will benefit from the event. In the past couple of months, I did workshops with all the grade 6 classes involved, teaching them the same 4 dances which will serve as ice-breaker at Smooth Transition. The students are also going to learn two or three dances together.
The classes are looking forward to dance together, and so am I!
On Tuesday June 17, grade six students of Hillcrest Elementary School, Dufferin Elementary School and grade six French Immersion students of Sydenham Community School will gather in the large gym of Hillcrest at the start of the school day and do an hour of folk dancing! The objective of the event is to provide opportunity for these to-be-middle-schoolers to meet and interact with each other before they start school together in the fall.
This September, over one hundred 6th graders from 4 different schools will continue their elementary school in the senior section of Hillcrest. In the past few years volunteering at the school, I have observed, and teachers have told me, some of the difficulties these pre-teens are faced with. It takes them a long time to break down walls between them and be able to learn and grow as a group. When I was doing folk dance workshops with grade 7 classes at Hillcrest last fall, the students were very receptive to this group activity, to the teachers' surprise. Each workshop ran for 3 sessions. By the third session, students were mixing with each other. Hence, I started toying with the idea of a folk dance event for grade 6s.
It was not difficult to convince principals and teachers how their students will benefit from the event. In the past couple of months, I did workshops with all the grade 6 classes involved, teaching them the same 4 dances which will serve as ice-breaker at Smooth Transition. The students are also going to learn two or three dances together.
The classes are looking forward to dance together, and so am I!
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Cultiviating interest among youths
The reason I have not written on this blog since last August is that I have been busy cultivating folk dance interest among youths in the community.
Between September and December, I have gone to 15 classes at 3 elementary schools in Owen Sound and run folk dance workshops for students from kindergarten to grade 8. I visited each class once, twice or three times depending on the arrangement with the teacher. Most teachers had me in three consecutive weeks, so that the students were able to learn at least 4 dances from different countries. Some teachers even treated these folk dance sessions as part of the class' cultural study. For example, Mrs Stredwick, a grade 5 teacher at Dufferin Elementary School, had her students look up Israel, Romania, Turkey and Armenia in the world map after I had told her ahead of time the dances I was going to teach her class --- Shibolet Bassedeh, Alunelul, Iste Hendek and Ambee Dageets.
These workshops were very well-received by both teachers and students. Dance is in elementary school's syllabus. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers do not feel comfortable teaching it as they themselves have done very little dance or none at all. Often, classes are shown instruction videos and students are asked to follow along. Teachers welcomed my workshops as there is a "real live instructor" present to help the kids --- steps are walked through at the pace of the students; steps are "dissected" and shown to the students so they understand how to do them. Students loves the sessions during which they get to listen to exotic and appealing music they don't hear anywhere else; they learn a lot of basic steps which they can use with music of their choice. Three years ago, a grade 7 boy signed up to do my folk dance elective at Hillcrest Elementary School and was disappointed the first day when he found out that I was not going to teach him break dance. I explained that the steps in all the dances I teach can be adapted to most genres of dance. He did not believe me at first; but by the end of the four weeks, he was incorporating these "simple" steps into his break dance moves!
The second round of elementary school workshops is about to start. In the next five weeks, I will be visiting six classes from grade 3 to grade 6. By the end of spring, about 500 elementary school students in Owen Sound will have experienced the joy of international folk dancing!
Between September and December, I have gone to 15 classes at 3 elementary schools in Owen Sound and run folk dance workshops for students from kindergarten to grade 8. I visited each class once, twice or three times depending on the arrangement with the teacher. Most teachers had me in three consecutive weeks, so that the students were able to learn at least 4 dances from different countries. Some teachers even treated these folk dance sessions as part of the class' cultural study. For example, Mrs Stredwick, a grade 5 teacher at Dufferin Elementary School, had her students look up Israel, Romania, Turkey and Armenia in the world map after I had told her ahead of time the dances I was going to teach her class --- Shibolet Bassedeh, Alunelul, Iste Hendek and Ambee Dageets.
These workshops were very well-received by both teachers and students. Dance is in elementary school's syllabus. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers do not feel comfortable teaching it as they themselves have done very little dance or none at all. Often, classes are shown instruction videos and students are asked to follow along. Teachers welcomed my workshops as there is a "real live instructor" present to help the kids --- steps are walked through at the pace of the students; steps are "dissected" and shown to the students so they understand how to do them. Students loves the sessions during which they get to listen to exotic and appealing music they don't hear anywhere else; they learn a lot of basic steps which they can use with music of their choice. Three years ago, a grade 7 boy signed up to do my folk dance elective at Hillcrest Elementary School and was disappointed the first day when he found out that I was not going to teach him break dance. I explained that the steps in all the dances I teach can be adapted to most genres of dance. He did not believe me at first; but by the end of the four weeks, he was incorporating these "simple" steps into his break dance moves!
The second round of elementary school workshops is about to start. In the next five weeks, I will be visiting six classes from grade 3 to grade 6. By the end of spring, about 500 elementary school students in Owen Sound will have experienced the joy of international folk dancing!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Summer Transitioning to Fall
So, summer is almost over. Tomorrow, we will have our last outdoor session. It has been fun dancing at Harrison Park. We have drawn attention from curious public every week. While most people just stood and watched us from a distances, a lady actually joined in on a few dances. It was Summerfolk weekend. This festival visitor from Guelph was pleased to find us at the park where she was camping for the weekend. "It has given her festival weekend a nice start"! We have had teenagers and children who were too shy to join us by tried their very best to imitate our moves.
The next three weeks, we will be visiting nursing homes in Owen Sound. demonstrations in public events aside, this is going to be the first time Grey Bruce International Folk Dancers perform for an audience. We hope to get some old folks up and dancing with us!
The next three weeks, we will be visiting nursing homes in Owen Sound. demonstrations in public events aside, this is going to be the first time Grey Bruce International Folk Dancers perform for an audience. We hope to get some old folks up and dancing with us!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Let's Get Ready For One World Festival!
Well, tomorrow is the day! At 10am and 11am, we will be leading workshops at One World Festival Grey Bruce. The Dancers are going demonstrate a few dances --- Ciuleandra, Hine Ma Tov, Sapri Tama and Yedid Nefesh --- and teach participants some beginner level numbers. Below are videos of dancers we will be teaching, just in case anybody wants to learn it ahead of time :)
Alunelul(Romania)
Kambos(Greece)
Kulsko Oro(Bulgaria)
Shibolet Bassadeh(Israel)
Zemir Atik(Israel)
Alunelul(Romania)
Kambos(Greece)
Kulsko Oro(Bulgaria)
Shibolet Bassadeh(Israel)
Zemir Atik(Israel)
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Tees with Logos
Yesterday, Sharon spent another 2 hours helping me create more logos and make the t-shirts. Together with the logo without graphic image --- the one on the back of the hoodie, there are three logo designs available.
The nice thing about getting the samples done at her store is that, now that she has the logos on file, GBIFD members can just go to The Great Canadian T Shirt Company and pick a t-shirt/sweater of their preferred styles, colors and sizes. They can even choose colors for the logos.
The nice thing about getting the samples done at her store is that, now that she has the logos on file, GBIFD members can just go to The Great Canadian T Shirt Company and pick a t-shirt/sweater of their preferred styles, colors and sizes. They can even choose colors for the logos.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
It's Spring Time
Well, it does not look like it, but today is actually first day of spring.
I thought I would share this dance with you: Garoon from Israel. I learned it when I was in secondary school in Hongkong back a long while ago. Naturally, we have a Chinese title for the dance --- Spring Time.
Last summer, GBIFD did Mayim in one of our summer outdoor sessions in the hopes of its bringing us some rain. Well, it worked a week later! So, maybe, just maybe, if we do Garoon, spring weather will eventually arrive.
I thought I would share this dance with you: Garoon from Israel. I learned it when I was in secondary school in Hongkong back a long while ago. Naturally, we have a Chinese title for the dance --- Spring Time.
Last summer, GBIFD did Mayim in one of our summer outdoor sessions in the hopes of its bringing us some rain. Well, it worked a week later! So, maybe, just maybe, if we do Garoon, spring weather will eventually arrive.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Yang Ge(rice sprouts song)
is a form of Chinese folk dance originating from the Song Dynasty. It is very popular in northern China
and is one of the most representative form of folk arts. It is popular
in both the countryside and cities in northern China. It is especially
popular among older people. Crowds of people will go out into the street
in the evening and dance together in a line or a circle formation.
Some dancers dress up in red, green, or other colorful costumes, and typically use a red silk ribbon around the waist. They will swing their bodies to music played by drum, trumpet, and gong. More people will join in as they see Yang Ge going on and dance along. Some dancers use props like the waistdrum, dancing fan, fake donkey, or litter. In different areas Yangge is performed in different styles, but all types express happiness.
In the 1940s, the Chinese Communist Party adopted the dance as a means of rallying village support, and it is sometimes known as "reform yangge".
Some dancers dress up in red, green, or other colorful costumes, and typically use a red silk ribbon around the waist. They will swing their bodies to music played by drum, trumpet, and gong. More people will join in as they see Yang Ge going on and dance along. Some dancers use props like the waistdrum, dancing fan, fake donkey, or litter. In different areas Yangge is performed in different styles, but all types express happiness.
In the 1940s, the Chinese Communist Party adopted the dance as a means of rallying village support, and it is sometimes known as "reform yangge".
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