German Folk Dance and Folk Song 2010

Report: "Traditional German folk dance and song" by Stacey Chantel Elias

When I first heard that our group would be participating in the Traditional German folk dance and song I was excited, but I honestly imagined it to be a bit strange and corny, and I wasn't really sure if I would enjoy it.
My perception of dance has never really included jumping around on my feet, twirling around in a circle or holding hands, rather it included shaking my body and dancing really freely, and this perception seems to have extended throughout the South African group. However, this perception soon changed as we learnt our first German folk dance and song which included the Polka, Sternpolka and Fröhliche Kreis. Never in my life would I have imagined German folk dancing to be so interesting and fun. The room which we danced in was filled with laughter and there was a vibrant atmosphere amongst everybody as we all tried to do the various dances. We even had some accidents where some of the couples bumped into each other, stepped on each others toes and we even had people falling. However, it was all part of the fun and I think that all of us (successfully) managed to master the dances. The dancing was a bit of a challenge for some of us as we had to remember the various steps and allow ourselves to dance to the rhythm of the music.
Myself, Hannes, Kelly and Nombulelo even had the opportunity to dress up and wear the traditional dance clothing. This definitely added more excitement to the group and we continued with some more dances. After the dancing lessons most of us were extremely tired but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and it was some good exercise to work off all the chocolates that Barbara has been feeding us.
When I get back to South Africa I'll definitely teach the various dances to my friends and family. Some of the students in the group even said that we should do the Traditional German Folk dancing at Kuckuck which is one of the local clubs in Tübingen.

WHAT AN EXPEREINCE TO REMEMBER!

by Stacey Chantel Elias