Norsk Folkedans Stemne 2012, August 17-19
with Bjerkreimringen
Norsk Folkedans Stemne 2011 was great with Project Tove! Tove Ingrid Maurstad brought an amazing group of young talented musicians and dancers along with a core group of experienced dancers, many of whom had been to stemne before with other groups. Getting young people involved with learning Norwegian music, dances, and songs is one of the goals of Norsk Folkedans Stemne and gives us hope for the future of Norwegian folkdancing in the Pacific Northwest. Many thanks to: Tove Ingrid Maurstad Tuko, Aileen Henden, Egil Nordhagen, Karianne J. Holestol, Kirsten Margrethe Schjoth, Knut Bergan Nedregaard, Lars Fivelstad Smaaberg, Nils Jarle Oma, Nils Steinar Slapgaard, Runhild Heggem, Sekita Ostli Kristiansen, Sigrid Vaskinn, Silja Solvang, Thor Sorum, Thorvald Kristian Holtan Saehlie, Torbjorn Bergwitz Lauen, Torild Svelle, and Aasmund Jotun Fauske. You can see photos of the weekend by Martin Ng here. Tusen takk Project Tove! Hope to see some of you back in a few years!
Norsk Folkedans Stemne 2012 will be held on the third weekend of August this year – August 17, 18, and 19. This is our "permanent" weekend now.
Bjerkreimringen will be our instructors. They are from the west coast in Rogaland. The group "was officially started in 1985, but some of the members have been dancing together since 1979. We have about 40 members who practice once a week. We like to perform and much of our practice is preparation for performances. For many summers we have had a special program for German tourists. The group travels a lot, both in Norway and abroad. We have been dancing on The Great Wall in China and this is our fifth trip to USA. As it looks right now, we will be 20-25 persons coming to Seattle." We have not determined the dances to be taught yet.
Performances in Junction City, Poulsbo, and the salmon dinner in Seattle
Bjerkreimringen most likely will be scheduled at Junction City for August 11 and in Poulsbo on August 13. (We are working out the details.) The salmon dinner is tentatively scheduled for August 14 in 2012. If your group would like to host Bjerkreimringen for visiting, performance, or concert, please contact cmadance@earthlink.net
CDs, DVDs, Handbooks, and Photos: Our collection of stemne instruction material grows each year. If you would like to order back copies, just use the form on this website. Hopefully by this summer, the offerings from the last few years will be added to the website. Dale Abraham continues to improve it. Photos by Martin Ng from 2011 and many other years are loaded on our website. Below are the directions to get the photos to add to your personal collections. We have included links to Norwegian groups who have taught at stemne so you can read their accounts of stemne and view photos from the trips.
If you click on the Help link at the bottom of the page, it gives a summary of the navigation options. One of the options is to display the photos in their original format (highest resolution, at 1024x768 pixels). See under the help file's section on Navigation on the slide pictures.
Whenever the photo is being displayed, one can save off the photo in the usually manner -- right-click on the photo to bring up the pop-up menu, and select Save Picture As to save a photo to your local drive. The current setup of the albums is not tied to any printing services. However setting up this way, you can print the photos themselves at high resolution without ordering them.
Dance and music from Norway: If you have suggestions as to performing Norwegian groups to bring to Norsk Folkedans Stemne in the future, please be sure to forward the information to cmadance@earthlink.net. The same goes for additional grants as registration fees only cover a portion of our costs. Please let us know if other groups or performers from Norway are interested in coming to Seattle.
Scholarships for Norsk Folkedans Stemne 2012: One of the goals of stemne is to encourage the love of Norwegian dance and music in young people to continue this heritage brought to North America. Don't forget we do have several scholarships for young people at attend stemne! Many thanks to those of you who have contributed to our organization to continue this program!
Donations: Norsk Folkedans Stemne is an independent federal and state nonprofit corporation. We accept donations large and small to continue our purposes to teach, share, and promote understanding of Norwegian folk dances, music, songs, heritage, and culture through this annual gathering of Norwegian folk dancing groups from the United States, Canada and Norway. All monetary donations are tax deductible in the United States.
See you at Norsk Folkedans Stemne 2012 on August 17-19 at Camp Brotherhood!