Dancers move, teach international folk music, learn styles

Liz Venstra has been a part of the International Folk Dance group for 15 years, though she said she feels as though she knows fewer dances than the group in general.

“There’s some dances I know well enough to teach or to lead,” Venstra said. “And there’s other dances that I don’t know at all.”

Venstra said they all teach each other dance routines that originate from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia and other places around the world.

“People will sometimes go to workshops and then come back and teach it to the group,” Venstra said. “We try to do it enough so that enough of us know it, and we could continue to do it.”

Al Ruesink, faculty advisor for the International Folk Dance group, said the group has been active since 1958. Ruesink himself has been part of the International Folk Dance group for about 40 years.

“My wife signed us up to a folk dance lesson without telling me,” Ruesink said. “We came back and found that there was an active group here and we’ve been a part of it ever since.”

Ruesink said that during his time here, the number and age of dancers has changed from year to year.

“Some years we have a bunch of graduate students,” Ruesink said. “This year, as you can tell by looking, most of us are beyond that stage. I see one, two, three faculty. I see an ex-academic advisor, two staff people, and I see two community people and I see a graduate student.”

Leah Savion, a philosophy and cognitive science faculty member, teaches, dances and organizes performing groups.

“I do everything,” Savion said, “I do Polka, Israeli, Swedish, Hungarian, everything. But other than that I specialize in Gumboot dance. I was in the Gumboot performing group for seven years. I also know ballroom dance and Zumba.”

Gumboot dance is a South African dance where the performers use Wellington boots with bells to make a collective, percussive sound.

Savion, who has been a professional dancer for 50 years, believes international folk dance is different from practically all other dances.

“Someone could do folk dance religiously for four or five years and still be a novice because there are 100 of thousands or so different dances,” Savion said. “The Romanian is a different character than the African, the Israeli, the English ... they all very different characters, you need to inquire different styles to do them right. So it’s very challenging constantly and never boring. It’s terrific.”

Savion said International Folk Dance group teaches throughout the school and community. She also organizes a performance group that gives performances throughout the year and tries different methods to keep her students motivated.

“I get my students to dance also,” Savion said. “If they look sleepy they get up and do some Zumba steps or Hip Hop ... so they won’t fall asleep in the afternoon.”

The International Folk Dance group meets 7 p.m. every Friday in the Indiana Memorial Union.