Sometimes, I folk dance.

So this past May and a smidgen of April, I was on tour with the World Dance Showcase folk dance team at Brigham Young University. Sound impressive? Good.

But really. For one semester, this team, WDS (a name we are still getting used to, as we were formerly called Spring Performing Arts Company or SPAC, pronounced like spackle with the -kle) prepared 14 dances between 2 teams within the team (I know, it's getting complicated stay with me here). We split into 2 teams, a 7-couple team and a 9-couple team, so the transitions in our shows can go smoothly. Where do we perform these shows you ask? I will tell you, and you will love it.

For CHILDREN! You got that right dude. We don't dance for distinguished old people who pay for tickets and sit in an auditorium. Oh no, we dance for children who laugh when we shimmy, think the Mexican costumes are ninjas, and pick their noses whilst watching us dance. It gets even better, we don't even dance on stages, oh no, we dance on cafeteria floors. And we dance right up in their FACES! Oh the number of times I made children blush and hide behind their friends.



An example of the children.








A normal day of a folk dancer on this team is something like this.

5:30- Wake up. Ish. If you're a girl, braid and/or get your hair braided.
6:30- Meet outside of the apartment building we all live in to pile into four BYU-issue vans. This years models were named: Silver Bullet, Gunther/Dilworth (depending on who you talked to), Clifford (the lesser known name of the cargo van with all our gear), and Lesta.
6:45- Listen to an inspirational thought and Delynne's (our teacher/coach/mother) layout for the day and other random thoughts that she decides to give us. Also. More braiding.
7:00- Drive. Forever. Dance in the vans. Sleep in the vans. Listen to Delynne talk for hours in the vans.
9:15- Arrive at the first school, layout your costumes, braid some more.
9:45- Warm up in the children's cafeteria while the kids eating their breakfast wonder what's up with the people dressed in black running in circles to Holding Out For A Hero.
10:15- Dance for children.
10:45- Give high fives to the children after dancing for them.
10:50- Pack up your costumes, make the boys take your costume bag to the van, get in the van, drive to the next school, do it again.
5:00- Arrive back at the apartments. Hot tub. Swim. Watch movies. With the same people you dance with everyday. :)


You may wonder what's up with all the braiding? I shall explain. You see as a female folk dancer, it is not enough to have your own lovely hair, it is fairly necessary to add a couple feet of fake hair so that your french braid is unnaturally long. And so, the art of french-braiding with real and fake hair is an art that must be mastered by at least 5-6 girls on the team. Once the art is mastered, braiding can take place at any time and in just about any situation.

Here are some other fun things that tend to happen/happened on my tour.

-The creation of new words, such as squidgeon. Use of squidgeon in a sentence, "Pass me a squidgeon, I need to gas the rockets."
-Nicknames. I myself who have only successfully had one nickname (Little Lynette, also given to me by a folk dancer), gained at least 4 more: Internet, Nettie, Delynne (though that one was unintentional, or so they say...) and my favorite, Stinging Nettle. Other great nicknames given include but are not limited to: Sheppy, Granton, V-Rap, T-Rex, Porkchop and/or Portiadka, Tandi, Canteen, Marriage, Reedifer, The Kikster, Samwise.
- Massages. They happen all over the place. This is an ideal time for you to experience a calf massage for the first time.
- Pranks. About the 3rd week, when you could and maybe actually DO the dances in your sleep...the pranks begin. As long as they don't affect the dance Delynne is down with them, and even encourages them. Sometimes she even dares all the girls to include the word moist in their narrations before each dance.
- Also, sometimes we dance for old people. This is actually quite similar to dancing for children. Though when we dance for old people we bring our own stage and set it up on the grass, and it falls apart while we dance. It's pretty funny/dangerous.
- Friendship. Did you know you can make 32 best friends in under one month? Possible.


And so, for my dear fellow SPACers, I love and/or miss you. You pick. (I pick both). For past/present/future folk dancers, enjoy the folk danciness of this post. For others, if you have no idea what any of this is about...sorry...at least it was witty right?



Look, I can dance Puerto Rican AND find it on a map!