North Country Fiddle and Dance to Perform at UMC February 1
North Country Fiddle and Dance will perform at the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) on Saturday, February 1, from 7-10 p.m. in Bede Ballroom. The interactive performance is open to the public. Admission is free for UMC students and $2 for others.
North Country Fiddle and Dance celebrates a form of folk dance and music that has endured for ages. The performance takes the form of a concert followed by a dance, with audience members joining in to learn the dances. Throughout the years, unaffected by the many changes in pop culture, these dances and tunes continue to be danced and played across the country. This art form has never died out, simply because these dances and tunes are a part of American heritage.
North Country Fiddle and Dance maintains a traditional string band, which plays Appalachian, Irish, and French Canadian folk-dance music. Demonstrations of Appalachian clogging and French Canadian step-dancing are also part of a typical performance by the group.
The group was organized by Tom and Jeanne O’Neil of Grand Forks, ND, in 1986. Since then the group has held non-profit monthly dances, open to the public, throughout most of each year. They have produced many special events featuring musicians and/or dancers from around the region, including Minneapolis-St. Paul and Winnipeg
, Manitoba.According to the O’Neils, traditional dance and music offer a form of recreation, artistic expression, and social interaction which has been neglected in recent years. Through their community dances, performances, and musical gatherings, North Country Fiddle and Dance encourages people to learn to dance and make music for themselves. Their goal is to continue to provide the people of the Red River Valley an opportunity to actively experience folk music and dance and to build a sense of community through the socio-recreational nature of traditional dance.
For centuries, the role of these dances, and of the music that accompanies them, has been to bring people together--to join hands in a circle and move to music made by friends. The O’Neils maintain that in the fractured, hurried lifestyle of today, the sense of unity created by this music and dance is a joy and delight.
This event is sponsored by the UMC Concerts and Lectures Committee. Disability accommodations are available upon request by calling 218-8506.
Posted 01/22/2003
Contact: Andrew Svec,
218-281-8435