By Corinne LestchThe Daily Northwestern
The sounds of international folk music rang through the gymnasium inside Lake Street Church on Monday night.
Linking arms and following each other’s steps, about 40 people performed dances such as the Setnja, a Serbian dance, and Mana’avu, an Israeli dance.
Every Monday night, the church, 607 Lake St., hosts folk dance sessions, in which anyone can participate for a $5 fee.
“We do a very unusual activity,” said Sanna Longden, who started the dance sessions at the church with her husband, Mars, in 1973. “You usually find people doing just one kind of dance, but every year (international folk dance) has gotten bigger.”
The sessions incorporate music from several different countries, such as Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia.
“The idea of folk dancing is that you should be able to walk in off the street and just do it,” said Jim Rust, session leader for Beth Am Israeli Folk Dancing. “When you are advanced, you know that it’s about expressing complex rhythms and you realize it’s deeper than you thought.”
Longden, who has taught dance in different locations throughout the world, said she has seen a decline in interest in folk dancing over the years.
The sessions at Lake Street Church attracted as many as 120 people each week during the 1980s, Longden said.
“There has been a big decline in folk dance in general all over the world,” Longden said. “It is a subject we all endlessly debate.”
Rust said he believes people tend to spend less of their free time dancing.
“People do other things for exercise (lately) and we’ve been trying to figure out why,” said Rust, who began dancing at the church in 1980.
Elizabeth Guenther, a Skokie resident, has been folk dancing at the church since she was six. Now 17, Guenther comes every Monday evening with her father.
“It’s a really fun thing for me and my father to do together,” Guenther said. “I love the music, and I love to express joy through dancing.”
When she was not dancing, Guenther stood outside of the circle trying to mimic the choreographed steps that people in their late 70s performed with fluidity.
“The experience varies, and we get beginners and people who have been dancing for years,” Longden said. “The steps are not very hard, so anyone can just jump in.”
Frank Wilhelm, who started dancing in 1948, comes to the church every Monday to participate in his personal favorite, Bulgarian folk dances, in addition to the others.
His first encounter with dancing, he said, was accidental.
“I was in college one day walking down the hall and minding my own business when a lady ran out, grabbed my arm and said, ‘I need a male partner,'” said Wilhelm, a resident of Chicago’s North Side.
Regardless of the method of exposure to dance, participants benefit from experiencing the music and the movement, instructors say.
“The music is just fascinating, it’s a connection to the broad world,” Rust said. “We celebrate all cultures of the world and that, to me, is very beautiful.”
Reach Corinne Lestch at [email protected].
