Folk dancers take over Fresno State

Folk Dance Festival rolls into the South Gym, features 100-year-old man

By Tai Arceneaux

Trumpets and violins blare as seven men wearing knickers, tight vests and high socks bow to their female partners donning long skirts and bodices, beginning a dance to celebrate the riches of their autumn harvest.

But instead of circling among freshly harvested cereal crops, the Fresno Danish Dancers spin around the floor of Fresno State’s South Gym, bringing the past to life at the 56th annual Fresno Autumn Harvest Folk Dance Festival on Oct. 16 and 17.

The Danish group is just one of eight exhibition groups that performed at the two-day festival sponsored by Fresno State department of kinesiology, Fresno Folk Dance Council, Inc. and Folk Dance Federation of California, Inc.

“The festival helps people to learn about the different cultures that we have in the United States,” said Frances Ajoian, a member of Fresno Folk Dance Council.

“Many cultures have customs and traditions that are important to our understanding of what is going on in the world, especially with the different nationalities of people coming into the United States,” she said.

Twenty-eight countries were represented at the festival; if not by the eight exhibition dance organizations, like the Polaski Polish Dampers, the Arax Armenian Dancers or Saudade Do Bravo (a Portuguese group), then by novices who just learned the dances Saturday morning in institute meetings taught by instructors from Los Angeles.

With 28 countries gathered in one gym, it was not hard to see a similarity in dress, music and dance customs.

“The Polish dancers kind of look like the Portuguese dancers and the Portuguese Dancers look like the Danish dancers,” Ajoian said as three Danish and Portuguese female performers bustled by, wearing bulging skirts and aprons of bright blue, red and green.

Spectators were not the only ones who received a lesson in cultural differences and similarities. Many of the dancers who belong to a dancing organization are not necessarily descended from the culture they are representing.

Walter Rodrigues, who is a member of the Fresno Danish dancers, said he picked up some of the Danish language from the singing incorporated with the dancing.

Besides the learning that took place at the festival, one could also sense the passion each performer had for dancing. Valerie Daley, dressed in pumpkin-orange-colored dirndl native to Austria, traveled from Pasadena to participate in the festival.

“It is so much fun,” she said. “We can celebrate cultures from all over the world and that appeals to me spiritually, it is like touching hearts with other people.”

If it was not the distance traveled that adequately proved the fervor people have for folk dancing, then perhaps the length of time a person has spent dancing would be a good indicator.

Ken Wight inched his walker toward the podium in front of the dance floor, clapping a person or two on the shoulder with a warm welcome as he took the microphone.

Wearing buttons that read “If things grow better with age, then I must be approaching magnificent” and “Can’t be over the hill, haven’t reached the top yet,” the 99-year-old welcomed the crowd of about 60 and, in a way, blessed the festival.

Wight will turn 100 on Oct. 29 and danced from 1940 until he broke his hip in 1997 while bowling. Wight was a six-time president of the Fresno Folk Dance Council, Inc. and is a lifetime member of six square dancing chapters.

“Any kind of dancing is wonderful,” he said. “I think everyone should do it. It is nice, clean exercise and I attribute that a lot to my longevity.”