Here is the list of the international folk dances we at Tuesday Night Folk Dancing (TNFD) know, used to know, are learning, or should learn, with details and information on selected dances. In the history of recreational international folk dancing in USA and throughout the world, there is a plethora of folk dances and plenty of websites with dance notes, history, and videos/links (check the Links page of this site). This list contains only some of the folk dances have been done in Fort Collins, but all of the currently active TNFD dances are listed here.
If there is a dedicated page on this site for a particular dance, as indicated by the icon in § column of the table, what you will find there are more dance details, some interesting tidbits about the dance, additional links to sources for more information, and my favorite YouTube videos of dancing, teaching, and music, embedded for you playing pleasure. I am working through each dance in the list to provide resource links in the hidden Info column for my favorites of an information site (usually at Andrew Carnie’s Folk Dance Musings) and a demonstration video , and if I can find them, a teaching video , danceable music , and sheet music . You have to click/tap on the row to expand the hidden columns, including Info. If there is an or icon, then there are links present in the Info column.
How to Use This Table
- If you want to go right to a dance and you know the name, you can find it alphabetically in the Dance column, or you can type the name in part or full in the search bar.
- Click/tap on a row to reveal the Info column (links to dance resources) and other hidden fields.
- You can click any column heading to sort by that column. Click again to reverse the sort.
- Click the Taught column heading twice (slowly—not a double click) to sort for most recently taught dances.
- Most checkbox filters should only be used one at a time, or you may exclude more results than intended.
- Teaching information is given over three columns: TC (Teaching Candidate Type), TP (Teaching Priority), and Taught columns. TC describes what kind of teaching is required. TP attempts to assign a priority to the many, many dances that need some level of teaching to get into regular rotation. When a dance is taught, or scheduled for teaching, it gets a date in the Teaching column and the FL (Favorite Level) goes to F4 for “Learning” until we have it down and it’s an F1 (Loved) or F2 (Liked), or we decide we don’t like it and drop it.
- Entries with sigma, ο, are undefined/TBD/blank. This character sorts after a blank, so the undefined entries are at the end of the list instead of the beginning.
TNFD Dances Table Column Keys
Note: Some keys and values are still a bit in flux or TBD…
| Column | Meaning | Option | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typ | Dance Type | C | Circle/Chain/Line: non-partner |
| L | Line Dance: individuals in lines | ||
| 2 | Couples | ||
| ο | uncategorized (TBD) | ||
| DC | Dance Category | VL | Village Traditional/Living |
| VH | Village Traditional/Historic | ||
| OF | Oldies RIFD | ||
| MF | Modern RIFD | ||
| RN | Recreational Non-Ethnic | ||
| SC | Sacred Circle | ||
| SP | Highly-Stylized/Performance | ||
| SL | Skill Level | S1 | Beginner |
| S2 | Easy | ||
| S3 | Intermediate | ||
| S4 | Advanced | ||
| S5 | Skilled | ||
| EI | Energy Intensity | E1 | Gentle |
| E2 | Moderate | ||
| E3 | Lively | ||
| FL | Favorite Level | F1 | Loved |
| F2 | Liked | ||
| F3 | Lesser-Known | ||
| F4 | Learning | ||
| F5 | New Dance Candidate | ||
| F6 | Revival Candidate On Deck | ||
| F7 | Revival Candidate Pool | ||
| F8 | Forgotten/Orphaned | ||
| F9 | Most Played Low Counts | ||
| TP | Teaching Priority | A1..A9 | On Deck Teaching or Review |
| B | 2nd Tier Candidate | ||
| C | 3rd Tier Candidate | ||
| TC | Teaching Candidate | N | New Dance Candidate |
| V | Revival Candidate | ||
| W | Teaching for New Dancers | ||
| R | Needs Full Review | ||
| Q | Needs Quick Review | ||
| P | Needs Practice | ||
| L | Needs a Leader |
| Column | Meaning | Option | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form | Formation | OC | Open Circle |
| CC | Closed Circle | ||
| IC | Individuals in a Circle | ||
| SL | Short Lines | ||
| LL | Long Lines | ||
| LD | Line Dance | ||
| 2B | Couples Ballroom | ||
| 2R | Couples Round Dance | ||
| 2C | Couples Circle | ||
| 2M | Couples Mixer | ||
| 2S | Couples Set/Formation | ||
| 2 | Couples…not yet categorized | ||
| HH | Hand Hold | V | Held w/ arms straight down, aka V-pos |
| W | Held @ shoulder level, elbows bent down, aka W-pos | ||
| U | Held w/ arms straight forward curved slightly (hugging a barrel) | ||
| B | Belt hold | ||
| D | Debka Hold: Facing LOD, L in small of your back, R in neighbor’s L | ||
| E | Escort (teapot/elbow) | ||
| F | Fortress Hold: Forearms parallel to floor, elbows & fingers interlocked | ||
| TE | Turkish Escort/Black Sea: Arms bent from the elbows, forearms touching neighbor’s forearms, hands slightly lower than the elbows | ||
| H | Halay: V w/ interdigitation, bodies very close, possibly R shoulder behind L of neighbor to R | ||
| I | Individuals | ||
| K | Pinkie hold (in W-pos) | ||
| L | Held @ waist height, forearms parallel to floor, elbows bent by sides | ||
| T | Shoulder hold | ||
| X | Cross-basket (front) | ||
| # | Cross-basket (rear) | ||
| P | Promenade Position |
Column Field Descriptions & Info for Dance Programmers
Main Fields
- Typ: Type of Dance groups dances into three broad types: 1.) Circle Dances, also known as chain dances (sometimes called “line”), which are non-partner dances where dancers are generally connected through some sort of hand hold, although not always; 2.) Line Dances, in which dancers form multiple rows of lines, as in Country-Western style line dances; and 3.) Couples Dances, in which movements are done with a partner, although there may be individual or group formations.
- DC: Dance Category attempts to group dances into old/new, traditional/performance/recreational categories. This is probably most helpful when identifying “Oldies.”
- SL: Skill Level (S1..S5) is a measure of the folk dancer’s ability required to learn and execute the dance.
- EI: Energy Intensity is a measure of how much effort it takes to execute the dance. Look for a Gentle dance after a Lively dance, so dancers can recover.
- FL: Favorite Level started out as a measure of how much TNFD loves to do the dance, based on Winamp most-played counts. That applies for F1: Loved, F2: Liked, and F3: Lesser-Known. I added F4: Learning, so that we can track the dances which have recently been taught, so as to keep them in rotation. F5-F9 are the inactive dances, along with those not having an ‘F’ tag of any level. F5: New Dance Candidate are dances new to the group or new to most members. F6 is the first group of old dances being revived in the group. F7 is the overflow from F6. F8 are dances we used to do pre-COVID, but lost a leader. F9 dances got some play in Winamp, but not much, but that’s again do to the loss of familiarity rather than loss of popularity.
- §: Only dances with an icon in the § column have a dedicated page on this site. Click the icon to go to that page. If there is a icon, that means links are present in the Info column.
- Dance is the common name of the dance used at TNFD. Many dances have several names for the same choreography. Some dances take the name from the song used for the dance, but other music may also work.
- Country is the geographic area within political boundaries where the dance is/was danced at the time of introduction. Country boundaries change (e.g. Macedonia, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and just about all of the “Balkan” states), and sometimes peoples are driven out of those boundaries into many separate diasporas (consider the Romani). The Romani people (Roma) are a people without a country, but with a rich culture. Largely demonized and referred to by the G-word slur, Roma are widely dispersed, so this site uses Romani as a country name and the diasporic country identity is placed in the Region field.
- TC: Teaching Candidate Type marks dances that require some sort of teaching or review and classifies what that general requirement is.
- N: A dance that is New to all or most of the group.
- V: A reVival dance candidate that used to be done by the group, but is not in current rotation, and few, if any, remember it well.
- W: An intermediate or advanced dance that requires teaching for neW dancers.
- R: An F2, F3, or F4 Favorite that needs a full Review, so that more dancers can learn it better.
- Q: A dance that has not been done for a while or is still new to the group (F4) that just needs a Quick review rather than a full teaching review.
- P: A dance that doesn’t really need teaching, but is kind of shaky. It should be done more often, for practice, so that it does not eventually need teaching.
- L: A dance that needs a Leader. The dance is simple or familiar enough that it doesn’t require teaching, but it does need a strong leader.
- TP: Teaching Priority marks a subset of the Teaching Candidates for teaching in the near future. There are about 300 candidates in the list of 500 dances, so I marked some dances that used to be done not too long ago, some I found interesting, some new ones, and some others have suggested. To get control of that subset, I have assigned letter A, B, or C for a priority, and the given the A-group a further priority subgrouping as A1..A9. That’s the idea, at least, but a lot of teaching “just happens.”
- Taught indicates the last time a dance was fully taught at TNFD.
- Teacher indicates who taught the dance the latest time at TNFD.
- Reviewed indicated the last time a dance was reviewed at TNFD.
- Year is the year of the choreography or dance introduction to international folk dancing in USA, or, if the actual year the choreography was created is published, as with Israeli dances, it is that date.
- Choreographer name followed by an asterisk (*) indicates that the dance was introduced by that person to recreational international folk dancing in the USA. The actual choreographer may also be traditional, attributed to multiple people, or simply unknown.
Initially-Hidden Fields
- Info column contains various links to external websites for information and videos. Just click an icon. These links are my preferences, although there are usually many other choices available on the web.
- If there is a icon instead of a icon for the dance music link, this indicates that the music used for folk dancing has been edited from its original source to make it fit a dance pattern. Such edits are generally not found on YouTube.
- If there are duplicates, I just could not decide, or, in the case of a missing , I couldn’t find a teaching video.
- Original is the original language’s script of the dance name, if not in English or if it is a Romanization.
- Pronunciation is a pseudo-English pronunciation aid.
- Translation is a simple English translation of the dance name.
- Alias is an alternative name/nickname or spelling. If you use the search box with a different spelling or common name (taxi cab for Siriysko Horo), you can find a dance that way.
- Region is the geographic region of dance style, which often crosses politic country borders.
- Form: Formation indicates if the physical dance arrangement: open circle, closed circle, short lines, individuals, couples, etc.
- HH: Hand Hold is a general guideline for arm position and whether or not hands are held/joined in the formation. V-position (joined and held low); W-position (joined and raised); U: Held w/ arms straight forward, curved slightly (hugging a barrel); B: Belt Hold (dancers wear a belt and neighbors grab on to the left and to the right); D: Debka Hold: (Facing LOD, L in small of your own back, R in neighbor’s L); E: Escort (teapot/elbow: your left arm on hip or just to stomach from hip to form a teapot handle, neighbor grasps arm bicep of the “teapot handle” with R); F: Fortress Hold (held in front with arms parallel to the floor, elbows interlocked, fingers interlocked); H: Halay: V w/ finger interdigitation, bodies very close, possibly w/ R shoulder behind L shoulder of neighbor to R; I: Individual (no hand hold); K: Pinkie hold in the W-position; L: Held @ waist height, forearms parallel to floor, elbows bent by sides; T: shoulder hold; X: Cross basket hold, front; #: Rear basket hold; P: Promenade Position.
- Direction indicates which direction the dances starts out in, which is usually to the right, but it might not always be!
- Foot indicates which foot to start on, so you at least start off on the “right” foot. ‘I’ indicates inside foot for couples dances.
- Time Signature describes how counts in the written music and dance notation relate to the dance beat and rhythmic accenting and counting. The actual time signature in the particular music used may be different, but the resulting beat and rhythm the dancers use is the same/similar.
- Rhythm indicates the step length pattern, if the dance is choreographed to match a repeating rhythmic pattern in music, e.g. SQQ (slow-quick-quick) as a possible rhythm for 7/8.
- Tune Name is the name of the song or tune most commonly used for the dance. Often the dance name and the song or tune are the same, but there are many dances that diverge from the song or tune name, which causes problems for dance music librarians trying to track down better recordings of dance music for the group!
- Is a Song? is a flag (Y, if true) that the music is a song (has lyrics).
- Notes are any notes about the dance or reminders on how to do/start the dance.
Table Filter Descriptions
Filter Notes:
- Most checkbox filters should only be used one at a time, or you may exclude more results than intended.
- With the exception of the Select Teaching Candidates Type selection dropdown list, the selection dropdown lists are complementary and can be used in any combination.
Checkboxes: When checked, the list only shows dances that…
- Has a Page on This Site: have a dedicated page about the dance on this website.
- Recently Taught Dances: were taught at TNFD in the past year. Click the Taught column heading twice, slowly, to sort the list for the most recently-taught dances first.
- Only Favorites (Active Dances): are in the range of Favorite Level (FL) F1..F4, which is the range of Loved to Learning. This subset captures the current dance repertoire of the group (dances that more than just one or two people know).
- On Deck New & Revival Candidates: dances to be taught soon: F5 & F6.
Selection Dropdown Lists
- These operate on a single column and are self-explanatory (mostly).