Welcome to
The Academic Folkdance Society in Stockholm
- For you who are attending courses or have attended courses at a University.
- Every term we have introducting courses in oldtime dances and folk dances
for the members of the society. (The courses are held in swedish.)
- The dances are mostly accompanied by live music, i.e.piano. Our piano players,
especially convey a profound and enjoyable knowledge of old dances and thus
are keeping traditional dances alive.
- Come alone or bring a friend. If you like it, pay the membership fee which
is 300:- a year and continue coming. You do not need to call in advance.
- If you already know Swedish dances you can join us any time during the term. You are welcome to come and see what we are doing.
Who are we?
Where, when, how do we meet?
What do we dance?
What other acivities do we have?
Do you want to know more?
Where, when, how do we meet?
We meet Tuesday evenings at Fältöversten. It is right at T-bana Karlaplan.
We also do other things together: i.e. play folk music, go out wandering. go skiing (in the winter), maybe sing or find out other things. To practise our dances we meet for "lekstugor", parties and dance houses.
Who are we?
Brief history
The Academic Folkdance Society (called AF for short) was founded in 1937 by students at the University of Stockholm. Most members at that time studied at the University of Stockholm. Folk dancing is good for everybody and many continue dancing long after they have finished studying . As a result you will find a great range of ages among the members. In the beginning they danced at the Student House in Holländargatan but since 1940 AF has held their weekly dances at schools in the southern part of Stockholm.
What do we dance?
Most of the time we dance Swedish folk dances and play Swedish folk music. In our repertoire you will find: · folkdances · aristocratic dances such as gavotte and francaise · couple dances, oldtime dances and "polska" (dances well established in the Swedish villages but believed to be at least partly of Polish origin. · engelskor (dances brought to Sweden by English sailors)
What other activities do we have?
Lekstugor (dance evenings and other parties)
Every term we have lekstugor and other parties when we invite musicians, we meet and we have a good time together. "Lekstuga" is an old name for a party . The most traditional feast is the Christmas lekstuga with among all things a yearly spex. For the rest we have parties with different themes. It can be aristocratic dances, medieval dances, dances from one particular country or a special region, or so called dance evenings when perhaps a group of musicians is invited and we dance polskas.
Other activities
As in all societies other activities in AF depend on what people are interested in.
For instance in the winter a group may go away skiing over a weekend which is a most enjoyable and priceworthy way of getting away.
One day in the spring and often also in the automn a group starts out walking on some of all those wanderingroutes that you find in the neighbourhood of Stockholm. This also isa wonderful way of getting out in a nice company.
Depending on time and desire members meet and play fiddle, key harp or any instrument they happen to have. We have visited the special department at the different museums where we have learnt other interesting subjects.
Other members have made trips together to different festivities around the country.
Do you want to know more?
Call Nils-Ove 08/750 65 41 or Magnus 08/619 04 24
or send us a e-mail at the e-mail address you find below.
