MIT Folk Dance Club
MIT Folk Dance Club
Usually 2nd/4th/5th Tuesdays:
Contra Dance
Wednesday:
Israeli
Updated November 1, 2004.
Upcoming Dances
Quick Index Click to jump to a category.
About The Club
IAP Special EventsClub
Email Lists Special
Events Vinovana,
Our Performing Group How
to Find a Room We're Scheduled in Organizational meetings of the Club Links
to related dance sites
About The Club The MIT Folk Dance Club sponsors three nights of dancing each week throughout the year, all of which are open to the MIT community and the general public.
Sunday night International Dancing
meets every week from 8:00 to 11:00 pm:
September 12, 2004 - January 23, 2005: Lobdell Dining Hall on the second floor
of the Student Center
Wednesday night Israeli
Dancing meets in the Lobby of Building 13
, from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. Israeli family dancing usually occurs from 7:00
to 8:00 pm each Wednesday. Check our email announcement
archive for updated information about each week's dance. Light
kosher snacks and drinks will be provided each week.
International and Israeli Dancing each start with Early
Teaching at 8:00 pm, followed by teaching and requests until 11:00 pm.
Beginners are always welcome. Admission is free for MIT and Wellesley students; a $1
donation (or more) is requested from others.
On the second, fourth, and fifth Tuesdays of each month (usually -- check the schedule), the Contra Dance for
All meets in various locations from 8:00 to 10:30 pm (check the schedule for locations). Live
music every time! Beginners are always
welcome and are encouraged to come early. This series is a joint production
with
Music for Robin.
Physical Education Credit is now available for MIT students who
attend 6 contra dances from September 14, 2004 - December 7, 2004.
Register in person at a contra dance.
The Club also sponsors 
,
our very own performing group, which is always interested in getting new
members and performing opportunities.
All Club Meetings are open to the general public. We're especially interested in hearing from MIT students!
We also have an information line at (617) 253-FOLK (253-3655) which contains a portion of the information found on this website.
We're considered to be one of the best places for International Dance in the
entire country. Come and check us out!
IAP Special Events The MITFDC gives classes and workshops as part of IAP each January.
See our
previous IAP offerings (from January, 2004).
Club Email Lists We maintain electronic mailing lists used to announce dances and
other events of interest. These lists are for announcements only and
have very low volume, so please sign up for the dance venues in which
you are interested.
To be added to a list, please send an email to the appropriate address:
Special Events
Annual Israeli Dance Marathon The Christmas Eve Israeli Dance
Marathon takes place every year on or about Christmas Eve. We start at
6 pm and dance until 6 am.
It is usually held in Walker Gym on the MIT
Campus -- check back for the location of the December, 2004 marathon.
People come from all over the continent (and even from Amsterdam!) to
dance at MIT! We'll start with simpler dances and move progressively
to harder dances as the night goes on, so be sure to come earlier rather
than later...even beginners will have fun if you show up at six!
Beginner's Nights Beginner's nights are for people who haven't done
much dancing before and want to learn some and for more experienced dancers
who want to practice the basics. In other words, they are for everyone.
You need no prior experience and you don't need a partner. Beginner's Nights
for all 3 nights of dancing occur in September and January each year.
The Israel Folkdance
Festival of Boston takes place each year in
March, in Kresge
Auditorium on the MIT campus. The next festival will take place on Sunday March 13, 2005.
The show includes performances by dance ensembles from all over
the United States and Canada.
Tickets are $12, $10 if ordered before March 1. Call MIT Hillel at (617)
253-2982 or visit http://www.israelidance.com/bostonfestival for more information and to order tickets.
Vinovana Vinovana is our performing group. It is currently on hiatus.
If you are interested in performing in an international folk dancing, singing, or instrumental group, please contact the club officers at fdc-request[at]mit[dot]edu .
Where We Meet These are the locations where we usually meet. Click on a location to see it on a campus map.
Club Meetings Organizational club meetings usually take place once a year in late May or
early June.
Contact the club officers at fdc-request[at]mit[dot]edu to
find out about upcoming meetings.
Links to other folk dance resources The
Folk Arts Center of New England
home page, including their calendar
Folk Dancing 'Round Boston.
New England Folk Festival Association
(NEFFA) runs a folk festival each April in Natick, MA, as well as
a contra dance each Thursday
night at the VFW in West Cambridge.
Country Dance Society, Boston Centre
(American and Contra dancing.)
contradancelinks.com,
a comprehensive page of
links to other Contra Dances around the world.
Larry Denenberg's Beginner's Catechism page
The Cambridge Folk
Orchestra holds international folk dance parties in Arlington on
the second Friday of each month, September-June, and occasionally plays at
MIT at our Sunday night international dances.
The MIT Folk
Dance Club Songbook, a compilation of lyrics of the songs in
our record collection.
The Tuesday Night
Revival is an advanced Balkan dance group that used to dance at MIT,
and now holds dances about once a month in Arlington on a Friday
or Saturday.
The Dance Gypsy is a calendar
of contra and other folk dances throughout New England.
israelidance.com, which
includes a test to see if you are a true folk dance addict and a
session-finder, in case you're thinking of moving and want to see if
there's dancing there first.
Ken Avner's Israeli Folkdance page
Sunday night Israeli Dancing at Temple Emanuel in Newton (formerly located at Harvard Hillel). This page also includes links to other Israeli dancing sessions in the Boston area.
Israeli Dance Plus, Boston's newest weekly Israeli session, meets on Thursday evenings starting November 11, 2004. The location is Springstep in Medford, and it is run by Becca Rausch and our own Larry Denenberg.
Comments on this home page and other subjects are welcome.
Send mail to
fdc-request[at]mit[dot]edu .