This page is an historical archive, and therefore is out of date and will not be updated. Please visit our homepage at http://mit.edu/fdc for current information about the MIT Folk Dance Club.

MIT Folk Dance Club

Sunday: International Folk *various Tuesdays: Contra Dance *Wednesday: Israeli

Updated August 14, 2017                                                                                                   Facebook icon Join our Facebook group!

**Upcoming Dances

** Quick Index

Click to jump to a category.

*About The Club
* IAP Special Events
*Club Email Lists
*Special Events
*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 Folk Dancing meets every week from 8:00 to 10:30 pm, almost always on the 2nd floor of the Student Center:

Sunday Dates (8-10:30 pm) Building/Floor Room Notes
September 3, 2017 Building 13 1st Floor Lobby 13 Main campus across Mass Ave from the Student Center
September 10 - October 15, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico 9/17: live music by the Cambridge Folk Orchestra! 10/15: live music by Rakiya!
October 22, 2017 Student Center 4th Floor Room 491
October 29, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Live music by Blajini!
November 5 & 12, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall Live music Nov. 12 by the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
November 19, 2017 Kresge Auditorium basement Kresge Rehearsal Room A
November 26 - December 10, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall 12/10: Live music by the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
December 17, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
December 24 & 31, 2017 No dancing.
January 7 & 14, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
January 21 - February 4, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
February 11, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
February 18, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
February 25 & March 4, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Live music 2/25 by the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
March 11, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall Live music by Rakiya!
March 18, 2018 No dancing.
March 25 - April 8, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Live music 4/1 & 4/29 by the Cambridge Folk Orchestra!
April 15, 2018 Student Center 4th Floor Room 491
April 22, 2018 No dancing. See you at NEFFA!
April 29 - May 13, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
May 20, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
May 27, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
June 3, 2018 Kresge Auditorium basement Kresge Rehearsal Room A
June 10, 2018 No dancing.
June 17 - August 12, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico July 15 moved to Lobdell
August 19 & 26, 2018 No dancing.

To see what dances we've done from July 2002 - July 2017, see the playlist archive. See our web archive for old versions of our web pages.


Wednesday night Israeli Dancing usually meets on the 2nd or 4th floor of the Student Center, from 8:00 to 11:00 pm.

Wednesday Dates (8-11 pm) Building/Floor Room Notes
September 6, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Oldies Night!
September 13, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
September 20, 2017 No dancing -- Rosh Hashanah.
September 27, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
October 4 & 11, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
October 18 - November 8, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall Beginner's Classes 7:30 - 8:30 pm, followed by regular dancing
November 15, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
November 22, 2017 No dancing at MIT.
November 29 - December 13, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
December 20, 2017 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
December 27, 2017 No dancing.
January 3, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
January 10, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Beginner's Class 7:30 - 8:30 pm, followed by regular session
January 17 & 24, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall Beginner's Class 7:30 - 8:30 pm, followed by regular session
January 31, 2018 Student Center 4th Floor Room 491 Beginner's Class 7:30 - 8:30 pm, followed by regular session
February 7 & 14, 2018 Student Center 4th Floor Room 491
February 21 & 28, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
March 7, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico Emtza Haderech -- dances from the 80s and 90s!
March 14 - April 4, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall March 21 cancelled due to snow.
April 11, 2018 No dancing (Yom HaShoah)
April 18 & 25, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
May 2, 2018 Student Center 4th Floor Room 491
May 9 - 23, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
May 30 & June 6, 2018 No dancing at MIT.
June 13, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
June 20, 2018 Student Center 4th Floor Room 407
June 27, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
July 4, 2018 No dancing. Happy 4th!
July 11, 2018 Student Center 4th Floor Room 407
July 18, 2018 No dancing at MIT.
July 25, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
August 1, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Sala de Puerto Rico
August 8, 2018 Student Center 2nd Floor Lobdell Dining Hall
August 15 - 29, 2018 No dancing at MIT.


Check the Israeli email announcement archive to confirm information about each week's location and teaching schedule, and special events. Light kosher snacks and drinks will be provided each week.
Israeli dancing is co-sponsored by MIT Hillel.
For more information about Israeli dancing, email   mitisraeli [at] gmail.com .

In addition to our folk and contra dance PE classes, some semesters there is also an all-Israeli folk dance class run by David Karger. Register with the PE Department. For more information, email karger [at] mit.edu .


International Folk and Israeli Dancing each start with Early Teaching at 8:00 pm, followed by teaching and requests. Beginners are always welcome. Admission is free for MIT and Wellesley students; an optional $1 donation is suggested from others.

On two or three Tuesdays per month, the Contra Dance for All meets in various locations from 8:00 to 10:30 pm (check the schedule for dates and locations). Live music every time! Beginners are always welcome and are encouraged to come early.

All Club Meetings are open to the general public. We're especially interested in hearing from MIT students!

We're considered to be one of the best places for International Folk Dance in the entire country. Come and check us out!

** IAP Special Events

The MITFDC gives classes and workshops as part of MIT's Independent Activities Period each January.
Check out our IAP offerings for January 2017.

** Club Email Lists

We have 3 email lists, one for each night of dancing. These lists are for announcements only and have very low volume.

If you have any questions, please contact the Folk Dance Club officers at fdc[at]mit[dot]edu.

** 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 4 am.
The 2016 marathon was held on Saturday December 24, 2016. Check back to confirm the location and details of the December 2017 marathon.

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 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 be on Sunday March 11, 2018. The show includes performances by dance ensembles from far and near. Visit http://www.bostonfestival.org for more information and to order tickets.

** Where We Meet

These are the locations where we usually meet. Click on a location to see it on a campus map.

1. The Stratton Student Center (Building W20). It is located at 84 Mass. Ave., directly across the street from the main entrance to MIT. La Sala de Puerto Rico and Lobdell Dining Hall are located on the second floor. Rooms W20-407, W20-491, and our club office W20-423 are located on the fourth floor.
2. Lobby 13. Can be accessed from either Vassar St. or the Infinite Corridor (go in the main MIT entrance at 77 Mass Ave and turn north at Lobby 10).
3. Kresge Auditorium. Kresge is the glass and metal dome with a turquoise roof, set back on a plaza at 48 Massachusetts Avenue (across the street from the main MIT entrance). Rehearsal Rooms A and B are located in the basement.
See a Google map and get driving directions

See a schedule for the #1 bus which runs along Mass Ave.

Parking

Free parking is available in the lot behind the Bank of America ATM at Mass Ave and Vassar Street (though it sometimes fills up on weeknights), or on the street.
This lot is free after 5 pm, and all day on weekends. Metered street parking is free after 6 pm or 8 pm depending on the block -- check the signs.

Paid parking is available in the West Garage on Vassar Street. $7 flat rate nights and weekends, credit and debit only. Spaces should be available when the free options are full.

** Club Meetings

Organizational club meetings usually take place once a year in early May.

Contact the club officers at fdc[at]mit[dot]edu to find out about future meetings.

** Links to other folk dance resources

International Folk, Contra Dancing, and Other kinds:
*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 Mansfield, MA, as well as a contra dance each Thursday night at the Scout House in Concord, MA. (This dance was formerly located at the VFW in west Cambridge, and hopes to move back there now that the city has rebuilt it as a youth/community center.)
* Country Dance Society, Boston Centre (Contra and English Country dancing.)
* BIDA (Porter Square, Cambridge), the Jamaica Plain Gender Free Contra Dance, and the West Cambridge Fourth Saturday Dance are the other contra/traditional square dances in the city.
* 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 plays at various folk dances in the Boston area, and occasionally plays at MIT at our Sunday night international folk dances.
*The MIT Folk Dance Club Songbook, a compilation of lyrics of the songs in our record collection.
*Arthur Saltzman has posted FDC photos and movies from the 1960s.
*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.
* Zdravets is a local Bulgarian band which hosts a dance once a month in Newton Corner (formerly in Arlington).
* Balkan Music Night is a concert and dance party which occurs each year in March, in Concord, MA.
*The Dance Gypsy is a calendar of contra and other folk dances throughout the U.S., focusing on New England.

Israeli Folk Dancing:
* Israeli Folk Dance in Boston, including Sunday night Israeli Dancing at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill (formerly located at Harvard Hillel), and Monday night dancing at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline.
* 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.

Comments on this home page and other subjects are welcome.
Send mail to fdc[at]mit[dot]edu .

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