Scandinavian Club of Manawatu Inc.
Østjydske Folkedansere's visit to Palmerston North
On Sunday, 5 November 2000, the Manawatu Scandy Club, assisted by the Manawatu Shetland Society, had the considerable pleasure of hosting a visit from the 37-member Danish folkdance group Østjydske-Folkedansere, at the Kelvin Grove Community Centre, Palmerston North. The photos below show aspects of their evening performance, and the captions beneath some provide a progression of the evening's activities.
The overview though was that the group arrived from Dannevirke (where they had performed the previous afternoon) for lunch at the Community Centre. Then at about 1:00 pm the numerous billeting hosts arrived and collected their respective guests. Before long the hall was empty again. As the afternoon was to be the only chance our guests would get to see anything of the district, many little tours took place during this time. These ranged from checking out livestock farms, the wind farm, local towns and a wide range of other sights and scenes.
The performance was due to start at 'about' 6:00 pm, and this meant the preparation of large quantities of food as well. So clearly a great deal of activity was taking place in and around the participating households all at the same time.
The photos speak for themselves, and it was a great evening about which much could be written, but we'll reprieve those who weren't there from having to skip over it at this point. The following morning at 8:00 am, the party and their new-found Manawatu friends waved (and sang) their sad farewells, again at Kelvin Grove Community Centre, before the group headed for the Cook Strait ferry at Wellington and then to a trip around much of the South Island.
As well as performing in Dannevirke and Palmerston North, the group had also by that time performed for the Auckland Danish Society and the Hawkes Bay Scandinavian Club, and was to perform for the Christchurch Scandinavian Club as well. In the course of several weeks in New Zealand, they were also to see quite a few of the country's tourist spots.
Introduction time. The group were welcomed by Danish ex-pat. Aase Wallis (at right of photo), who had travelled up from the South Island to see the group.
Sorry about the spots on this and a couple of other photos. They distinguish my temporarily misbehaving (due to condensation) digital camera from my faithful old 35mm camera.
As well as the dancing, we were also treated to talks on the dances themselves, performances by the musicians, and descriptions of the costumes and the historical significance of different costumes or parts of costumes.
This was a lucky shot, enhanced slightly as the flash hadn't had time to recharge fully!
And then came dinner, by which time our guests, whom most had met only hours earlier, were very much old friends. This had been a great evening.