Multe

There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good. ~ Edwin Denby

At left is a picture of just a portion of the piles of coats spread like a smørgåsbord outside the J. Grundy's Reub'N'Stein Upstairs on 15 Feb 2008, where Multe  played a double-bill with Foot-Notes from Decorah, IA as a part of ArtOrg's Winter Concert Series.

More than 100 folks came out on a very cold night to listen and dance to traditional Nordic music — in the rich dialects of Minnesota and Iowa. They enjoyed  a veritable smørgåsbord of dance music — waltz, polka, reinlender/schottische, pols, hambo, gånglåt/snoa and tango — and the crowd was eating it up!

The energy was great.   The dance floor became so crowded that dancers had to clear out tables and start a second dance floor at the back of the hall! (Word to the Wise: Never get in the way of determined dancers…)

And the smørgåsbord extended to the crowd as well. There were teenagers to senior citizens — both on the dance floor and off. Some dancers were intrepid beginners and some were clearly experienced. All were having fun. Even the those who chose not to venture out on the floor were enjoying the sights and sounds. A brief survey of the audience also revealed a geographic diversity: Decorah, the Twin Cities, Mankato, Saint Cloud, Minneota and, yes, even Norway!

Our thanks to ArtOrg's Dave Machacek (a descendant of Norwegians from Valdres) for organizing the event and for the photos. You can see more pictures of the evening on ArtOrg's Flickr site.

The "ArtOrg AfterGlow" at The Contented Cow was packed and gave the two groups the opportunity to kick back and make music together into the wee hours.

We're still recovering… Let's do it again — soon!

Tags: artorg, contented cow, dance, decorah, foot-notes, mankato, minnesota, music, northfield, norway, norwegian, picture, rueb, valdres