Nick and I are getting cautiously excited about heading to Oktoberfest next year in Germany. In leafing through the Montgomery County class lists at the end of the summer, lo and behold, check out this class:
Dance-Dances of Oktoberfest
Adults:Learn the dances of Herb Fredricksen’s German Dance Group ‘Bairisch und Steirisch’ the official performers in the Germantown Oktoberfest. Landlers: Austria’s orginal Waltz forms; Scohottisches:German time honored Twostep/Onestep combinations; Czech Polkas and Polish Mazurkas and more. Then be surprised as Herb interprets how their elements became part of Swing, Disco, Hustle, County Western and Salsa.
And so – of course, I threw it out there as something we should take, and now we are taking Oktoberfest dance classes on Wednesday nights through mid-November! We are so going to be ready to dance at Oktoberfest next year. The class description sounds awesome – with Czech and Polish backgrounds heading to Germany, we’re getting a bit of everything. (NJ’s parents put us to shame with the polka skills at our wedding – after this we can potentially give them a run for their money 
)
Our first class was last week, and it was, at best, a bit shady? Not sure if that is the right word for it, but it wasn’t really what we were expecting. Possibly because we were the only two ’students’ in the class, the rest of the group was comprised of Herb’s actual German dance group. And we essentially spend the first hour counting to 3 and marching around the room.
Our second class was last night, and I have to say, I think it was the highlight of the day for both of us. It was worlds different from last week – we were doing less marching, more dancing. The same dance through the class, till at the end it was a bit more comfortable to do. We ended the class by making the dance social (changing partners around the circle) to the mexican version of the czech ‘roll out the barrell’, and then put a polish twist on it and did the same moves in polka time. I actually worked up a sweat by the end of the night. Fun fun fun
We may go check out the Germantown Oktoberfest this Saturday to see our dance teacher and his group (our ‘classmates’ – ha) perform. It was pretty cool! I think we’re both a bit relieved that last nights class was cool, because now it’s something to look forward to in weeks ahead.
