Expertease Experts on: Folk Dancing

Clare, our audience tonight is composed mostly of folk dancers. And that's your Expertise. Spelled wrong? Naturally. You're listening to Expertise, spelled wrong. The podcast where the world's most expert experts discuss their areas of expertise expertly. Expert comedy writer Clare Sera and expert comedy writer Danno Sullivan bring their expertise to other unrelated expertises. Folks, welcome one and all to Expertise, where my guest today is folk dancing enthusiast Clare Sera. And Clare, I know that you have been a longtime proponent of the craft. I am delighted to be able to expound upon this delightful, joy-giving art of feet speaking.

That's from the German, right? Der Feetspiegel? Yes. Folk dancing comes from the old country, but old country means different things to different peoples, of course. You know, it's storytelling. That's what folk dancing is. It's storytelling with the feet. Oh, that's a beautiful way of putting it. And I know that the stories that are told are often symbolic of the community's own origin. Are there any patterns that you detect of the stories that are told through Der Feetspiegel? Murder. A lot of murders. Yeah. A lot of murder stories. And mostly people who are kicked to death.

So many people were kicked to death in the old country. And then those stories have to be told. They have to be preserved. The children need to know of their ancestors who was kicked and who did the kicking. You know, that's the thing. And what I really focus on in the folk stories of today for the children today is that everyone is both a kicker and a kickie, a murderer and a dyer. Who among us does not have a sharp-toed little boot, whether symbolically or actually? None of us, Dano. None of us. There's a folk dancer in all of us. There's a murderer in all of us.

There's a dying person from murder in all of us. Put that in a circle to some rhythm and you've got a folk dance. Claire, earlier you mentioned a beautiful folk dance of your people involving the deer and the stag. I wonder if there's a cross-cultural pollination, as it were, between the folk dance that the Mexicans call el piñata, where the horse-shaped tissue paper covered object is lowered and whacked with a stick and the stag of the Scottish dance you're describing. Was the stag covered with tissue paper and filled with candies? Yes. Yes, it was. We like to think of ourselves as a tribal planet, but our traditions are so tied in together.

Every old country has a folk dance about beating a docile animal. The difference that I see in my casual observation is what do you hit the docile animal with? Is it just a stick like they use in Mexico, a golf club like they use in Scotland? One of those six-foot baguettes that they used in France? That's exactly right. That is literally the flavor of each country. Yeah. Then we need to know these things. We want to celebrate these things. It's tough with the children when I'm teaching them the folk dance choreography, the subtleties between dancing out a baguette or dancing out a golf club.

I think to the outside observer, sometimes you don't know exactly what's going on, but you can sense it. You can detect it. You may not say, oh, there's the baguette, but you sense, oh, I'm getting a French feel at this moment while the dog is being beat to death. Sometimes we provide a French feel in the audience for members who have paid extra. Did you grow up in Scotland, Clare? Was this part of your growing up or was this just something that you learned about? This was absolutely part of my growing up. I took folk dancing lessons in Scotland in the form of a ceilidh, in the form of sword dancing.

That's where swords are placed at cross angles on the floor. Sharpened first. I was five years old when I took my first class in sword dancing. The swords are sharpened first to a gleam. Then they are laid down crosswise on the floor and the children, age four, five and six, are told to dance lightly across and about them. Well, you can imagine it was so much fun. I lasted the second longest in my class. Bridget still limps. It sounds like Tony Robbins workshop where you have to walk barefoot across the hot coals, except for small children. Again, we're back to the cruelty of the dancing.

Well, you can call it cruelty. I like to call it daring do. That's what folk dancing is, Dano. I guess it is. The other folk dance that comes to mind is, I think, Germanic in nature, with great hardy men clacking big wooden sticks together sharply in rhythm with the music, while the dainty ladies spring within and without. And again, we're back to the danger, the daring do. But I can only guess that a lot of those froylines walked away feeling more like a piñata than a pretty young folk dancer. Folk dancing is not for the faint of heart. It's it's part of its beauty.

I mean, we all have to survive in order to pass these stories along. If you can't survive the dance, you're not going to survive the life. Survival of the dancest. So it does seem to me, Claire, no child is willingly going to go into folk dancing in any culture with this danger. What is it in the psyche of parents to force their small children into these into these dangerous, unusual dancing maneuvers? Well, again, I think it is the beauty of passing on their culture. I know. But so many of the children do pass on. Yes. Well, times have changed. But back in the day, there were too many children.

That's a good point. So you were raised as a little folk dancer, Claire. Yes. But according to the bio on your website, you stopped by the time you were 11. There must have been something that happened to drive you away from what you're calling a beautiful form of expression. Oh, you know, Dano, I promised myself I wouldn't cry on this podcast. And it looks like I'm going to hold up to that, which is pretty great. You're brave. Thanks. You're one of the brave ones. Yes. The story, which up until now, I have not made public of why I stopped folk dancing a good six months before I would have been disqualified due to my age and burgeoning puberty.

Oh, you had a burgeoning one. I did. I did. But that's not the reason that I voluntarily left. We were rehearsing. I was being taught at that time. Obviously, I was 11 and we were rehearsing the folk dance number. This is a lyrical. That's what we call the songs that have lyrics. This was a lyrical folk dance. OK. And are there dogs involved in this? Dogs like the Mexican dogs or the French dogs? Yes, yes, yes. There are three great Danes. And can you put into the show notes some of the terms that we use, like lyrical and danning, which is going to come up in a minute from the great Dane?

Yes. Sure. We'll put in show notes. Easier for me to talk without stopping to explain what all the terms mean. Absolutely. Check those show notes, everybody. So we were lyrical dancing. I'm sorry. What was lyrical? What does that mean? Oh, that's what when a song has lyrics of folk dance numbers. So we had started this was this was the song of Two Left Feet, which as a child, I had I had been only rehearsing with the music and on the premiere of presenting this to the community, they provided the words. Oh, so suddenly you were understanding the intent of the dance that you were dancing.

And so with your burgeoning and the fact that you literally had two left feet, yes, must have just struck you sideways. Well, as as did the great Dane. Oh, oh. Because I did have two left feet. And I mean, I knew that I wasn't a star dancer. I mean, I can't help the way I'm born. No, no, I can't. I didn't mean to bring that up in an insulting way, only to help express the depth of the story you're sharing with us. I'm guessing, too, that the extra expense of special shoes probably brought some sorrow and anger to your family. Who was financially supporting the great Danes at this point?

Oh, well, the community tipped in for things like, I mean, the cost of the lyrics, the cost of the great Danes. But the community would not go so far as to pay for the extra left shoe for a poor young girl struggling with all her heart to give her burgeoning self to the community. Somehow this falls on you and your family. So I'm just I'm trying to understand the anger that is clearly, clearly dwelling within. I told myself I wouldn't anger on this podcast. It is hard to express how everything came together in this moment that was to determine the rest of my life.

I was wearing a right shoe on my other left foot. That's hard. And I was wearing a left shoe on my right foot on that day just because I was nervous getting ready to get onto the platform. Yeah. So my feet were already in agony. Not not only that, I had been teaching a sword dancing class to the little ones and had fallen on a sword with my right heel. I was I was bleeding. I was bloody. I was left it in my right. I was righted in my left. I stumbled up onto the platform. The great Danes could smell the blood. Yeah. Once they've smelled human blood, they're supposed to be put down.

Well, and they're not going to be put down before the song is over. My community, there's no way that that's going to happen. Yeah, it's a zealotry. The zealotry just drives me. It enrages me. The music started, Dana, and I was ready to do my part. I I was absolutely determined and ready to do this dance when the lyrics began. Oh, which you had not even heard up to this point, which I had not heard. So like a sharp stab in your heart. I stumbled immediately on hearing two little left feet, two little left feet, girl. I miss my footing. Those great Danes are unforgiving.

At that point, I think I I think I might have also just burgeoned. Just like that. And my embroidered cummerbund waist piece came flying off. Oh, Claire. So there you are, nude from the waist outwards, blood smelling great Danes sniffing at your bloody heels, wrong shoes on wrong feet, a community surrounding you in their dancing glee filled evil circle, like a scene from Rosemary's Baby for crying out loud. And you look over and there's mom, there's dad. Dana, it's like you were there. Welcome to our community. That's right. I would have walked away. Well, no, but I I mean, you couldn't walk.

I couldn't walk at that point. I guess the one mercy that I see in that moment was when that great Dane came for my feet, that that very moment that I burgeoned. His great head knocked me flying into the lead singer. Oh, Little Miss Little Feet singer herself and shut her up. So at least the song was stopped. Yeah. When we thank God for small mercies. Yes. When we limped away from that, from that scene in shame and agony and nudity. I took solace that the lyrics were not following me anymore. And I said to myself, I am going to spend my life holding up folk dancing as a wonderful thing.

Oh, that's that's a surprise twist. So I was completely expecting another outcome to this tale. Did you patch things up with your parents? Did you patch things up with the community? How do you stand with the great Danes at this point? Dana, we did a healing dance. Folk dancing healed you after folk dancing harmed you. That's exactly right. Well, the community was mortified by what had happened. Some years later, they came together and cleaned up the blood and put down the dog. They reached out and it touched me. Look, it was a different time. We were all a little more ignorant.

I mean, who couldn't forgive adults for what they put their children through back in that day? Sure, sure. We all had different experiences growing up, and it's not for us to judge anyone else, especially of another generation. Absolutely. Some kids had to have overly processed flour. I was bloodied and nudified by a great date. I mean, it's all of the same level. So really, I think this is my way of bringing this whole thing full circle, which is the only way I can move, having two left feet. The Expertise Spelldrom podcast is free and like the Amish, all are welcome.

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